Ministry looks like a LOT of different things this month. We have done laundry out of buckets for the entire squad, wheel-barrowed dirt out of drainage ditches, carved steps out of steep hills, filmed for a day at a school in the city and the list goes on.
It has been a wild couple of weeks BUT I want to share about my second favorite day of ministry so far.
Yesterday my team’s ministry was manual labor on the property, we joined up with team Wild Geese and it was SO fun. We got to hike out to the other side of the land and clear out a pasture for the cows to have a safe place to graze other than their pen. At the end of our workday, we had 8 massive piles (taller than me!) of debris, leaves, and dead branches. It was satisfying to see all of our hard work but the Lord wanted to use that time to teach me a lesson.
I really felt like we needed to see the completion of this project. A common theme of ministry here is that you work on a project for a day and then move on to another type of ministry the next day and a different team will come and finish the project you worked on before. There isn’t really an opportunity to work on something and be the ones to actually finish it.
But today was different… I felt the Lord telling me to take the lead and finish this project. So I did.
I grabbed my friends lighter, some old receipts, and I set the first pile of debris on fire. It was beautiful, bright, and scorching. The fire reminded me of the power of the Spirit. How it starts as a small flame within your soul and then it becomes too powerful to contain any longer.
Wesley encouraged me to keep going and set the next pile on fire. He too wanted to see the completion of a hard days work. I grabbed the lighter, my friend Emensky, and we took off to the next pile. It was double the size of the first one so we were very excited to see how high we could get the flame. The dead leaves lit so quickly and the fire was growing stronger. We realized we were too close to the mango tree and didn’t want to risk damaging any branches so we had to try moving the pile over which caused the flames to die.
We tried to light the other side of the pile but it wouldn’t catch and we ran out of papers. Everyone went back to picking up branches on the hillside and I just stared at the pile of branches longing for completion. Emensky was super excited still and said,
“Lets make something out of nothing!”
I got down and began to blow the hot embers that remained, they ignited the first try. We put dead leaves on the delicate flames and it continued to gain strength. The flame was two feet tall.
Then three.
It crept past four feet…
The entire pile of debris was quickly on fire and the flames reached over 10 feet tall. Everyone began using other nearby piles to feed our fire and it became too hot to even get close to.
We made something out of nothing.
Staring at the fire, I couldn’t help but smile. I could feel the power of the Holy Spirit within my soul gaining the same intensity as the flames before me. I have a fire inside my soul that needs to be spread and I am going to spread this fire to at least 10 more countries this year.
Philippians 2:10-11 “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
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What I’ve been reading lately :
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific and Strategic Prayer by Priscilla Shirer
