The phrase “life is ministry and ministry is life” is tossed around quite a bit on the race. For the past few weeks each time it was spoken I would pause to think, what does that actually mean?
Then this week my team was sent to live at a One Hope Africa farm. At first it felt like a life sentence and the worst possible punishment for some unknown sin we must have committed. It felt like just when we had gotten the hang of our carepoint ministry and life on the field it was ripped from out from under us. And to make matters worse we then had to do physical labor.
Enter our hosts for the week: Jesse and Micara. They are married and twenty two. Their age, their love of farming,and their love for the unreached shocked me. All the excuses I give myself for not doing things these people could use too and they chose perseverance, endurance, and faithfulness.
Our regular ministry felt more like an activity we went to, a thing to check off a list, or a task to be completed. Here our hosts made their ministry their home. Between the couch, the dogs, and the refrigerator decorated with pictures of loved ones from home you can see the permanence of their investment and the importance they see in these people. Their ministry is an overflow of the abundant love entrusted to them by God. It has been beautiful and refreshing to see at this point on my race.
Right now I’m still adjusting to life in a nonAmerican, unfamiliar, uncomfortable culture, but I am also look toward and praying about what my future should look like. And to me a ministry that is run on overflow and not a fumes is something I could do for the rest of my life. Jesus keeps reminding me that’s what He wants. He wants our relationship to move from transactional to a partnership. A partnership where I wake up each day with my arm locked with His ready for the next step because He meets me right where I am.
While I am still learning the depth and meaning of a life that exists and functions as a ministry after my week here figuring it out seems much clearer.
With love,
Soph
