I’ve been quite accustomed to having a host every month who guides us and schedules ministry hours for us. When my team and I decided to make supply bags and give them out to homeless folks here in Durrës, we all thought it would be a great idea and a perfect way our team could do ministry together. However, things didn’t quite go as planned.
We decided to walk the streets on a Wednesday afternoon, so we spent most of Tuesday gathering supplies, going shopping, and organizing money things. The next day, we packed them all up, bought some last minute bread and bananas and loaded our arms before walking the streets.
We found not one single homeless person. We thought maybe it was because of the holiday of Ramadan. So we postponed till the next day.
Thursday came, our team sat together and prayed before setting out. We split up and my group saw not a single homeless person at all. The other group found one before they sat to wait for us to catch up. As we approached their spot, we noticed a commotion and realized they had encountered a family of homeless and were getting ALL the bags taken from them at once! My group wisely walked on instead of adding to the frenzy.
When we met up about 10 minutes later, we had all come to the same conclusions. We were trying too hard to ‘schedule’ ministry. And I think the Lord just blessed one family with half our supply bags to get us to come to our senses.
Our motto has been ‘Ministry is life, and life is ministry’ since the beginning of this journey. It became more apparent in this last month for me how true that is. When we partnered with an organization in previous months, scheduling was almost a must since we were on their time and we were there to help them. Now, we are at the service of the Father only.
Going to a coffee shop doesn’t have to be a nonstop trip, but a stroll with opportunity for interruption and you happen to end up at your destination. Any daily activity can be an opportunity to reach out to others.
Do it.
