Week one in Southeast Asia has been an absolute dream. This month my team and I are on our own, living in a city!! It’s been a learning curve not gonna lie. I feel so young being here. When we first got to our hostel and saw all the people staying here who are in their mid 20’s and up, my first thought was “dude where is my mom” lol. Age is just a number right?
I’m learning how true it is that ministry is life and life is ministry. It doesn’t matter how old or even how young you are, there are ministry opportunities everywhere.
We are staying in a hostel filled with wandering souls who seem to love the world, but still feel a bit lost. In just the few days that we have been staying here, many people have asked us about our bibles and have noticed how we’d rather be playing cards and hanging out with one another rather than partying . There was one night when my teammate and I had quiet time up on the roof-one of the hostels common areas. We ended that night by playing chess with an Italian man and the hostel employee. It was so fun! Sometimes ministry can be just as simple as playing a game of chess.
Because we are staying in a hostel, we don’t have a kitchen so we eat out every day. We’ve already found a few of our favorite places to eat. There’s perfect opportunity to get to know the employees or regulars who eat there as well. Community in the Lord is one of my most favorite things. I’m so excited to build more relationships as well as fellowship with my team over meals. There is something so beautiful about breaking bread together.
Something the Lord has been changing in me, is my heart for city life. I used to be so opposed to ever living in a city. But, here I am living in a city and loving it! Right away, I noticed all the people living on the side of the streets. It broke my heart at first, because it reminded me of where I’m from which has one of the highest homeless rates in the USA. Since I’ve been here, God has been giving me new ideas of how I can better love these people. One night at dinner I ordered way more than I could eat so I decided on our walk to the hostel to pray over who the Lord wanted me to bless with my leftovers. I ended up giving the food to a man sleeping on a slab of cardboard. He has no idea who left that for him, but I pray that he felt the love and kindness of the Holy Spirit.
Often the Lords love looks like an overflow of something like joy, happiness, compassion, or even leftover food.
Our scheduled ministry for the month is working with a family who has taken in 18 kids who have been born into broken families or ethnic feuds, as well as raising their own 4 children. 22 kids wowza!! Let me be the first to tell you that this couple is a perfect example of Christ’s love for us, his children. We get the opportunity to take a public bus everyday for two hours to play with their kids and hear their parents stories. We get to encourage and support their family in prayers. Not to mention, that two hours on a public bus to their home is ministry as well.
It was love at first sight when I reached Asia. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. If I don’t post anything else before Christmas, Merry Christmas!! I hope you love your friends and families well during this time 🙂 More updates to come.
-Megs
