“Devote yourselves to Prayer with and alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us to, that God will give us opportunities to speak about His mysterious plan concerning Christ…” – Colossians 4:2-3
India was a very Hard experience. It was my first real culture shock. Even after we had been to Nepal. The culture is modest (woman must be covered from head to toe and men typically wear pants and a collared shirts), the food is some combination of rice, veggies, and meat (no beef or pork and sometimes not meat at all), you can’t use your left hand for anything (except in the bathroom), If you smile at anyone of the opposite gender it assumed that the two of you are sleeping together, its a society that still arranges marriages, they still have a caste system (certain people have different privileges depending on what cast you belong to…there is a particular caste known as the “untouchables” which have no rights and often aren’t even acknowledged by society), and preaching the Gospel is illegal (which meant we had to often lie about who we were and our purpose there). needless to say there were many new rules and precautions that we had to abide which made ministry seem rather difficult. Not nearly as difficult as our girls.
When we arrived to India i was under the impression that we would be working with a worship school called Covenant School of Worship. Helping teach it that is…but that wasn’t the case. Yes we were working with them but our ministry itself was not teaching. First off, Our team was divided for ministry the Guys and I at one of the youth outreach centers and the girls stayed at the school itself. Our ministries would bring us together every now and again but for the most part the guys and i were on our own with our hosts. Our ministry was just that…outreach. We would go to slums to encourage and pray for believers there, we would do house visits to pray for and encourage believers in predominant Hindu communities, we would walk around our neighborhoods and pray over the people and the temples, and sometimes we would go to parks with a guitar and draw people in with music and strike up conversations (trying to spread the word about the outreach center and ultimately, Jesus). But there was a problem with all of this. My heart wasn’t In it. My eyes were blind to the value of words and that there was no value in anything we were doing. Honestly Sometimes i felt my only real use in our ministry was purely for show. I couldn’t get passed the fact that all we were doing was praying…just words…
“Why are we even hear?” “What’s the point?” “This isn’t going to help…” “How can anything I say make a difference?”
1 Timothy 2:1 – “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.” verse 3 and 4 go on to say “This is good and pleases the God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”
This is marks the point where i tell you that I learned to things. 1) the importance of prayer. 2) everything we do for the Lord is worth the effort no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.
1) Prayer is something i did but never really fully realized just how powerful and effective it is. It was normally just something i did because that’s how we communicate with the Lord. That’s how He answers our questions, how He hears our concerns, complaints, and desires. However I would never pray with any kind expectation. There was always doubt that He would have time to answer or even hear me at all. It got to the point where i was praying as a last resort and not my first choice. In India, prayer is essential. If you don’t you will struggle…and i did. you have to pray for your ministry, you have to pray for your yourself, for your ministry team, you have to pray against evil spirits, idols, sickness, and the list goes on. Its a daily battle. Speaking Ephesians 6 over yourself habitually. Even in the midst of all this i saw Him move. We prayed for a Lady who’s father was an alcoholic. we found out 2 weeks later that the very next day after we prayed her father quit drinking. We prayed for her husband for healing in his stomach. he had been in pain for sometime and was unable to afford medicine and two weeks later when we saw them again he was healed. At one point in my stay in India, i my back was very tight and i was having spasms. it was very painful. almost to the point of not being able to do ministry. one night in the slums i was praying for a woman who was also in pain and when i was done praying for her my own pain was gone, as if it had never been there. It was these moments and many like them that opened my eyes to what prayer really is and what it can do. that it’s more than Words. It’s truth. We we can speak to Him and He to us. It’s also one of our strongest ministry weapons.
As hard as it is for me to admit i did not enjoy ministry in India. I was going through motions and give half efforts. finding myself feeling like i wanted to be doing other teams’ ministries. but as time went on i slowly started to see how the lord can and does use prayer in big ways. i moved from “how can this possibly help anyone?” to “How can we be doing this more?” “What else can i give to the Lord so we can watch Him work?”
1 Corinthians 15:58 – “…Be strong and immovable. always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the lord is ever useless”
This was a hard lesson for me to learn. one that i wish i would have learned sooner. one that i hope we all learn. the work the lord gave us is the work He gave us for a reason. work that only we could do. Who am I to judge or decide what work is good enough for the Kingdom if not the Lord? It doesn’t matter that its not performing a miracle (as cool as that would be) or bringing thousands to Christ with one sermon (as awesome as that would be). God didn’t call us to that. Some one else someday might be. But that’s not for me to know. what i do know is that He had something else in mind. something better. Something only we could do…or (in our case) say.
In 1 Corinthians 3:7-8 Paul says “It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.” it doesn’t matter whats being done or who’s doing it. God will use us where ever we are, in any situation and circumstance, at our worst and at our best. I don’t know what that looks like all the time. i don’t know that i ever will. Sometimes the weight of the work we do wont be felt in the moment but it will echo for generations to come.
to bring this all to a close i want to just leave you with Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders. Regardless of how big or small our ministries are. Whether its feeding the hungry, healing the sick, praying, or even just an encouraging word to someone who needs it. We all have one goal in mind and that is to bring Christ to the nations. Never Take the opportunities that Christ gives you for granted. Make the most of every situation. I hope that one day i can say something like Paul does. Working tirelessly towards the glory of God and his Kingdom.
Acts 20:19-24 “I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews. I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus. And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.
Peace and Blessings
