It’s month two and I feel like I’m starting to get a good handle on what this World Race thing is all about. ï�Š Just wanted to clue you guys in what exactly has my ministry looked like…?
Last month in Mozambique it was cutting grass. For me it was raking the grass after it was cut. Or, let’s be real it was more about writing silly songs to encourage my teammates while we attacked the grass. It was learning hand games and letting children stick dragonflies to your shirt and trying not to freak out when children decide it’s a good idea to put dragonflies inside your shirt. It was spending time praying together for the land. It was praying for money to come so we could purchase supplies to paint and build a kitchen. It was celebrating when God began answering our prayer almost immediately and then completely a few days later. Ultimately it was supporting a man’s mission from God to care for widows and orphans. It was visiting the neighbors: feeling the heaviness they were carrying, listening to them share about their lost family members and physical difficulties, and lifting them up in prayer. Walking their property and praying against anything not of the Lord. It was shoveling sand into a wheelbarrow and pushing it by myself (because I was trying to prove something but, really all I ended up with was sore arms and being assisted by an eleven year old.) or throwing rocks into a muddy trench when we began building the foundation for the kitchen. It was searching for the right scripture to share. It was painting grass on an orphanage. It was getting to know each other and our strengths and weaknesses and how to “press into” those together. It was building relationships.
We’ve only spent a week in Swaziland but it’s been hugging and playing with my wild childs (as I’ve affectionately named them as a whole) and sweeping the billions of ants out of their preschool room every morning. It’s been encouraging the kids to finish their school lessons. It’s been giving them hugs and high-fives because they clearly crave them. It was stepping in and attempting to teach because the teacher’s been absent a couple of days. It was purchasing 1.5kg of sugar so 30+ people could be fed breakfast on Friday. It’s about building relationships. It was pressing through the pain and letting an 11 year old begin corn-rowing my hair. It’s holding some of the same children I met last March and have been praying for all year. It’s about being honest with God about the things you don’t understand. It’s about supporting our contact and his sports ministry at the care-points. It’s about washing dishes, having encouraging conversations through coffee dates with squad-mates, and being willing to do whatever is asked.
If ministry’s all about building relationships then why the World Race and so many countries? My team's insisting it's okay to go ahead and post this even though I haven't completely come up with an answer to wrap a blog up all nice and neat and tied with a bow. 🙂
