I am learning this month that ministry doesn’t always mean being on the ground playing soccer with the kids, sharing the Gospel everyday, or ministering to the women in dance bars. Yes we get to do that some this month but most of what we have done is come along side the contacts and fellow believers in Nepal and supporting them so they can do ministry well.
Most of the staff we have worked with at Agape do their ministry 24/7/365. Yes they take time in the evenings for family but they also open their home and use it as a school for the slum kids or a home to house their staff members.
Recently Brian and Ruth got their home back for just their family, which includes four boys. You can imagine how crazy it can get sometimes with all those boys running around :]]. The ministry was able to rent a new home to house the rest of the staff.
On Monday and Tuesday our two teams moved furniture outside, painted four rooms (3 bedrooms and the kitchen), sorted books, and then moved all the furniture back into rooms. The work seemed mundane and to me kind of silly. I mean why are we painting someone’s home when we could be ministering to the street kids? Well my answer came on Tuesday after painting the kitchen. I called Ruth up to have her check it out and make sure it was done to her liking. When she came in the kitchen she lite up! She was so happy and you could tell it seemed like she had just gotten an entire kitchen makeover. Before the kitchen walls had been covered in grease and dirt because 15 people had been living and cooking there for years. Now it is their own, clean, new kitchen. Ruth was so excited she called Brian up saying she had a surprise for him! When he came up the same look took over his face.
It was in that moment that I realized what we had been able to do for them. We were able to give them a new home that they never would have made time to make themselves. They would have had to take away from the ministry to make time to paint their own home. And in all honesty they wouldn’t have done that.
I am reminded of some of Paul’s letters that he wrote while in prison. I’m sure Paul would have much rather have been in the churches preaching and teaching but that wasn’t possible. However he knew they needed encouragement in their faith and that what they were doing was building up the kingdom. In Colossians 1:3-12 Paul writes to the believers there saying:
“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”
This is sometimes what ministry looks like, encouraging and praying for contacts, doing the “grunt” work, while they do the “glamorous” work.
It all matters. It all builds up the kingdom. Remember to have a joyful heart even when it seems like what you are doing doesn’t matter, you might never know how much you have been able to bless your contact. We are so lucky in being able to see it!
