“It’s not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me.”
-Batman
This will be just a short blog. Nothing profound. Nothing super spiritual. Just an attempt at answering the frequently asked question, “But what do you do?” Before the Race I often asked the same question (and honestly I still constantly am asking “What are we about to do?”). So three months in and about a third of the way through, I want to offer up a quick summary simply of the work we had the privilege of being a part of during our first three months! For future racers this will give you a hint at what will come you way, but at the same time don’t even start to think that it will answer all your questions. Expectations for what is to come changes constantly even on a day to day basis. So hope this helps!
INDONESIA
Our first month brought us to a Christian English-speaking Intercultural school. We spent the first few days helping the grounds crew get ready for a big ribbon-cutting ceremony they were having that week for their new swimming pool. I got to spend an entire day with a jackhammer in my hands tearing up some concrete *insert Tim Taylor grunt here & “MOOOORRREEE POWER!”*. We also helped mow the lawns, weedeat around campus, and level some ground.
After three days of some good, hard labor we moved into a more interactive and academic setting for ministry. The teachers were very kind as they opened up their classrooms to us and allowed us to share with the students a few things about the missionary life as well as personal testimonies from our own lives. It was super encouraging to get the chance to encourage the students. We also had the honor of leading the chapel services. I got the opportunity to preach during the high school chapel. For the elementary chapels we were able to teach the children more about what missions is and some stories from the Bible. We also had the opportunity to participate in individual ministry as well because of all the options available. For example, I helped out with the basketball team by practicing with them (Go Eagles!) and another one of my teammates helped out in the Mandarin class.
After school hours ministry didn’t end! We had the opportunity almost every afternoon to be blessed to have dinner cooked for us by either one of the teachers or a student’s parents! I like to say that we were able to minister to them by being a new face (most teachers were American, so I would think that it’d be nice to be able to talk to another American who had jsut come from the states), but in reality the ministered to us in an incredible way through their hospitality, love, laughs, open houses, and DELICIOUS food!
We were blessed with the chance to minister as we led services at a local deaf church. We were taken there by a teacher who has been very involved for 20+ with the church. As we learned to sign songs, all the memories from youth group started flooding back in from our time of signing! What a very sweet group of people!
THAILAND
As we moved to our second month in Thailand we had the opportunity to help a local ministry relocate. It was crazy how they took us in so fast and allowed us not to jsut serve them, but rather partner with them! Three of our teams worked together in Mae Sot. My team worked more on the manual labor side of things as we sanded and repainted a lot of old funiture, we were able to move a lot of equipment to the new sight, and painted their housing for teams who come in to help, mong may other things. This worked was what our more day-to-day consisted of, but we also had the opportunity to minister to kids through sports on Saturday mornings (Of course on my end the kids interpreted “sports” as “see how many of us can crawl on top of Caleb and if you are unable to then proceed to beat him up”, fun but painful) and participate in a community outreach to local refugee children. I also have to include our “smoothie ministry” where we would take the local missionaries to a local smoothie stand (best smoothies in the world) after work and buy them smoothies. Sometimes ministry is tough, sometimes it means indulging in sweet, delicious, fruit smoothies. Two nights we went out on prayer walks and prayed and talked to locals.
INDIA
India brought about another month of very diverse ministry. We got to see the school, the seminary, the church, and the hospital that the ministry owned/partnered with. I’m sure there are other things they were involved with because they were HIGHLY involved in the community! The first few days we were able to help in construction ministry. We got to help the local workers as they are adding a new level to their hospital and also with the hostel that they are building. Other days we had the opportunity to go out into the community and other close villages and set up medical camps. Ministering to others through providing them medical care and showing the love of Jesus. We also passed out Bibles to anyone willing to take them! We had the chance of visiting local churches as well and we were able to share testimonies with the congregation. One of the most fun days was getting to lead a day of VBS with around 200 children! We had skits, songs, and stories prepared for them and believe me, we were goofy! It was incredible to see the kids be so well behaved and so attentive.
So I hope this helps to answer the question of what kind of ministry we are a part of! I plan on updating again with a similar blog as the Race goes on as well! Thank you for all the prayers and support thrown our way!
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
-Colossians 3:17
