In the last week, I’m really beginning to understand that ministry isn’t always what you expect it to be. When I started on the World Race I assumed that all of the work I’d be doing would be caring for orphans, teaching in schools, building houses, talking to and loving widows, but I’m quickly realizing that there are many other forms of ministry.
For the past week, me and my squad mates here in Xenacoj have been doing a very different form of ministry. To be better missionaries here, we’ve been taking intensive Spanish classes every day. We have class in the morning and afternoon, along with 2 exams per week. This is so we will be able to better communicate with the locals. At first I was definitely not looking forward to taking Spanish classes, in my mind I wasn’t here to be in school, I wanted to be out helping people.
I was really struggling at first and decided that I just wouldn’t care about my exam marks or try to learn vocabulary and verbs. After a day of lessons though, it kind of hit me that this time I wasn’t in class for my own benefit, but I was actually learning Spanish for God’s glory. That gave me a new perspective so I started actually caring about my studying and trying to improve myself.
Another way my squad mates have been “ministering” here is just by living our regular lives. By interacting with German’s family and treating them like our own family we actually are blessing them. We’re helping out around the house, washing dishes, cleaning, helping cook, and just trying to lighten their loads in whatever ways we can. We’re teaching them a bit of English, so our main ministry at the moment is just in our house.
The other night, some of my squad ended up ministering to the people of Xenacoj without even realizing it. We went to a fiesta one evening because German’s brother-in-law was just recently elected as Xenacoj’s major. It was a huge party, so when we went we stuffed ourselves with food and then the music started playing. At this point I got a headache, so me and two others left to go back to our house, but everyone else jumped up and went to the centre of the floor. Now if you know almost anyone on my squad, you know that they love to dance. Music starts playing and they instantly are ready to have a dance party. So that’s what they did! At first, they got some pretty strange looks (though they were doing some pretty strange dance moves too), but little by little children started joining in the dancing. Some older people in the crowd kept staring with unimpressed looks on their faces, but for the most part my friends’ dancing was accepted.
A couple of days later, someone mentioned that night again and asked why it was unaccepted by the older people. Dave, our contact, then calmly said that the older people didn’t approve because here dancing is associated with the devil. Everyone was shocked, and couldn’t believe that Dave had been fine with letting them dance with his knowledge of their beliefs. He quickly pointed out that it is mostly the older peoples beliefs, because many of the younger families were letting their kids go out and dance with the Americans. Because of this, we are slowly starting to affect their beliefs, and that is another way that we are ministering to the Xenacoj people.
So even though I don’t have a whole bunch of stories about amazing ministry work that I’m doing right now, I can say that at my new, second home I’m getting the chance to minister to my new family and community, without necessarily meaning to.
