Pastor Lee from my church back home always says, “Ministry is where you find it.” He is making the point that you don’t have to go to church or be a pastor to minister to other people. If you’re looking, you will see the incredible opportunities God places in front of you on a daily basis. Some might say that I didn’t have to go all the way around the world to find ministry. But here I am, and ministry is finding me here.
In Vietnam, a country closed to the gospel, my ministry this month has looked different than I expected. Several other members of my team have spent this month making new friends and building relationships so that they can share the love of God to people who see Christmas trees everywhere, but in all likelihood have no idea why Christians around the world have been celebrating it for thousands of years. That’s not what I’ve been doing. I’ve been homeschooling five incredible girls whose parents moved their family here nine years ago. They have grown up here, and they are living lives on mission everyday.
I will leave Vietnam in a very short time, but they have established their lives here. As I was trying to figure out what good I could really do while I’m here, God spoke to me. He told me that he brought me all the way to Vietnam to help the mom of these five girls. She does so much for her church and for different organizations in this country, and she homeschools her teenage daughters while she is working on the dissertation for her PhD. He brought me halfway around the world just to offer her some rest. And I was astounded by the incredible love He has for her. Then I realized something just as amazing. He loves all of us like that. He is willing to move mountains, or move people (which might be harder in some cases), to meet our needs and care for our hearts.
On our first real off day, I had the chance to travel with a couple of my teammates and our host’s nephew to visit some of the historical sites. It was a day off, and we wanted to see part of Vietnam that we might not get another chance to enjoy. We had fun learning about the history of this country and seeing some of its beauty. At the end of the day, on our ride home, we had an incredible conversation about God, his love, and some of the questions to which the answers aren’t quite clear yet. I set out that morning excited to explore this country and grateful for a day off, but God presented us with an opportunity to humbly walk through some of those questions and admit that we don’t have all the answers either. I wasn’t looking for ministry that day, but it found me.
The point to all of this is that you don’t have to go looking for opportunities for ministry. They will find you. But pay attention because they won’t always show up where you expect, and they won’t always look like what you might think.
Photo Credit: Hannah Hoover
