This is the eighth month that I’ve been on the World Race. My squad has reached its final continent, after visiting South America and Africa, and now we are experiencing Asian culture at long-last! The transition from Zimbabwe to Malaysia was a swift one, and living here has felt like a world’s difference. Instead of openly proclaiming the Gospel in any and every context, we are daily made aware of the difficulty of being a Christian in Malaysian culture.
In light of these difficulties, this month we are devoting most of our time to relational ministry along with adding to the ministry of Vineyard Community Church. It has been especially enjoyable to see how each of our unique talents and interests are coming to life for the sake of ministry this month. I choreograph a lyrical dance that my team performed at the final church service. It has been awesome to reenter the world of dance and share my love for worship through movement with my teammates. I’ve also had many opportunities to lead the church in worship and continue to play and sing alongside my teammates during evening worship sessions together. My biblical education has also gotten some use, as I was given the opportunity to preach at one of the Friday services. Other teammates have been able to use their background in videography, art, and English in order to bless the church’s ministry here.
In between our dance rehearsals, music practice, video shoots, painting, and sermon writing, we’ve popped from one store to another in order to build relationships with the shopkeepers. My two favorites are the outspoken laundry lady and the sweet woman named Shirley who owns a health store down the road.
One day we walked into Shirley’s shop and saw her reading a Mandarin Bible. As we asked her about what she was reading and her background in faith, she invited us to sit down and we continued in conversation for a while before the time came for us to leave. After being offered some kimchi and soy milk, we asked if we could pray for her, and right there in her store we asked the Lord to bless her business, protect her family, and increase her faith.
A few days later she saw us walking to our favorite lunch spot and animatedly waved through her large glass doors for us to come over. With a big smile she loaded us up with four huge stalks of fresh aloe, telling us a recipe for a natural face mask we could make with it.
Another week passed and we hatched a plan to surprise Shirley and the laundry lady with some of our best attempts at a surprise concert. I knew that the laundry lady loved the classic R. Kelly song ‘I believe I can fly,’ so I roped Margot and Shannon into playing the shakers and singing backup vocals while I played guitar and sang with all the soul I could muster. The laundry lady couldn’t stop smiling as we serenaded her and she showered us with hugs afterwards.
The next stop was Shirley’s shop where we entered with gusto and sang our best (though probably the world’s worst) version of ‘Let it Go.’ Shirley loved every second of it and asked us to sing more, so we ended up playing Amazing Grace for her and her friend, Tan, who had been visiting the shop when we showed up. Tan was so enthusiastic about Amazing Grace that she ended up conducting us in the choruses of other classic hymns.
Serenading these shopkeepers was one of the silliest things I’ve ever dreamed up, yet it turned out to be the highlight of my month. What started out as a fun idea turned into a unique display of the love I’d developed for these two women. I pray that they will forever remember the day the spirited American girls sang on their doorstep, and more than that, I pray they are better acquainted with the creative love of Christ because of our songs.
Relational ministry is easy. It has no agenda or schedule. It’s merely being present with the people who wake up to the same sunrise we do and breathe in the same humid air that fills our lungs. It’s having our eyes open to the people who sell us our groceries and even taking the time to ask their name and how they are doing. It’s waving and smiling to our neighbors, even if they speak a mixed-up, heavily accented version of English. And as I’ve been learning lately, it’s all about a love that gets up off the couch and does.
I didn’t need to go to Malaysia to do relational ministry, I could’ve stayed put in Philly for that. And now I know, wherever I am and whatever I find myself doing, the opportunities to minister to the people around me through the love of Jesus are free and endless.
