The nature of our ministry this month is one that is completely different than anything I expected. Instead of spending hours playing with children, serving through sweating, or evangelism, our team is serving as… Business Women. For our final month of ministry, we have been operating as a think tank for Change Your World. Change Your World is a social enterprise in Malaysia working to eradicate human trafficking and other social injustice by calling on this generation of Southeast Asian youth to make a difference in the world around them. Our work this month has involved rebranding a business, restructuring and implementing a volunteer system, planning new awareness programs, working with the women at a local shelter, and starting a viral awareness and fundraising campaign (more to come later on this). This work is tiring in a completely different way than other months – mentally exhausting – and sometimes, we just need to take a brain break. These always look different and are often incredibly interesting because who knows what your brain will do after 6 hours of straight brainstorming. Here are just a few examples of how we have filled out brain break time:
– telling boyfriend stories (ex and current, where applicable)
– taking cat naps
– hiding in the nursing room
– worshipping
– receiving Chinese lessons from Jac
– drawing white board pictures
– researching #alexfromtarget and how he possibly got famous
– drinking coffee. Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee.
– hearing about the underground church movement in Asia
– whiteboard handwriting lessons
– arguing about whether the word mission has one s or two (I lost…it’s two)
– planning youth group games (and practicing, of course)
– side ponytail parties (okay that’s just me)
– rehearsing the church’s Christmas play in accents and as a musical
– interpretive dancing to Disney music
– Drinking Durian Coffee – Terrible Life Decision – and trying local snack foods
-reenacting Phantom of the Opera
– SNACKS ON SNACKS ON SNACKS
– threaten eachother with bananas
– walks around the neighborhood searching for the Komodo dragon
– Baskin Robins. Wafflecone Wednesday. Nough said.
– Insanity, Pure Bar, and jogs around the park
– shoving pumpkin seeds in a hole in the wall to trap the centipede inside
– hair dying parties
– eating McDonalds because it is one of the only in budget meals
– singing Backstreet Boys at the top of our lungs
– Letting MASH decide my post-race future… You can call me Mrs. Sean Connery, the Arizona-based NY trash collector with triplets.
– Sushi lunch dates with Jac
– random questions
– testimony time with Kel and Cathryn
– eating great and strange Malaysian cuisine
– serenading Cathryn with a spot on rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody
– Runs to the local Tescoe Grocery store
– debating whether or not red kidney beans should be a part of dinner or dessert
– watching sweet action films on a projector
– practicing making fabric bracelets… Which turned into making fabric bracelets, anklets, head bands, singing Taylor Swift’s new album, and throwing the ribbons around like confetti.
– Researching viral videos on YouTube (for work….duh)
– Walking down the side of a 6 lane highway against traffic in the rain trying to get back to the house
– drawing incredibly artistic renditions of how our brains feel after working all day (Wendy is double-fisting the coffee and I am hiding under the table… Or vise-versa)
– Spending a lot of time in prayer over the future of this company and movement against human trafficking (Please join us in these prayers!)
As you can see, we have accomplished many things this month, both in ministry and in our personal time. Though this last month is outside of anything I could have imagined, The Lord is still present and still teaching me so many things (Learning how to start and operate a business? Okay, Jesus. Let’s do this). I cannot imagine ending the race in a different way or with different people, and with an Entire week left of ministry, who knows what our brain breaks will hold?
