When someone says the word “ministry” what are the first thoughts that come to your mind? Probably something along the lines of loving on kids, walking door to door, asking to pray for people, and seeing miracles happen. Two months ago I would have said something in uniform with that. This past month, along with learning how to balance rest and getting tasks done, I’ve learned that ministry can mean just about anything.
In Thailand our hosts are a big happy family of eight. Raem and Nan (mom and dad) and six children, 4 adopted and 2 of their own. When we first arrived about a month ago they said our ministry would consist of a variety of stuff, working in rice fields, teaching English, going to prisons, construction. AMAZING! We will have the opportunity to reach so many people….not so much. We have simultaneously spent the first month in Chatturat harvesting rice and teaching English at a number of schools. It’s been crazy to experience. I have a mad respect for teachers and rice now!
I realized a few things when it comes to teaching in a foreign country. Teaching your primary language seems like a breeze until you teach your first class of the day, you check the clock expecting thirty minutes to have gone by when in reality only ten have. You are the first white people that a majority of your students have seen, so prepare to be Justin Bieber for the day and sign a whole lot of autographs. I’ve learned that you can’t make a lesson up on the spot because odds are they have already learned how to say “Hello, how are you?” America is a little behind in the aspect of mandatory teaching of other languages. Lesson planning is a thing, and it is a MUST! I’ve discovered Asians are fascinated with our noses. My afternoon class of third graders spent an entire hour attempting to pull and stretch their noses to be arched like our noses…even the teacher was fascinated. Remember hangman? That game is a major time killer, even the high schoolers love it! One more thing, prepare at least a thirty minute entertainment show for after school. The principle will 100% ask you to stand in front of the whole school and sing songs, do a skit, and explain why you are here. That is normally our short glimpse to share the gospel and tell the students that we are here to share God’s love and do mission work.
It was a little frustrating at first, you start to wonder if you are even planting any seeds when your only chance to mention Jesus is at the end of the day in a 30 minute skit/show. You don’t really get a chance to truly build relationships with students because we switch classes every hour and switch schools every week. So yes, the thoughts “why the heck am I even here?” “why can’t I just be doing bar ministry or prison ministry?” tend to cross your mind. There have been days where I’ve felt useless and that I haven’t been able to give the love of Jesus to these kids. The cool thing is that God is constantly opening doors for us. Last week at one of the schools the principle was Buddhist, but our host decided to ask if we could share the gospel anyways…he said yes! God opened the door for us and we were able to teach about God while simultaneously teaching English.
Working in a rice field is the opposite of what you would think, it’s not really a field, it’s more of a swamp. If you know me you know I would not normally be the one to volunteer to jump right on in…but I did! Let me paint the picture for you…your outfit consists of a neon pink sun shirt, pants, and knee high socks, you are walking thigh deep in mucky water and you have no clue what is swimming around with you. We saw catfish as big as my thigh, snails, crabs, snakes, frogs, and many abstract insects. The bottom of the field is similar to what I would imagine walking through moldy chocolate pudding feels like. Initially I was angry that our ministry this month was rice fields, not because it was dirty and lots of work, but because we were working with people that already knew Jesus, our hosts. Once again I felt like I wasn’t planting any seeds or doing “ministry”. It wasn’t until Saturday, our off day, when we were sitting at breakfast with Raem and she mentioned their whole family heading out to the rice fields all day, even the three year old. We volunteered to help them out for the day and completely finish all three fields, which took them by surprise. We ended up working in the fields for 7 hours and it was the hardest we’ve worked yet. To see the joy and thankfulness on our host family’s face brought me so much comfort.
That is the day I truly realized what God was showing me about ministry. Ministry isn’t always loving on kids, walking door to door, asking to pray for people, and seeing miracles happen. Ministry can be loving your hosts, bringing them a breath of fresh air so they can keep planting seeds after we move on to our next ministry sight.
