For those of you who have wondered what we did all of last month the simple answer is that I don't know. To be completely honest I am not sure that we did much of anything or that we had any impact at all. I am not even 100% sure that God was speaking through us in our ministry or that he was guiding us or that any of the seeds we planted will grow. I mean he was with us, he always is, but our ministry was strange. I left feeling unaccomplished and uncertain of the impact that we had. I do however know (and have faith) that it was God’s plan for us to be there; and that is all I need to know.
Hebrews 11:1-3
“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of the things we cannot yet see… By faith we understand that the whole universe was formed at God’s command, that what we see now did not come from anything that can be seen.”
Once again, I do not know that we had an impact. I did not see any lives completely transformed or changed. I did not see anyone break down and cry and confess their sins before God and talk about their need for a savior, but I have faith that it was God’s plan for us and the people we worked with. I have faith that he will use everything that happened there for good and I pray now that somehow and in some way the kids and staff we worked with saw the love of Jesus through us and that it will impact them later on in their personal walks. As I look back now and am here in Thailand I know and am even more convicted that last month was not so much about our ministry. I am reminded of Moses in Exodus 33 where God is guiding the Israelites through the desert into the Promised Land and God tells Moses that, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14) That is what Nepal was about for us; resting in his presence, getting to know him more, and being intimate. I have had to accept (with some resistance) that last month was not about preaching to or converting people, and that God has a bigger plan than what we were able to accomplish for the people of Nepal.
In Nepal they have anti-conversion laws that restrict even the private schools. Legally we could not pray with or discuss spiritual things with the kids or the staff we were working with. As you can imagine, this made it difficult to minister to them. Even when we were teaching and playing with the kids we could not sing songs with the name Jesus in them. We were told as we arrived that we were supposed to help the school. We were supposed to set up an accounting system for them, train the teachers on how to teach, build a website for them, teach occasionally, and to just be there. Having never done ministry like this before we were all a little overwhelmed. We felt under-qualified to do all of these things and were uncertain of how we were going to accomplish or change anything there. Despite all of our fears we set forth and accomplished all of these tasks throughout the month. I have faith that that is what God had for us and I will continue to pray that on some level we had an impact. I will continually pray for the kids that we worked with. I will pray that God will change their lives where we could not. For as believers we can plant seeds and water the crops but it is only God who can make the plants grow.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7
“My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow. The ones who do the planting and watering are not important, but God is important because he is the one who makes the seed grow.”
So this is what I have faith in, that what we did was all we could do and what God had for us and that he will use every small thing we did, every seed we planted, for His greatness. He has this funny way of making everything work together for good. I continue to see it in my own life and the lives of those around me. My faith will not be shaken or stirred, but only made stronger as I continue to walk with him!
Romans 8:28
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes.”
Onward and Upward!
And if you would like to SEE what we accomplished check out the website we created and the videos we made for the school here below…
http://haripurprashansa.wix.com/prashansaacademy
(copy and paste URL)
(copy and paste URL)
-Desirae Dawn 🙂
