We are meant to grow. Operating at the surface level or keeping yourself at the place where you feel comfortable in any part of life can be dragging and will hold you back. You won’t be able to discover your potential and you will miss out on so many relationships and opportunities.
This is hard for me. I like to be comfortable. I like to be where I know all my surroundings and where I know what is going to happen. I like to have a do-nothing day or days or weeks. I like traditions and just hanging out and doing the same things on a consistent basis. But it is hard to really live and grow in that way. We were made for so much more than that. We were made to spread the grace and love that we have been given to others and not just harbor it in ourselves.
So that is why it was hard for me when our ministry started out slow and then would consistently get canceled. It was something that we were told would definitely happen at some point in the race but I didn’t believe them and thought that we would always have something to do. It was hard because this is our first month and I really wanted to get started in advancing the kingdom. It was hard also because I was getting very comfortable just hanging out with other members of our team and squad around our compound for the month. It was almost like I had never left home. I just came to Africa and went to church and did ministry sometimes. It wasn’t consistent. I knew the need was there, it was right outside the compound, but I was content to stay inside because it wasn’t being set up for me and I didn’t speak the language. Like being at home when you know where the need is, it is right outside your door, but we are content to let it be or let someone else take care of it. We become content with who we think God is and what He has for us. I never want to actually live like that but my actions many times show that. I want to be continually transformed and changed into the person God wants me to be (Romans 12:2). I want more. I don’t want contentment in staying in the same place spiritually anymore.
So we went out. Who cares that everyone spoke French and we only spoke English? Doesn’t matter. Love is universal, and even without words it is still a powerful message. John 13:35, “By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” We were just prayer walking in the neighborhood around the compound and then we stopped at a corner and Bree, one of my squad mates, started playing her guitar and a group of about 30 children came up to us and danced and sang with us. We did this for about an hour just playing and singing with the kids and then a man came up to us. He said he could tell we were different. He said that he could tell we had love for the children and for the Ivory Coast. He even told Tyler and I that our presence there and how we played with and loved on the children reminded him of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech; which is kind of funny to me. We tried to go deeper in conversation with him but his English was extremely limited. But love got through. He gave us his number and we invited him to church and we set up a time to talk with him again. It was awesome to see a relationship begin in that moment.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says, “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” We do not need to be anxious about going out and sharing the gospel with those who we don’t know. We don’t have to be scared of the discomfort and the awkward moments. We can be confident that the Lord will lead us in a triumphant way because we are his fragrance. He will go before us and bring His own to Himself.
We have also been working with our ministry host doing evangelism and other ministry with them. It was very intimidating and a little uncomfortable doing door to door ministry at first. After we were invited into our first house our translator looked at me and said, “Okay go.” For a second I didn’t know what to say but I asked the lady we were visiting if she knew Jesus. She told me she had never heard of him before. It was a hard moment for me because I had heard stories before about people saying that they had met people who had never even heard of Jesus, but she was the first person I have ever met who said she had no idea who I was talking about. So I started in from the beginning just explaining the gospel and she became more interested as I kept talking. At the end she prayed to receive Christ and also said she was interested in coming to church when we invited her. It was really awesome to get to do door to door ministry with our ministry host this week and see relationships begin, pray over people, and get invited back for food and continued conversation.
Through the evangelism opportunities that we have made for ourselves and those that were set up for us I have had such a great experience to step outside what I am comfortable and see that what I was once nervous about was no big deal. We are the fragrance of Christ. We need to live as His fragrance and let Him use us for His glorification.
Please continue to pray for my team and I as we finish our ministry work in the Ivory Coast over the next week. Pray for the people we have met and got the opportunity to share the gospel with that they would have the desire to seek after God more. Pray for our ministry hosts here that they would be able to continue to grow and that more people would be added to the Kingdom. Thank you all so much for your love and support.
GLORY TO GOD!
