Ministry is life, life is Ministry:
Our program this month is quite organized. When we arrived a few weeks ago we received an orientation at the church we’re working with, Elim City. Since organization and communication was seemingly nonexistent throughout our first month, I was overjoyed to the point of tears when the pastors explained as much as possible in detail and answered questions I wouldn’t have even thought to ask. During the orientation we were assigned congregations to partner with. Under the umbrella of Elim City there are 6 different congregations that form the church body. Team Haven is partnering with the Covenant Congregation, and that directly correlates to the specific community, Ssnit Flats. Our objective is to “win souls” for the Kingdom!! So we are spending three days a week building relationships, evangelizing and inviting people to join us for services at Elim City!
Every morning the squad meets at the common area of the guest house to break off into teams, and then walk to the Main Street to hail taxi’s. Yesterday, as the taxi we hailed moved to the side of the road, Priska, Margaret and I hopped in the back seat. Rebecca was also with us and because there were a couple things laying in the front seat, she asked the taxi driver if she could sit up front. He said yes and moved his towel and random tool from the seat so Rebecca could sit…
As we’re enjoying the less than fifteen minute ride, we were talking, listening to music, enjoying the scenery when all of a sudden I see Priska and Margaret look at each other with a look that immediately clued me in on a potential issue. I took my one headphone out to be able to hear and see if I could get an understanding of what was happening….well, our taxi was slowly but surely breaking down. It seemed like a slow death as we kept creeping toward the stoplight/turn, but as we all anticipated, we didn’t make it. The taxi driver acted as if this was a regular occurrence by immediately reaching for that towel and tool which was once laying in the front seat. He popped the hood and started fiddling with the gadgets under the hood. He worked for a couple minutes, came back to driver seat, turned the ignition, gave it some gas and it ran for a brief minute…but then completely died. At that point he realized he needed more than what his hands and/or tools could offer.
So, although late for Ministry, we offered to help him with his car! “We’ll help push it somewhere or at least out of the way!”, we said, so we got out and starting pushing the car backwards into oncoming traffic. If you know anything about Africa’s roads, “laws” and/or traffic at all, you know that is probably more dangerous than scaling the Chrysler building without a harness. But we are a determined bunch…the girls start pushing as I begin to walk between our car and oncoming traffic in hopes to direct cars to the other lane so they can continue pushing as the driver steers to avoid potholes and motorbikes.
We push the car to where our driver requests and Rebecca initiates prayer, so we all lay hands on the taxi and pray. We gave him the taxi money anyway as we knew he would need it to fix his car, and then we began our journey, walking to ministry. We walked the entire way, we talked about how unexpected that event was, what could’ve been considered an inconvenience, turned into a beautiful moment of us being able to serve our driver in a small way, excited to show him a little bit of Jesus and then pray over him.
So Priska, Rebecca, Marge and I laughed together as we each shared our perception of the experience. Truly, truly, I say there is never a dull moment with Team Haven…God is good…and as I walked, listened and shared, I started thinking…wait, he had a towel and tool in his front seat when he first picked us up, which was why Rebecca had to ask if she could sit up there. I remember seeing the white and orange stripped towel and tool laying there, but overlooked any “red flag” that potentially could’ve been heightened because my experiences or lack there of…never breaking down in a taxi before very well could’ve hindered my awareness.
Looking back, was it a red flag or a small sign that I/we missed? Was it something we should’ve been more cognizant of? Should we’ve weighed the pros and cons or just jumped in with blind faith as we did!? How many times do we walk through something difficult and only as we look back can we see signs that we should’ve paid more attention too? How many times do we walk through the days and miss blessings, opportunities and people we were supposed to encounter due to us being preoccupied, selfish, rushed, etc? What might’ve you missed today?!
For me, I really don’t want to miss a single thing that God wants to reveal to me!!
I want to be acutely aware that His presence is constant and faithful…and the Holy Spirit’s promptings are opportunities for me to become more obedient and allow Him to show Himself to others through me.
Thanks for sharing in this journey with me!!
In Christ,
Emily Cate
