Something the World Race has taught me is that my understanding of the word ‘ministry’ is too boxed up and planned most times. When Jesus sent out the disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God he told them to “take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics [Luke 9:1-3].”
So all they had was themselves [and one tunic I guess] and a common goal to preach the kingdom. So who’s to say the disciples didn’t go about different ways and different paces of doing it?
Maybe Andrew was very ‘type A’ and planned events [like feeding the 5,000] and scheduled for the gospel to be shared right as people finished eating. Well played, Andrew. Peter might not have really liked schedules. He probably prayed while he walked everywhere, and healed people too. John might’ve stayed too long at one too many inns cause he’s so natural at building relationships with the people around him.
Why is there a certain way of doing things when God created us and gifted us so uniquely different? And when we have the power of the Holy Spirit?? If we’re listening, the Spirit rarely leads us to do things the same exact way often. [Look at all the different ways Christ addressed people who had unclean spirits — sometimes with one word, sometimes with no words, sometimes with a touch, with mud and spit?]
This month we are looking for Unsung Heroes, people in Laos who are doing work for the Kingdom and need support in the form of partnership; which would then allow us to send teams to them in the future. We have a common goal, to share the love of Jesus, but the means of getting there is very open-ended for this particular month.
We pray a lot and we network. Can’t complain about praying, but after posting a couple things on Facebook and googling to the middle of nowhere for two hours, I was done.. And we still have the whole of January!
So after a day of that [and not getting replies to any emails/FB messages] I began to reminisce over the past couple days cause I had down time — something RARE and a gift from God on the Race. And in that moment so much beauty stood out to me in the time that we’ve been in Laos since December 30th.
We’ve stayed at hostels the entire time and let me tell you, I love them! There’s no better place to meet neat people [yes I used ‘neat’]. This morning I met a woman at breakfast and she reminded me of Ms. Figg, minus the cats, from Harry Potter. Her name is Jaroldine, she’s Canadian and retired, and she’s in Laos to get an extended visa so she can continue to teach English to kids in Thailand. After we chatted for a while, she got up to leave and I prayed for her while I sipped my coffee and wondered what the two Asian women across from me were saying to each other.
On New Years Eve I went to a BBQ hosted by our hostel owner and met an Irish guy [Steve] who’s traveling all over Asia with his girlfriend. Kevin [from my squad] talked to him earlier and told him what we were doing, “we travel to 11 countries in 11 months..” All of a sudden Steve cuts him off saying, “The World Race!” Turns out he met a girl back in 2010 who was going to do the Race and it opened a door for Kevin to tell him more about it and talk about God and encourage Steve to go back to his first Love..
That night we also danced because, well, it was New Years Eve! While we danced Sierra [from our squad] met and talked to a young Laotian woman who had a really old caucasian ‘husband’, or so she said. The whole time Shannon [from our squad] was praying for Sierra and the girl she was talking to, and all of a sudden a booming fast-paced song comes on with the only repetitive lyrics of, “don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop”, so of course Shannon takes that as “keep praying!”
By the end of Sierra’s conversation with the young woman, the girl asked to visit Sierra’s temple. Sierra got to explain to her that there’s no need to come to a temple because our God is with us wherever we go! And she promised the woman to be in constant prayer for her so that young woman’s night, and maybe New Year, was made.
So this month we don’t really have a set agenda and its more than alright.. its absolutely beautiful! We pray and God uses us in ways we never expected [guess that’s another meaning of the phrase ‘no expectations‘ on the Race]. God shows up when we only have ourselves and the ‘one tunic’ [and maybe a dance floor]. And if we don’t see the importance and beauty of those moments, well, we could get to the end of this month with no contacts on our spreadsheets and hearts full of frustration. We have the ability to shift atmospheres and bring God’s kingdom now wherever we’re at.
So stop and look at who’s around you right now.
Who does Jesus want you to be intentional with?