Initiative ministry: foe or friend? On one hand, having such extensive freedom can become an excuse to be passive during ministry time, wherein a person can allow fear or indecision to keep them from being active, or they can become just plain lazy. On the other hand, with initiative-based ministry there is SO much more room for us to listen to the Holy Spirit and to see the Lord move through our hearing Him and taking action (not that we wouldn't be obedient if we heard from Him in a ministry that was planned for us, but you know what I mean). Doors open supernaturally for God to showcase His power and His character through divine appointments and the fruit is usually very tangible and visible. It goes without saying that the second option is preferable.
Being somewhat new to the works of the Holy Spirit, I was super excited for a month of just listening and acting-to see the different ways the Lord spoke to each of my teammates and which ministries they felt called to and how God was going to move within that. The first day out, Mel and I met Kuya Benny (kuya=older brother, ate, pronounced like attay,=older sister; these are Filipino terms of respect), who runs the W.I.M., the building where a multitude of campus ministries meet. After speaking life and encouragement over Kuya Benny that he desperately needed and was so thankful for, we prayed over him for healing for a toothache and a growth/swelling in his knee. Then he introduced us to two girls from the university, Sharah and Gerlyn, who had both come to Christ within the last year or so but were SO on fire for the Lord. We sat down with the girls and chatted for over an hour about their lives, how they came to know Jesus, what He was teaching them, and so on and so forth. When it was time for them to go to class and close to time for us to leave, we decided to make a quick run across the street for a fried banana, where we ended up making friends with a lady named Bernadette who worked there. We talked with her for a few minutes and found out about her life, including her son who is in the military, prayed over her, and left.
The next day, instead of venturing out to meet new people around the town, Mel and I felt led to continue pursuing the four friends we had made the day before, so we decided to go to Gasano, the Filipino equivalent to Wal-Mart, to buy notecards and envelopes to write them notes of encouragement. Mel suggested that we give the girls gifts, and that's when the Holy Spirit really started to speak to me. Instead of going out to buy gifts, the Lord wanted me to choose things of my own to give them, so I chose a pair of rose earrings for Bernadette and a flower hair clip for each of the girls from my assortment of things I brought on the Race to make myself feel girly in the midst of regularly being sweaty and stinky.
As we sat down at a small cafe to start writing out our notes, I heard from the Holy Spirit again saying, "Don't speak. Just listen to me and write." I turned to Mel and told her that as she wrote on her side of the note cards, I would decorate the envelopes, then I would write on the other side of the note cards without looking at what she wrote and we would end by stuffing the envelopes in the order they had been decorated with the cards in the same order as well. So it turned out that I would know whose card I was writing on, but neither of us would know what the other wrote. Listening to the Spirit's voice is something, like I said, that I'm new to, and in this instance I had the opportunity to listen for what order to make envelopes and for what to write for each person on my side of the card.
We finally finished after about an hour and set out to deliver, still without even having read the cards ourselves. First we stopped by Bernadette's; she was too shy to read her card in front of us, but LOVED when we sang "God is with Us", a song from my summer project in San Diego that the Lord put on my heart to sing for her and was so touched by the gift of the earrings, telling us they were pretty like we were. Next, we set out to the W.I.M., hoping and praying that Kuya Benny and the girls would be there. In itself, lacking tools of communication presents numerous opportunities to listen to the Spirit and pray that He will guide you to where you need to be. Thankfully, they were there. PTL! We began by telling them how we went about writing the notes, not talking but listening to the Spirit. One at a time, our three friends revealed what the Lord had spoken to Mel and myself for them, and all three sat aghast at how well what we wrote on each card matched to what the other had written and how perfectly it related to their lives, whether the message contained exhortation or pure encouragement.
I loved that it didn't matter we didn't have a full picture of any of our four friends' lives or that we had only known them for a day or even that we didn't discuss what we were writing for them. The Lord knew. He's known every intricate detail of them and of their lives since long before they were born. He knew what they needed to hear on that exact day, and through listening to His Spirit's voice, we could communicate that to them on His behalf. That's what my God does. He's alive. He's active. He speaks and if we just take the time to listen, we can hear Him.
