Greetings from our only English speaking country on the World Race: Ghana! We had team changes, and now I am travelling and doing ministry with a new group of friends! Even though I am sad to have to leave team AMAZEd by You, I am extremely excited to get to know my new team, The Fellowship (yes, that is a Lord of the Rings reference)! You already know Zach from my last team; he is the new team leader of The Fellowship, and he is doing an amazing job in his new role. My team also includes my fellow worship coordinators, April and Paul; our treasurer, Catherine; and our squad Intercession Coordinator, Jeremiah! Even after just over a week together, we are already experiencing so much unity and fellowship. We already have a million fun moments that come with inside jokes and a quote book, and we have already seen God do so much through us in our first week together.
We are currently in the city of Sunyani, Ghana, working with Elim City Church. Our ministry so far has included a lot of street evangelism. We travelled for a few days to the nearby town of Goaso to work with a branch of Elim City there. Even though Elim City has hosted many World Race teams before, we were the first team sent to Goaso. It was really cool to be a part of pioneering ministry there for future teams.
Something that God has been teaching me (and I’m still wrestling with) is the value of planting seeds. When I was preparing to leave for the Race, I had a lot of people pray over me. And there is one specific moment that I remember very well. One person prayed over me that I would be like Johnny Appleseed: planting seeds wherever I go, but not necessarily staying long enough to see them grow to fruition. At the time, I thought it made sense. Obviously I’m only going to be in each place for a month or less, that’s not really much time to be able to see the fruit of my ministry. But now that I’m actually doing it, it sucks. I’m not gonna lie, I really don’t like it. Sometimes, I feel really useless. I feel like God isn’t really using me in powerful ways because I can’t see the results of what I am doing.
This week of street evangelism has brought these thoughts to the forefront of my mind. For one, probably 90% of the people I’ve talked to are already Christians. The church is very present in this area, and a significant portion of the people are Christians. Obviously, I can still give them a word from the Lord, which is a good thing, but what I really want is too see someone saved. After all isn’t that what evangelism is about? But I haven’t even seen even one conversion, even from the few people I’ve encountered that haven’t already accepted Jesus. And on top of that, it often feels like people aren’t even listening. It’s like I’m preaching at them rather than to them. They don’t really respond to what I say, and if they do, it’s just a few words. It’s not much of a conversation at all, even if I try to make it one. I pretty much just say something to them, pray for them, and then leave. And I have never seen anything come out of it.
I thought back to Month 1 of the Race, where we saw a lot of fruit from our ministry. We saw people healed, and we saw people accept Jesus as their savior. We had so many meaningful encounters. But even then, I was mostly just there while other people on my team were the ones having the cool encounters. I’ve never actually gotten to see fruit from my own direct ministry. I’ve never personally prayed for someone who received healing. I’ve never personally had a conversation with someone that led them to accepting Christ. The other day, we split up into 3 smaller groups to go do evangelism, and when we came back together and told stories of what happened, the other two groups had really cool stories to tell, while, as I already said, my group did not see any direct fruit from our day.
Things like this have led me to become somewhat jealous of my peers. I’m jealous that they are the ones with all the cool stories, while I’m just kinda there. It makes me feel like I’m useless. It makes me wonder if God even has big plans for me here on the World Race. Obviously, I know that He does, but the enemy likes to plant seeds like that in my mind. As I thought about that idea of Satan planting seeds, I came to many realizations. I know I have to be careful not to feed those seeds and let them grow to fruition, because their fruit is sin. Those are bad seeds.
In the same way, good seeds also need to be fed to grow to fruition. There’s a difference between planting a seed and watering it. When we see someone accept Christ, that’s not planting a seed. That’s a seed that was planted a long time ago by who knows who, and it’s been dry for a long time until we come along and water it, then watch it grow and produce fruit. Someone had to plant that seed at one point. And that person never had the opportunity to see its fruit, but that doesn’t mean the fruit never came. That’s what I am right now. God has anointed me as a planter for this season of my life.
The Holy Spirit reminded me of something that happened during month 3 in Argentina. We got to witness around 80 people get baptized one day. Their baptism was not a result, direct or indirect, of anything we had done. We had only even knew one of them, and we had just met him the day before. It was just a really cool moment to see the potential fruit of what we are doing here on the World Race. For all we know, the seeds that we plant could lead to 80 people getting baptized somewhere someday. It’s quite possible that I could have a random conversation with a random person that doesn’t seem significant to me, but was very significant to them. That small conversation about God could lead them to eventually accepting Christ. Maybe God then gifts them in evangelism, something I myself am not really gifted in, and they go out and share the gospel with a bunch of people who all come to follow the Lord. Then this person starts a church somewhere with all of the people that they helped convert, and they have a large baptismal service just like the one we watched in Argentina. If I never had the random, seemingly insignificant, conversation with the random person, that could never have happened. Of course, God could have still worked it out in a different way, but He chose to use me to plant that seed in that person’s mind. For all I know, this hypothetical scenario could happen in the future with any of the people I talked to while doing street evangelism in Goaso last week. I don’t know what God wants to do with the seeds that I planted, but I do know that He wanted me to plant them. And that’s all I need to know. I can be comforted in knowing the fact that I am in God’s will.
To be honest, I don’t think that planting seeds is what God wants me to do forever. I think it’s just his plan for me here on the World Race. The thing is, planting seeds isn’t really where my giftings (or my heart for ministry) lie. Recently, I’ve been feeling more and more that God is calling me into discipleship, which is pretty much the opposite of planting seeds. In discipling other believers, I will be watering the seeds that other people have planted and see the fruit that comes out of them.
So why does God have me planting seeds right now? First of all, the World Race isn’t really the place for discipleship. As I already said, we are only going to be in each place for a month or less. That’s just not enough time to be able to disciple the people we encounter. Second, God wants to challenge me to get out of my comfort zone and try things that I’m not necessarily good at or comfortable with. Just because I’m not gifted in evangelism doesn’t mean that God can’t use me in that way. And finally, God has me planting seeds so that I can see Him and the world in unique ways so that I can have more wisdom and experience in the future. Already I can better see the way God works, through planting and watering seeds. Also, if God is calling me to disciple, I can be a much better discipler with the experience that I am getting right now. Maybe someone that I am discipling is walking through the same thing that I am writing about right now. I can give them advice from my own personal experience. God doesn’t have me do things if they are pointless. These are just some of the things that the Holy Spirit has told me about why I am in this season, even though I might not feel fulfilled.
You can be praying that the seeds that I am currently planting will come to fruition. You can pray that people will come along later to water them and see the fruit. You can pray that future World Race teams who come to Goaso can see the fruit of the seeds that we have planted through our time of street evangelism there. Pray that God would continue to be revealing His will to me as I follow Him through this season. And pray for our new team to continue to be unified in Christ and that we will grow in relationship with Him and with each other.
Also, with Coronavirus ravaging through Asia right now, there has been a bit of worry in our squad surrounding our last 5 months on the Race. We are supposed to travel to Asia in less than 2 months, and if the virus is still at large, our leaders will have to think twice about sending us there. Pray that God would reveal to them His will for our squad and where we are supposed to be sent.
Thank you all for reading, even though this was a pretty long one, and thanks for following me on my journey. Most of all, thank you for continuing to keep me and my squad in your prayers; I know we are loved by everyone back home!
Love,
Ethan
