Introducing the newly named FreedomBound 3:17
If you haven't heard already, my team and I have been doing ATL (Ask The Lord) ministry all month, which basically means we pray at the start of each day and see what the Lord has for us. This means no contact…no spreadsheet telling us what our ministry looks like…no specified housing…no schedule…just God! As you can imagine with a "ministry" like this, each day has brought something new. And more and more I live in the advice God gave us at the start of this month…
Appreciate the adventure in not knowing. Look at your life as a blank story book and trust me to fill in the pages, moment by moment.
I guess if I could sum up ATL ministry, I would say it looks a whole lot like life at home. This may surprise you because I know a lot of people have been confused by the concept ATL in itself; but the truth of the matter is, when I get home no one is going to hand me a contact sheet for my life. I won't have a ministry contact telling me when and where I have to be someplace or what is required of me. Instead, I will be governing those boundaries for myself. I will need to create a list of do's and don't's for MY life, and this month has given me a jump start into that.
What am I going to choose in my free time….am I going to post up in my house, watch Television and/or journal because that is where it is safe or am I going to go out into the world and look for ministry just like I have here?
Am I going to allow myself to get uncomfortable in a comfortable world?
Am I willing to be different in a world "like this." What I mean by that is Romania looks a whole lot like America. The energy is fast passed: they have places to go, people to see, so don't bother them with mindless impersonal chatter. But where does that leave me? Does that mean I just accept the hustle and bustle and keep my faith to myself….absolutely not! Now believe me, we have come across our fair share of people who are burnout from the church, who don't want to hear the same old salvation or damnation speech, or who have gone through too much pain and suffering to believe in some kind of relationship with a man named Jesus…but it is what I choose to do in those moments, the moments where people want to shut me up, that defines me. How will I continue to Follow, Obey, and Fight for the God that I know with all of my being is REAL. See my faith is not some crutch that allows me to get through the day but THE REASON I am living.
So I think it's fair to say that ATL ministry came at the perfect time. Just two months before we get home…I like to think of it as Jesus' version of a trial run.
So I guess ATL, in its nature, is pretty ordinary. It's what life looks like when you commit to living by the Spirit. It's not something special to missionaries, it's for me and you! It could be as simple as walking the streets or as over the top as holding a sign in the middle of a square soliciting Free Prayer. But whatever it looks like, it is first and foremost lead by the Lord.
A small look at what ATL looked like for us:
Chalk ministry in one of the parks in Bucharest. Kate drew a storyline about choosing a life with Christ and I wrote the Bible verses in Romanian
A close up of our work of art for all park passerby's to see
Becky, an American missionary singing and teaching about the Lord to gypsy children (God led us to meet Becky through a calling He placed on one of my teammates heart to work in an orphanage this month. We joined ranks with her for a few days to see what she does as a full time missionary here in Romania)
Gpysy ministry with some new friends!
Just in case this is still sounding just a bit too abstract, (and until I can capture the true wonders of our God in words) I made a video so you could SEE, in action, what one day of ATL looked like for us. ENJOY!
