This month is weird for me. Kristin and I are in Thailand! But not together… I am in Chiang Mai. Kristin is closer to Chiang Rai, about 2 hours away. They’re calling it “manistry” month. (Or “womanistry” month for Kristin) I am on a team with the best men from Z squad, all of them to be exact. So this blog will be from my perspective with the men’s team.
We are at Nikki’s Place, part of Agape ministry. An awesome orphanage, set up 20 years ago to take in and love on children born with HIV/AIDs. Before certain medicine was created, it used to be a place for children to come and die. Now they’ve adapted to hold just over 100 children, some HIV positive, but all of them being loved and schooled.
The guys had certain expectations for the month. Before we knew our ministry we thought “obviously they’re going to be making us do manual labor” because men, right? Even after we got our ministry info we thought “building stuff or painting”. What are we doing?
Everything. Avis, the director, is a pro at making work. So we did manual labor. We cleaned a new building before we moved equipment inside. We moved cement bricks, tile, sewing machines, equipment, etc. We moved paving stones and placed them around the new building. We’ve painted tables that were being built for a classroom. But there’s more.
We’ve loved on children. Most of the school age kids are gone during the day, but the babies and toddlers are around and they love to play. They run to us and ask to be picked up! So we are physical laborers, and we are children caretakers. But we are more….
We are sewers. No, for real. We moved the equipment over, set it up, and the lady loved our work so much that she insisted we help with her work. This worker and some students use the equipment to sew gifts for Samaritan’s Purse to use with Operation Christmas Child! Some of us started by stringing a drawstring threw pencil cases. Then we got bumped up to material cutting. Now a couple of us run the actual machines. We can do anything our host needs us too!
It got me thinking about expectations. We expect to fill certain roles in our lives. I can’t be a teacher, I’m not right for that. I can’t do nursery at the church, kids are hard. I’m not right for that position at work. But God can call us to crazy jobs in our lives. Maybe you’re supposed to take that position as the Sunday school teacher. Maybe we are supposed to lead that bible study group. Maybe that promotion at work will let you share God’s love to so many more people than you would before.
So be open to opportunities. Take a chance to tackle something that you didn’t think you could before. Maybe God has been prepping you for something that you wouldn’t expect. Step up, take a chance, you too could be a professional sewer.
