One of the main organizations my team and I partner with in our community is called Global Ministries, and we’ve been helping them build a high school for the Jeffrey’s Baai area.
Today we served at Global, and spent a good portion of the work hours plastering walls with watery cement. Another day we moved bricks from one end of the site to the other. Sometimes we get to be a little crafty and stain piles of wood, but more often than not our job is to clean up worksites after the paid employees finish, and move all their equipment to the next building location.
Going into this ministry, I wanted to be really intentional about having a positive attitude. On the World Race, we have this thing called “feedback”, where my teammates and I call each other higher by encouraging one another in our strengths, and also holding one another accountable in our weaknesses. If I could give you any one thing from this trip, it’d be the raw, vulnerable love and community you experience through feedback.
Before beginning ministry in South Africa, a teammate of mine had shared with me that she noticed I was struggling against negativity, and complaining. Hand in hand, we’ve prayed together for joy, and positivity to be the strength of my heart.
I used to think that it was easier to complain when life wasn’t working exactly how I wanted.
But then I heard this story…
A man came upon a construction site where three people were working. He asked the first, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am laying bricks.” He asked the second, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am building a wall.” As he approached the third, he heard him humming a tune as he worked, and asked, “What are you doing?” The man stood, looked up at the sky, and smiled, “I am building a cathedral!”
In the main building at Global, they have a cardboard model of what the school will look like when it’s finished. It’s elaborate, complete with sports fields, classrooms lit by large windows, and even a manicured courtyard for the students to rest in between classes. I think they made it to help workers remember they aren’t just laying bricks everyday.
I’ve had my “moments” during ministry, where I got over-heated and wasn’t really in the mood to wheel barrel rocks through tall grass, and I almost did obnoxiously chuck one of said rocks over the fence, very annoyed by it, as if it did something to offend me.
But then I remember Who I’m serving, and the dream we’re chasing together. I remember that I went to school for 13 years, and it was one of the best gifts I’ve ever been given. School wasn’t just something I valued, and found joy in, but is something that has propelled me into my future! It has allowed me to think for myself, and stand up for what I believe! As I’ve traveled the globe, and met a multitude of people, I hate to inform you that few receive the privilege of education.
I used to think that it was much easier to complain when life wasn’t going how I wanted, but then I realized that I was just laying bricks.
You know what? I’m ready to grow up. I’m done behaving like a child and crying when the air is too hot, or when my food taste like weird fish, or when my boss asks me to do more work. I’m done being negative, and allowing negativity to keep me from dancing when it rains.
I’m done whining about laying bricks, and building walls, when I could be living inspired by God’s dreams.
Miraculously, Global has become my favorite ministry on the race yet. I prayed for a heart that saw sunshine, where I once only felt the heat, and for eyes that beheld art, when concrete mud was splattering all over my body. And now, I get excited to smear weird plaster mixtures onto walls, because I’m not just laying these bricks, or building this wall. No, I’m building a school, and a freaking cool one at that!
Someday, some little girl is going to be sitting in this classroom receiving an education that will change her life forever. Maybe she’ll love science, and go onto become an anthropologist. She could be really into reading, and writing like me, and become an author that talks about Jesus. Who knows, she could even say “to hey” with it all after high school, and leave her country to be a missionary for 9 months. Ha. I sorta hope she does that.
Wherever she finds herself beyond these classroom walls, I’m blessed to have been a part of the gift, one brick at a time. I’ll keep scraping, and shoveling, and moving piles of wood, and you’ll probably find me singing amidst it, because I’m building a school for God’s children.
It’s extremely difficult to complain about that. I’d much rather jump and dance!
“The joy of the Lord is my strength!” Nehemiah 8:10
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
