Hi everyone!
I can’t believe I am in my fifth month of being on the Race! We have been in Malaysia for three weeks now. Let me tell you, I am absolutely loving my time in Asia. I’ve wanted to go to Japan for so long that I never really thought about going to other countries here and so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Thailand and now Malaysia. I loved trying new food, taking the river ferries, and going to the touristy areas like the Grand Palace, various temples, animal cafes, and huge malls. 7-Eleven was also my second home back in Thailand. I think I went there at least twice a day.
In April we had all squad month. So all five teams were together in the same hostel. While we still had ministry as a team, we had worship and sessions with the entire squad a few times a week.
This month was also something called “ATL”, which stands for Ask the Lord. So during launch, we were told that we were going to do ATL during Malaysia and Indonesia. We hadn’t planned on doing it in Thailand, but because of high air pollution levels in Chiang Mai, we ended up staying in Bangkok and not having the ministry hosts we would have had in Chiang Mai.
Truthfully the thought of ATL really intimidated me. I’m going to ask the Lord what to do for the day or the month? How do I know what he is saying? What if my teammates get something different than I do? It’s so much easier to have structure, to have a set ministry and know what it is that we are going to be doing for the month. But then I realized, when I get back home, my entire life is going to be ATL! Yes I will probably serve at a church and have a ministry there. But one thing that has been stressed since the beginning of the Race that I am beginning to learn is the phrase “life is ministry; ministry is life”. Ministry is not something that has a set time. It’s not, ok I’ve served for six hours I am done ministry today. It’s a way of life. Every interaction you have with another person can be ministry.
So this is what it looked like for us. We had our Jam time in the morning (Jesus and me…). Then we met at 10 and spent some time praying, asking God if he had anything for us. A few days we went to a coffee shop and had a Bible study and kept our eyes open in case there was anyone we could speak to while we were there. Other days we worked on a special video project that should be finished by next month. The last couple of days we were able to help out at an orphanage, helping with haircuts for the kids and practicing English with a couple of kids that were going to be adopted soon.
Let me tell you, our time in Thailand was hard! Which in all appearances this would have technically been the easiest month. We had ac and WiFi everywhere and great food and so many fun things to do all the time. But when it came to ministry, which is why I’m on the Race instead of just traveling as a tourist, it was the hardest.
It’s difficult to measure the results of ATL. Some days you feel like, have I even done anything? Was anyone’s life impacted by me being there today? It’s easy when you teach in a school or preach a sermon to feel accomplished, to think, I was productive today. But again I think on that phrase “Life is ministry; ministry is life.” If you are living your life as ministry, then it’s not about how much you accomplished that day. It’s a lifestyle. We made ourselves available at all times, not just during our ministry time. And we found that outside of our “ministry” time was when we had the most fruitful interactions with tourists or locals.
I still don’t have ATL down. Month four in Thailand was a learning experience that is continuing on for the next couple of months as we still are doing ATL for Malaysia and Indonesia. But I hope to gain a lot more experience in living my life as a ministry.
We have just a little over a week left in Malaysia and then we will be heading to Indonesia. We are also going to be having team changes, which is exciting on the one hand to get to know others from our squad, but is also sad because I love my team and will miss them.
I’ll post about what we are doing in Malaysia next time!
Jessica
