Month one I was teaching and preaching to young boys at a boys home in Mozambique.
Month two I was casting out demons, preaching sermons to congregations, and praying healing over people.
With these two idea in mind, I thought I knew what “ministry” meant. I somehow had convinced myself that in the first 2 months on the Race, I had experienced all ministry meant. Then month three came along.
When first hearing about the ministry we were partnering with, I expected to be involved with youths every day, be holding camp consistently, and just be working with 12-18 year olds in general.
But God had different plans for month three.
When arriving in Livingstone, we found out that we would be sometimes be visiting an orphanage down the street, but the majority of the time we would be working on a play park for our ministry JZone. When first arriving, the play park we were to be working on was still a field, with tall grass and a structure built for bathrooms. Most of our days were spent slashing (cutting with a machete type tool) the grass, raking up the slashed grass, digging holes to bury or burn the grass, picking up sticks and rocks, digging other holes for fence post, and building a fence around the property. I remember asking myself, “How is this ministry? How is this building the kingdom of God?”
At the end of the month, we were lucky to get to see the fruit of our labor and hold two different day camps for local children. But through the daily manual labor I came to realize ministry can mean a lot of different things. I had put God in a box by saying ministry had to look a certain way. Ministry had to be teaching children, or casting out demons, or praying over the sick. But ministry can also look like slashing grass next to your squad mate and asking them questions, getting to know them better and urging them closer to God. It can be laying the foundation for the next group of World Racers who go to Livingstone, Zambia to work with JZone and hold day camps frequently.
“More than words, more than good ideas, I found your love in the open fields.” – United Pursuit
