Coming into the World Race, one of my biggest desires was to “help fight sex trafficking” in Southeast Asia. Well, the Lord granted my desire Month 1, but it has absolutely NOT gone the way I thought it would.
My job this month was to build relationships with people I met in the bars. Well that’s fine and dandy except I *wasn’t* meeting anybody in the bars. I would try, but the language barrier would be too great, or the person would not be interested in talking, or things just wouldn’t click.
This grew disheartening really quickly. Every time before going out to “do ministry,” I took a deep breath and chose to be hopeful because I certainly wasn’t *feeling* very hopeful.
I learned three very important lessons through this experience:
1. My expectations were off. I was expecting to change the world every day, and I actually am changing the world every day, but I don’t always get to see the fruit. Sometimes I’m planting seeds, not reaping a harvest.
2. Don’t compare yourself to other believers. One of my squadmates is basically saving Chiang Mai single-handedly (actually, Jesus is. . .), and I am excited for him, but when I compare my ministry to his, I think that I’m failing because I’m not seeing as much fruit. That doesn’t matter. Am I doing what God has asked me to do to the best of my abilities? Yes! Then I will leave the business of fruit to Him.
3. Prayer is just as important, if not more important, than “doing the work.” Any fruit we have seen here in Chiang Mai has been completely the Lord’s doing. He can do way cooler stuff than I can do single-handedly, so I pray to invite Him to do what He does best.
Hope you’ve learned something from what I’ve learned this month.
Oh, and by the way, after I learned those lessons, God blessed me with some solid conversations, and I have some hang-out dates scheduled over the next few days, so keep praying for my squad to finish well this month!
Love yall and let me know how I can be praying for you!
~Kate-meister
