Something that I have always done and love to do is to break expectations and norms. I like to mix up the mundane with new experiences and challenges.
Ministry in Kenya (month 2) allowed me to do this in major ways.
My team and I were in Nakuru, Kenya for our second month in this country and we worked with a Deliverance Church. We lived in the Pastors 3 bedroom house with his family of 4 and two teams, which totaled around 17 people. Lets just say that there was very little space and no alone time, welcome to the World Race. But although living situations were tight, ministry was definitely different than any other ministry I have done in Africa before.
With our Pastors daughter Tiffany
When you think world race and hospital ministry what comes to mind?
Praying for sick people to be healed or sharing the love of Christ with them through conversations, this was at least my first thought. But Pastor Zak had another idea of what he wanted our hospital ministry to look like. We arrived at the hospital and we were escorted to the work shed where we were told we would be driving the lawnmower and edging the grass. So Kate and I got right to work.
As I started on the driving lawnmower the Africans standing in the wings of the hospitals stared in amazement. They were amazed because:
a) they think that only poor people work in the garden or do yard work
b) they think all white people are wealthy
c) they have never seen white people do hard work before.
*(These three points is not the thinking of everyone that we encountered in Africa but is the point of view of the general population)
So the fact that there were about 40 people watching me drive back and forth with looks of utter amazement on their faces was breaking the norms that they had expected to see. It was funny because even at points people would get showered in freshly cut grass (I wasn’t the best at it when I first started) and would just continue to stand there staring.
Doing this type of ministry made me happy. Because it broke their expectations of they normally seeing working in the garden. It made them question why on earth I would choose to come to Africa and mow the grass. Even if I was not speaking to them about Christ’s love, I was able to show it by doing a job that to them only the people who are in the lower classes do. I got to humble myself to serve the staff in a hospital that nobody really pays any attention to. Doctor’s and nurses are the ones that usually are seen and get the recognition (and rightly so). But in this case we were able to maybe change the name for the hard working people of the hospital that don’t get much recognition other than a “hey that bush looks nice.”
Breaking the norms is not something I was happy to do because it allowed me to be seen and noticed in the
hospital by hundreds of people who would stop and stare. Actually, it was something that allowed me to humble myself and maybe lead some people on the path to break their cultural norms that make them to proud to do work because of how it seen by the people around them. For them to see that it is ok to work in the jobs that will allow them to provide for their families instead of choosing to beg for money from foreigners or do work that is unethical.
I love that the World Race has allowed me to help people in new and different ways. Learning more and more about culture and the people who live around the world.
Photo Courtesy of Rose Huber
