Ministry doesn’t always look like you expect it to. When we were told we were going to be working alongside Alumni racers as they are in the development stages of making a guest house in Thailand like the one they had created in Cambodia a few years back, I wasn’t sure what to expect. When we had our initial meetings about ministry, we decided there would be thred factions of people. There was one group that worked hand in hand with the pioneer team, doing research and development as well as analytics for the cafes and hostels in the area. There was a second group that was working with one of the lobg term missionaries to scout out and make connections for the future teams to come through. And there was the third team who spent the month in prayer for the future, for the other teams, for Thailand, and for our squad.
So when we were given time to pray about which group we were going to be a part of, I went in with the first group in mind. I love analyzing things and putting it all in graphs and charts and excel files. But God had a different plan in mind for me. At the beginning of the month, during a time of listening prayer, the Lord told me, “Katy, spend time with me why dontcha?” And so he reminded me of this again during our prayer time. And so when time came to choose our groups, I chose the prayer team.
This was a hard choice for me. Prayer is still something that I am growing in. I am learning what it looks like to be intenti in it, and how to listen to him. We spent the month doing listening prayer and devotionals as a team. We spent time hearing prayer requests and praying corporately. Some people went on prayer walks through the red light district. Others led the group in worship times. We had a night of prayer and late night worship sessions. We made a video to help get our squad fully funded and spent a good amount of time praying for that and seeing god show up in huge ways.
But that wasn’t my ministry. Not really.
Yes it was what I did that month under the umbrella title of ministry. But I unexpectedly made my Ministry loving on the other guests in the hostel. We had one guy staying with us who joined our worship sessions and joined the pioneer time. I got to have really amazing spiritual conversations with him that grew both of us in our walks with the Lord. I became friends with a backpacker gal from Colorado who was my a Christian but let me love her and share the word of God with her. I got to make a video for her spoken word that will e coming out soon after I get home and can edit it. She encouraged me to get the tattoo I had been wanting for a year and even paid for half of it to make it happen. I got to love on sqaud leaders from another squad and Alumni racers staying with us for a week who are long term missionaries in India. I got to love on our pioneer team and hosts and the employees of the hostel and cafe.
Even though my ministry was prayer, God showed me that the ministry of love is important and can be done anywhere to any one and that is something I am going to take back home with me.
