At training camp I was introduced to the possibility of becoming an international -do -everything team, which at the time, I doubted. Surely, with set ministry each month I would know what my tasks for the month would be, would delegate tasks and have a plan.
In Colombia, I became an evangelist, in Ecuador a chef, a janitor, a landscaper and a tutor. In my broken Spanish, I evangelized some more, cooked for my team and taught the street kids about Jesus. In Cote d’Ivorire my team and I quickly became village celebrities as we acted out a skit, multiple times.
Wherever my team and I were, it was our job to adapt and become what our ministry needed. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means that I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in it blessings.”
In Ghana we were back to evangelizing. What they needed, we became.
Montenegro, I got a break from “missionary life” and had a taste of normal.
In Romania, I found myself obsessively cleaning, day in a day out. Part of out ministry, was to organize the community center we were staying in so it could function as an after school program in the fall. Every room has boxes stacked to the ceiling, furniture to furnish at least two houses and enough linens and clothes to open our own Good Will. Part of Romania, I got to become a mom, and take care of 10 foster children for the week. That has probably been my favorite week of the race.
And here I am in Camboda, this month my team and I became teachers, Bible study leaders and worship leaders.
We showed up at school at 7:30 walked into our classroom and were asked to teach. With no time to prepare, no translator, and no guidelines to follow, I taught. The school we were at seemed more like a day care than an actual school, from 7:30 AM-5:30 PM kids were running a muck, screaming, crying, fighting, eating whatever, whenever, running in between classrooms, up and down the stairs. It was complete chaos.
Despite the chaos, I quickly fell in love with these kids, and spent my free afternoons lesson planning for the weeks ahead.
I went back to pre-school with my 4 year olds, sang the ABC’s about 900 times, and all of the nursery rhymes you could think of. There imaginations ran wild, and it reminded me what it was like to be 4 years old with out a care in the world.
In my kindergarten class, we started learning how to write and to spell. Most of the time we spent repeating words, that way they could hear how English words were properly spoken. It took me a minute to put lesson plans together for this class, I did not major in education and wanted to make sure my time spent with them would be beneficial.
Before I came on the race, I had a planner, color coded- sticky noted, perfectly put together planner, that I lived my life by. If it wasn’t written down in the planner, it didn’t happen. I distinctively remember by mobilizer asking me, if I was okay with spontaneity and flexibility and my answer being “I’m working on it”. Well, I’ve realized that this journey has become less about spontaneity and flexibility and more of simply letting go of control. It’s scary and hard, but even the word says “therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
As the months have passed I really have begun to understand what international-do-everything really meant, but as disciples that was what I said yes to when I chose to do this. And it is something I will have to practice everyday, when I get back home. Do not become all things to all people for the sake of them, or you, but do it because that is what our Father asks us to do.
