The other day while my team was at village ministry, telling bible stories and playing with kids, I found myself at home sitting at a table. With stacks and stacks of cash. Malawian Kwacha to be exact, and 1.5 million of it. How? Why? Well, that is just one of the many perks that comes with serving as your squads logistic coordinator with a debrief coming up.
Being Logistics I get to plan all of our debriefs. Debriefs are where we come together as a whole squad, after being split up all over the country in our teams for a couple months, and spend time resting and processing what the Lord has done. It is a really fun ministry opportunity that I get. I love planning and organizing, probably a little too much. But it is a neat way to serve the whole squad with the skills the Lord has gifted me.
As I was sitting at the table organizing all my squad-mates food money into piles, one of my brothers, Caleb came and sat with me. He helped me get my papers in order and sort things into envelopes. As we were sitting there organizing and sorting he asked me, “So, how come you’re stuck here working while everyone else is at ministry?” This question stuck out to me and made me realize a lot of things. My answer to the question was that I wasn’t stuck, but I wanted to be where I was. This is my ministry and a way that I get to serve. But as I was answering and as I was working, it made me think a lot about life back at home.
Before I left for the race, I often felt stuck. I felt like I was trapped in this boring routine of life at home. I woke up, went to class, studied, went to church, etc. Over and over again, every day, wishing and thinking about when I got to break that routine and do something exciting. But as I sat at the table- counting money, making lists, putting things in envelopes, answering emails- I was doing the same thing I would be doing in America if I was at school and working. I was doing my job, not going door to door sharing the gospel, not praying for healing and seeing the lame walk, not preaching on the street corners of Blantyre. I was just sitting at my dining room table, organizing money, but I was doing ministry.
I’m currently going through the gospels, and something that I have noticed is that in between all the big miraculous things Jesus does during his ministry, there are a lot of small moments that have just as much significance. His ministry is important when he is sitting in a house teaching, when he is reclining at the table with tax collectors, or when he spends time alone in prayer. Just like our lives are important every single day we wake up. Every interaction at Starbucks is a chance to show people who the Lord is. Every time you pull up to a stop light you’re given the chance to show Jesus to the car next to you through your smile. Every time you’re in the library studying you have the chance to show the person next to you the open and welcoming nature of our God by letting them join you at the table. And every time I am “stuck” at home, either organizing Kwacha in Malawi or getting ready for work or class in Texas, is a chance for me to prayerfully go through life, treating every breath as a ministry opportunity.
We aren’t stuck, we aren’t trapped in routine. We are vessels of love given a very important opportunity to be missionaries every place we step foot. Our jobs, our classes, our relationships- God entrusted us with them. Let’s fill every moment and every conversation with the love of our Father and never take any interaction for granted. Even counting money at a table with your Malawian brother.
