I realized recently that I haven’t posted a blog about what my team’s ministry has looked like since we got back from debrief, so if you’re curious as to what my days have looked like so far during my second month on the field, here ya go!!!
This month, my team’s ministry has been at an orphanage about an hour outside the city for most of the week. On Mondays, we do serve team things (the boys team is actually serve team this month, but they are in a village for 2 weeks). This past Monday that looked like going to the Makro (similar to Sams or Cosco just Asian style) to buy groceries for our squad’s breakfasts, modeling for some professional photographers as advertisement for our hostel and the coffee shop downstairs (that was an interesting ministry, but we had fun), and going to Monk Chats at one of the Buddhist temples (this is where you can go and talk with monks in order for them to better learn English and just hang out with them because they are people just like we are and they like to just have conversations). Tuesday-Thursday we do manual labor at the orphanage we are at. These past two weeks we have been digging a trench, which proved to be much more of an elaborate escapade than it was thought to be. It’s been a process to say the least, but as of today we saw the light at the end of the trench and it’s pretty close! On Fridays we have an off day. On Saturdays we go and play with the girls at one home at the orphanage (there are 5 homes on the property – 150 kids total)! They are the most loving and exciting little humans, and they definitely bring us out of the trenches at the end of the week! The children at the orphanage are all children taken out of high risk situations where they were likely to have been sold or exploited. They rarely do rescues where the child has been sold previously, but they will occasionally. Each home has house parents that oversee all the children (it’s almost more like foster care than an orphanage except the children can’t be fostered or adopted). They are sent to public school and are taught English at the orphanage by English teachers on staff. They learn life skills as well as have vocational training that will set them up for success by the time they are old enough to get a job and build a life on their own. Also, it’s a Christian organization, so they are taught about Jesus and have worship sessions (some of them have learned guitar and can sing) frequently! Sunday is our Sabbath day.
Food for thought:
As I said earlier, our digging a (singular) trench turned out to be much more than we thought. Originally, the plan was to dig one trench and lay a pipe in order to drain some water that had been pooling outside one of the homes. We ended up digging multiple trenches (mainly in search of pipes) to ensure it all ties in correctly and drains efficiently. Searching for pipes is a very daunting task when you aren’t sure where they could be. It sounds simple, but it was like we were on the movie Holes except there was more vegetation in our view and it was more humid. It’s all sorted out now though and (fingers crossed) we only have to lay the pipe and fill it all back in tomorrow! It got me thinking though… all this pipe stuff is so similar to people. As we dug the main trench, we ran into a pipe unexpectedly. And another. And another. Each pipe inevitably lead to a search for a linked pipe in order to make sure it all connected properly. So, we would go and swing a pick axe at rocky ground over and over again until we finally found it. Not really sounding like people yet? Well, you see, people and the stories they carry with them are kind of like pipes. We often begin to get to know someone, and we are all excited to hear about their life. The soil is good – it comes out in thick chunks with just a shovel. Before you know it, you have a main trench – the gist of their life and story. Eventually though, we hit an unexpected pipe, and we don’t want anything to do with this main trench anymore because it leads to this pipe and that pipe and questions and searching and hard stuff and breaking rock after rock with a (metaphorical) pick axe. We recognize we need to search for the linked pipe and where the root of it is. We realize we need to dig deeper because there’s something there, but it means work. So, we put the shovel down. We miss the opportunity to dig deep and invest in others. We miss the excitement that comes from finally discovering a pipe after all that searching. We miss the connection that comes from vulnerability. We miss the joy of being able to lift out the old pipes that are causing issues and replace them with brand new pipes that help everything to flow more efficiently. As Christians, Jesus calls us to go in to the depths with people and to get our hands dirty and to remove rocks in order to uproot the things that aren’t of Him and help lay in new pipes of Him and His ways so that things can flow as they are supposed to. We hold the power to help people live in freedom and “flow” as The Creator and Savior intended, yet we often hold back because it seems like a lot of work. So, next time you have the opportunity to go deep with someone – do so. Don’t hold back. It will be so worth it!
Love in Christ,
Maeci
PS: If you were wondering about “same same, but different” in my title, it’s an Asian thing, and it is on t-shirts and all kinds of stuff everywhere here, and Asian people say “same same” all the time when speaking English. It’s become an inside joke for our squad, but I thought you might enjoy the culturing. 😉
