This isn’t ministry. That’s what I thought as I walked down the streets of Pokhara one of our first days here. I was supposed to be praying over the dance bars, shop owners, or whatever pulled at my heart. But instead I was distracted by the fact that I wasn’t doing what I thought I would be. For the first time on the race, I didn’t have a tangible ministry. I wasn’t teaching children, holding orphans, loving on slum kids, or sharing the message of Jesus in front of an organized group of people.
At the beginning of the month, we thought we’d be going into dance bars and meeting at risk girls. Because of some different circumstances, that didn’t end up being the case. We found ourselves faced with the unexpected challenge of coming up with our own ministry for the month. So we prayed, we discussed and came up with two general ministry ideas. First, prayer walking. Prayer walking on the streets we frequent, over the city while hiking, and over specific dance bars. The second, “hippie ministry”. We pray for divine appointments, go to coffee shops frequented by the hippie population that has found themselves in Pokhara in search of spiritual awakenings, and we make ourselves open and available for conversation. We befriend them, love on them and share Jesus with them. At least, that is the goal… Some days we make friends, some days we don’t.
If we are not careful, we find ourselves feeling like we are on more of a vacation than a mission trip… And that’s exactly where I was the other day. Because the ministry we were doing wasn’t something I could show, I felt like I wasn’t doing anything and my supporters would be disappointed. But prayer is important and I realistically won’t share the gospel with people everyday in this type of ministry.
The real disappointing thing this month isn’t the ministry, it is the fact that I didn’t think it was important enough. Jesus himself took time out of preaching, teaching and healing to go up the mountain to spend time in prayer.
Not only is this ministry important, it’s teaching me some valuable lessons.
1. I’ve always wanted to be a prayer warrior but I’ve never felt confident in my prayers because my words are not eloquent and I often feel as though I don’t even have the words to say. Prayer walking is the perfect way to practice and with that practice comes confidence. God knows the needs and He knows my heart, even if I don’t have the words to express it.
2. This is more like what “real life” day to day ministry looks like. At home I’m not going to be sharing with crowds. I’m going to be sharing with people, one on one, that I’ve built a relationship with. It’s going to be loving on people and sharing conversation style. It’s going to be walking in boldness and knowing that sometimes it’s awkward.
So what does my day to day life look like? Maybe a lot like yours looks on a day off. I spend a lot of time in coffee shops alone (or with one teammate) trying to strike up casual conversation with strangers in hopes of building a relationship to share with them. Sometimes it means buying street kids a bag of peanuts and eating with them beside the lake, or sharing my dinner with a homeless man and his daughter.. Other times it means walking up and down the streets in prayer, greeting people with kindness as I go. And occasionally, it means hiking up the side of a mountain to pray over the city. It’s different. But it’s still ministry and it’s still important.. To allow my flesh or the enemy to tell me otherwise would be a true misfortune.
Matthew 14:23 “After {Jesus} had dismissed the crowds, He went up on the mountain alone to pray.
Matthew 26:36 “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane (which is on the mount of olives) and said to His disciples, “sit here while I go over there to pray”.
Jesus is all about praying on mountains y’all! Why shouldn’t I be?!
