On our first day of ministry, we met our classroom teacher and I knew that we would be good friends. Later when I talked to God, He agreed. He thought was a good idea and said that I should be Ivy’s friend. So, I began to really make the effort to seek her out. We had conversations about her family, my family, we exchanged stories back and forth making each other laugh. But at the end of the month, that was it. We had good conversations and made each other laugh but nothing more really. We didn’t have “life bringing” conversations and she certainly didn’t tell me her life story and break down crying.
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Also, on my and Morgan’s first day of Ministry, around lunch time, we watched each of the kids grab their book bags, open their repurposed ice cream containers and take out their bologna sandwiches. All except for one, Mina. She got her bookbag and walked around the classroom with a long face. Ivy called her over after we brought her to her attention and that’s when we realized, “sissy has nothing to eat.” I gave her half of my Pb&J while Morgan gave her an apple. We wondered, “what next?”. We could keep feeding her while we were here but we knew that once we left, her reality would be the same.
We decided to keep giving her lunch by discreetly grabbing her book bag during class and slipping her a sandwich and some type of fruit while, trying to come up with a more sustainable plan. Luckily this school was a “care point” which meant after it got out, a meal was given to kids who are a part of the program. We tried to find out if sissy was part of the care point, but between choppy English and terrible, terrible Siswati (on our part) we couldn’t ever get a straight forward answer. Morgan eventually came across a woman cooking loads of rice and meat for some of the kids… but we couldn’t figure out who some of the kids were. Every tiny bit of information we received, A) didn’t make any sense and B) took days of us asking around and studying the inconsistent schedule that the school followed. Some days lunch would be at 11:30, some at noon, some 30 minutes after.
After our strenuous game of detective, on our last day of ministry we found out that 11:30/noon-ish is snack time.
Mina had only been missing out on a snack. And the lady that Morgan found cooking loads of rice and meat was cooking lunch for our class.
All of a sudden, everything we did that month, in regard to Mina, felt extremely insignificant. Much like my fruitless friendship with Ivy.
But the whole time God’s love was screaming at me “I am pleased!!” “This IS enough!!”. You see,
We thought we were providing a meal for Mina but it was just a snack. God is okay with it being just a snack.
I was friends with Ivy and thought she would be renewed by the end of the month but we actually just became good friends. God is okay with us just being good friends.
The message for you here is this, whatever you are doing right now in your walk with God, is enough.
God didn’t come to condemn. He came down to earth for relationship. (John 3:17)
We spend time with God because it is our desire. Not our duty.
So, we need to change our thought process from “Gosh, I need to fix things with God.” to “God, I miss you. We need to hangout more.”
Which is a craaazy sweet thought because I promise you, He’s been wanting to hang out with you just as badly. Ha, He’s even dying to.
