There was a Molly-look-alike wandering around Chiang Mai, Thailand. I heard rumors of her from teammates who saw her in passing. Tall, thin, wearing an all-black ensemble with a colorful scarf. It could only be one person. Mom.
For five days, my parents had the opportunity to join me on the mission field in Thailand. It was my first glimpse of my two worlds colliding, bringing light to how God has changed me from the woman I was prior to the World Race.
My fellow racers and I watched our parents act similarly to how we acted as Month 1 World Racers, when packing incites panic, cultural differences are glaring, and ministry rouses some nerves and discomfort.
Most of the week was spent just talking with our parents, trying to explain everything the Lord has done this year and re-introducing them to their kids who have experienced so much and grown in so many ways.
We had three small opportunities to do ministry with our parents. Two short nights of bar ministry, and one afternoon of chatting with monks.
It felt like a high-pressure situation to me. We had very limited designated ministry time. The parents were all watching their kids, waiting to see them in action. The parents all wanted to go home with some incredible story to tell people. We racers wanted to show our parents what ministry looks like in the most natural way possible, despite the fact that the environment is obviously different when the parents are there.
The first night of bar ministry, my family and one other family went to the bar, ordered our cokes, and were not able to strike up a conversation with any of the women working at the bar. We went back to debrief with the whole group, and I could tell that there was a feeling of failure amidst my family. Other families had experienced amazing connections in the hour we were out, but we had not.
The enemy tries to get us to doubt ourselves by comparison, and in my achievement-driven family, he has a strong foothold there. As the week went on and we had a similar experience at the monk chat ministry, I so evidently saw that God has changed my entire outlook on ministry this year.
Yes, we can do assigned ministry and God can work through that in amazing ways, but we cannot put all this pressure on ourselves to serve God just in those ministry hours and then shut down and relax later.
I distinctly remember my first day of ministry in Serbia, month one. Our team went out into the city to evangelize in a coffee shop. We felt so uncomfortable—we sat at a table staring at each other and nervously laughing for a solid hour before we reached out to meet the people at the table next to us.
Why do we put so much hype around building relationships with people and telling them about God, when it is labeled “ministry”? If I had not been given that ministry assignment, shouldn’t I still be just as willing to meet the people around me, hear their stories, and share what God has done in my life?
We should be living missionally throughout every moment of our days, open to what God has for us at any hour, in any location, instead of just when we are at our assigned ministry job/volunteer work.
Maybe God wanted our family’s focus in Thailand to be on growing as a family with Him at the center. Maybe He wanted us to serve by the conversations we had with other parents and other racers. Maybe He wanted us to shine as a light for Him in our interactions and conversations with shopkeepers and waitresses we encountered.
If He had wanted us to walk away from those ministry hours with an incredible testimony, He would have. But maybe the testimony is that He is teaching our family how to live on mission for Him at all hours and to release the fruits of our efforts into His hands.
Sometimes serving God just looks different than we expect. Going into those bars and Buddhist temples and praying is a win in itself. “The prayer of a righteous man is POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE” (James 5:16). Our prayers are enough.
1 John 1:5 says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” We as Christians are bearers of the light, and so our presence in itself brings light to the dark places. Our presence as Christians living missionally is enough.
Through this year on the mission field, I have definitely had moments when I feel frustrated that I am not seeing many outcomes from my efforts. But God continually reminds me that our job is simply to serve Him as He leads through the doors He opens, planting seeds that He will grow. If my motivation is to tell others about this incredible experience I had at ministry, it should only be driven by the desire to glorify God’s name and speak of His goodness through testimony, rather than glorifying any of my own personal efforts.
Check out 1 Corinthians 3:7-9—So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
God is the one who makes things grow, not us. It would have been easy to have the parents come and join us for kids’ ministry or a building project, where they could leave saying that they built a house or shared a Bible story with a bunch of children. But this week we got to experience life on mission. Life ministering to our family. Life ministering to our friends. A life of praying for our surroundings. A life being open to whatever conversations and relationships God has for us. A life where God is glorified instead of our own efforts, because without Him we are powerless.
Having my parents show up in Thailand, entering into the new pattern of life God has taught me about over the last 9 months, revealed that even when I go back home into a more “normal” way of living, I will still be a missionary. We (Christians) are all missionaries. We don’t have to live in a far-away land to have our full-time purpose in life be to share the love of God with everyone God places in our path.
I am so incredibly grateful for my amazing parents who flew across the world to walk through a week of my journey with me. I truly believe that the Lord used them in a huge way that week, simply to encourage me and bring me some rest. The Lord used my mom’s selfless, servant-hearted nature to support me in a massive way—she spent more time and energy than she probably would have liked helping me treat my lice-invested head. My dad helped carry my incredibly heavy backpack across town, relieving me from one of our many moves. Both parents spoke so many words of encouragement and treated me to more nice meals and desserts than I have had in a long while. And they reminded me of what a privilege it is to be traveling for a year. Sometimes the traveling makes me feel numb to all of the things to see and do, because I have been a tourist so many times this year. But my parents’ excitement for riding elephants and getting fish pedicures reminded me to be continuously grateful for these opportunities God has given me.
Thanks for reading! For those of you who know my parents, take some time to ask them what the Lord taught them through their time in Thailand!
