On our third Sunday in Romania, I found myself sitting at the head pastor’s desk, hurriedly trying to print documents while preparing for a presentation to a mission team arriving from the UK. I was feeling a little bitterness for being the only person working in the office that day, working a long day from 10am to 8pm without a break for food. As I was trying to gather myself in the midst of my overflowing to-do list, the maintenance worker at the church, Johnny, came to the doorway and asked me, “Who is your boss?”
I assumed he meant that he wanted to know which missionary I was working with at Hope Church for the month, and who had made me work alone on Sunday. I looked up and replied, “Raul,” the name of the church’s head pastor.
“Not God?” he asked.
“Oh, of course it is God,” I quickly responded as if I had simply misunderstood the question. But to be honest, in that moment I did not see God as the boss.
This month God answered one of my prayers for the World Race by placing me in office ministry. I had been praying that I would have the opportunity to use my skills in my comfort zone at some point during the race, and God answered that prayer in month two. God placed me and three of my teammates in the head pastor’s office, where we make up the entire church staff. Let me repeat that… we make up the ENTIRE church staff. Raul is the sole leader of Hope Church, and he has allowed the Holy Spirit to guide him to start ministry after ministry. The church is truly an international hub for missionaries, with about 16 church planting projects, 10 specific ministry programs, and partnerships with organizations and individuals located around the world. Raul is praying for a permanent personal assistant (or more than one!), and the need is very real. The Holy Spirit is moving through this ministry at a rate far faster than the rate at which the office work is able to move, so we have been trying to work in any way we can to lift some of the burden off of Raul. I have been specifically working with media (photos and video) and fundraising.
This month has felt like revisiting my life before the race. I work long days in an office, for a boss who has incredible passion and vision but a lack of time and administrative capabilities. It has been amazing to see how God has reintroduced me to office life, but this time asking me to figure out how to make sure Christ is ALWAYS at the center.
God has shown me the importance of serving Him while serving a human boss. Someone from my squad anonymously slipped me a note saying that they were praying Psalm 51:10-12 for me:
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
And grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
This has been my lesson this month. Asking God to be my steadfast strength and joy when I am weary and frustrated. Asking God to give me a willing spirit at the office, even on the days when I am exhausted from living in a house with 44 people who constantly stretch my patience and generosity. Asking God to teach me things and to reveal Himself to me when it is easy to be an observer, just watching lives changed from behind the comfort (or sometimes barrier) of a camera or a computer. I have had to remind myself that administration is a necessary part of the Kingdom, and that I should invite Him to move through this type of work just as much as I would invite Him into more people-oriented ministry. When we get a message in the office about someone in need, we immediately pray. We never respond to an e-mail telling someone that they are in our prayers, without stopping to pray out loud for them right then and there. We trust God as our provider, approaching fundraising in a way that leaves room for God to work in amazing ways to make ends meet. God keeps reminding me that when I am where He wants me to be for work, He will be with me in every moment, no matter how mundane and removed from the action it may feel.
Because God is my boss, my spirit is fueled to serve my human bosses well with wisdom, joy, and endurance.
What an honor it is to serve God as my boss for the rest of my life. Romania and Hope Church have shown me how to work for God as an administrator and leader, and how to invite God into the daily grind.
Take a look below at the videos I have made of our squad’s ministry this month. God is doing so much here in Romania. I’m in Draganesti-Olt, an area dubbed the “graveyard for missionaries.” The darkness is so thick here that missionaries either leave or pass away. The surrounding area is largely unreached populations who have never heard the Gospel. The people here call believers like myself “pocait” (pronounced poke-eye-eats), or repenters, and are told in the Orthodox churches to be skeptical of us. Please be praying for revival in Romania. Pray for God to call more workers here to support the rapidly growing ministries. Pray for strength for the missionaries here who endure intense spiritual warfare. Pray for my current human boss, Raul, that God would send him multiple qualified administrative workers who have a burden to serve God in Eastern Europe.
Eyeglass Ministry September 2016 from Hope Church on Vimeo.
Street Cleaning Ministry Day 2016 from Hope Church on Vimeo.
New Testament Project Craiova from Hope Church on Vimeo.
New Testament Project September 2016 from Hope Church on Vimeo.
One final note— Some of you may have seen a big change in my life pop up on Facebook. Be on the lookout for a post about this within the next few days!
