In continuing the discussion of the ministry I have done on the Race…
In November my squad traveled to the Philippines and my team joined with another team to help out a ministry in the mountains outside of Manila that ministered to street kids in Manila. Essentially, the ministry was a retreat center where the street kids would come every two weeks to learn about God and detox from the street environment and the glue they sniff and the cigarettes they smoke and just the lifestyle they are a part of. There is a lot of work to be done in the lives of those kids and teens, but there is a lot of love from the ministry. Most of our ministry was manual labor at the retreat center, helping it become more self-sustaining and preparing it to become a church as well this February. This included making chicken coops out of Bamboo and all sorts of other large and small tasks around the property. We also visited the street kids a couple times and participated in one of the weekend retreats. Not to mention going out to the community many afternoons and playing with local kids, playing basketball, leading dance lessons, just hanging out however we wanted. One of the biggest changes though was at the end of the month one of my teammates decided that the Race just wasn’t what God was calling him to at this point in his life and it just wasn’t a good fit for him at this stage in his life, so he decided to leave the World Race. This was tough on me and the rest of my team, but it helped remind me that people come and go in your life so you need to value every moment you get with people because you don’t know if it will be your last or how much more time you will get with that person.
In December my squad made it to Thailand. Now, this month was unique because it was “Manistry” month, which meant that all the men on the squad, all 13 of us, did ministry together and the girls from our previous teams formed new teams as well. Not only was that unique but there were no men who were team treasurers previously on the 8 teams (each team has a treasurer who handles the team money, pays for everything, stays within the budget given by AIM staff, writes receipts, etc… treasurer stuff) so I was asked to be treasurer for all of the men and I obliged. I knew there would be some difficulties but I felt ready. That, among other things, shaped my month in a not so positive light. It wasn’t all bad, but it added stress and other things that I just wasn’t prepared for and impacted my month in a way I didn’t expect. Beyond that, the month was great. Ministry was truly life and life was ministry. The ministry the men worked with was composed of about 15 people, some married with kids, some single, many former World Racers. We worshipped probably 4 times a week… we went to No Man’s Land (see previous blog) every Tuesday and we would worship before going. We worshipped on Wednesday nights (it was like a home church with our ministry contacts and people they knew). We worshipped together on Friday mornings and on an abandoned building each Sunday evening while the sun set. Not all of our ministry contacts were at all of these, heck, outside of Wednesday night most of our ministry contacts were not at these, but we participated in all of them and led some of them. It was a huge blessing to worship that much. Beyond that, there was a ton that our ministry did. They had a hamburger restaurant and bike shop that they started in the hopes it would help them be more self-sustaining, they have started ministry in the local Muslim community, they work with a couple Burmese refugee homes and make frequent trips into Burma/Myanmar to do ministry with a few villages. And they are looking to start up a couple other ministries. Really, they are living life and trying to start various businesses and programs to help the local community.
This month we have made it to Cambodia… and I will blog about this month’s ministry later so as to not burn y’all out trying to read this. Thank you all again for your prayers and support. Love you all.
I would love to hear from you, so feel free to email me at [email protected] or [email protected] especially if you have any questions.
