Serve God, love me and men
-Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More
Working with Cru these last two weeks has been a blast, but it has put me in a dilemma. In the US, I understand the vision and purpose of what Cru does the first few weeks of school, and I can do my share by talking to freshmen students. In Korce, Albania, I understand the vision and purpose of what Cru does, but I can’t talk to the students because I have literally no idea what they are saying, unless they say vitti par (first year) or po (yes). That poses a bit of a challenge when trying to ministry to students.
Last week was dedicated to passing out magazines and getting contact information for students. That was easy because we just waved magazines around, and once we got a student’s interest, one of the staff could talk to them.
This week, we have coffee dates with students, which usually consist of Toni or Zamir, our male contacts, talking with the students and occasionally asking us to answer a question or share a piece of our testimony. Those few moments are great, but it means that a majority of the time we’re just watching them speak Albanian with no clue where the conversation is going.
It would be easy for us to just sigh and look forward to our next month of ministry.
But that’s not what we should be doing. It’s not about us personally bringing people to Christ or sharing the gospel 30 times a week. Yeah, it would be fun to be able to do that, but this isn’t about us. It’s about God and Him working in the lives of the students. Maybe that means we share the gospel, but maybe it means we pray for Zamir or Toni as they share the gospel with the students.
I am on the World Race to serve God, not make personal accomplishments in evangelism. My selfish, competitive nature desires to “win” in the number of converts I bring. But I’m never the one converting people, God is. I am, at most, merely presenting what I’ve learned in my walk with Christ and letting the other person make a decision. It’s very possible that I won’t see the fruit of what we do this month until I get to heaven and see Agim or Arian.
And that’s ok.
It’s time to sigh no more and joyfully serve the Lord in whatever capacity He calls us.
