Well here I am in La Paz, Bolivia beginning my 3rd month on the Race!!! Woohoo!! I can’t believe where the time has gone. There’s a mixture of, wow the Race is going by so quickly, but at the same time I feel like I’ve been on the Race forever. The Race has been awesome so far!! It’s been awesome to partner with different ministries around the world and step into what God is already doing in these places. God’s also been teaching me and working on my heart a lot these last couple months. I’m becoming more confident in recognizing His voice and stepping into the man of God He wants me to become. He’s also been doing such a good work in our team relationships. Living with 6 other people 24/7 as you can imagine has its challenges, but God has used them to bring us closer together and into a deeper love and grace for one another. I could go on, but that would take awhile so I’ll just stop there. Bottom line is the Race has been incredible!
So this month of ministry is looking a little bit different than what it’s looked like the past 2 months. This month my team is completely on our own. No ministry contact. No specific ministry we’re partnering with. No direction. It’s literally just my team…my team and the Lord that is. The Race calls it an “Ask The Lord” (ATL) month. Basically you just do what it says…you ask the Lord what He would have you do and where He would have you go and who He would have you speak to and so on. It’s an incredible opportunity to grow closer to the Lord and grow in recognizing His voice when He speaks, but at the same time it is super challenging because it forces you to be totally dependent on the Lord. I know that’s something I always say that I want to be like, but so often I’m not put in a position where I literally have nothing else to turn to except the Lord: but not so with this month. With this month, if the Lord doesn’t show up, then there’s really not going to be a lot done this month. There’s no ministry contact to go to who will give us something to do or tell us where to go. It’s simply up to the Lord.
And already He’s begun to reveal things to us. It’s now our third day here in La Paz and He’s been placing on our hearts the people of the hostel that we are staying at, some of whom we’ve already begun to establish close relationships with. He’s also lead us to go on prayer walks and pray over people on the street. And recently, He gave us a vision of doing street ministry, which can look in a variety of different ways. He placed on my heart to do worship in the various squares and plazas in the city. He placed on other peoples’ hearts to maybe fast for a day or just simply not spend our whole food budget on ourselves and instead buy bread and give it to the homeless as a way of getting to know them, pray over them, and simply meet their physical needs. It’s been exciting to see what is beginning to form just simply by asking the Lord what His plans are and how we can step into them.
My team was also given the task of working on the Unsung Heroes Campaign, which is a relatively new thing that the Race is doing. The purpose of the campaign is to find “unsung heroes” in the various countries that the Race sends squads to so that we could partner with them in the future by sending squads to them and help them in a non-monetary way. An “unsung hero” is someone who is unnoticed/unrecognized, who works among the “least of these”, and who has a heart for building the Kingdom.
So what does this look like for my team? Well basically, it’s networking. It’s using whatever resource we have available to find ministry contacts here in Bolivia. Once we find them, we contact them to see if they would be a good fit for the Race’s vision, which is growing in our identity in Christ and expanding the work of the Kingdom. From there we pass them off to headquarters so that they can send future Race squads to partner with them and further the good work they are already doing. My team is so excited for this opportunity to find these “unsung heroes”, especially in Bolivia because the need for contacts here is great…greater than other countries the Race works in. I mean, my whole squad wasn’t even able to come and do ministry here in Bolivia because we didn’t have enough contacts to send teams to. Knowing this makes the work we are doing that much more motivating and meaningful.
Cause at times, it can be discouraging to feel like I’m not doing anything productive for expanding God’s Kingdom by just calling random people or doing research online. But this is ministry. And all ministry is important. And all ministry can bring glory to God. So whether I’m sharing the love of Christ with children in the jungles of Ecuador or I’m helping build an orphanage in the slums of Trujillo, Peru or I’m sitting in my hostel in La Paz, Bolivia looking for contacts to follow up on, it all falls under His Kingdom work and it all brings glory to the Father. And one of the things that I have to remember and be okay with is that I won’t be seeing the fruits of my labor. I’m only finding the contacts that future Racers can partner with. I’m the sower…not the reaper of the harvest. But it still is ministry and it’s just as important. As Jesus tells His disciples…
“Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” John 4: 37-38
Both sowing and reaping are equally important and equally necessary to bring in the harvest. And when the harvest is brought in, both sower and reaper will be glad together (John 4:36) because they’ll know that each one was vital and played a part in the harvest. And that’s the mindset that I want to maintain as I go about this month. I want to look back in a couple years and be able to rejoice with the future Racers who will reap that which my team sowed.
So lastly, if you have any contacts in Bolivia or know of anyone who knows someone in Bolivia if you could please either comment on my blog or send me their info at [email protected] I’d greatly appreciate it! You guys play an equally important role in the “sowing” as well. Thanks for all your help and lets pray that God’s Kingdom will continue to expand here in Bolivia! Love you all and thanks for your support!
