“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” I Corinthians 3:6-7
At training camp, I learned a little about fly fishing, and in Masaka, the Lord put it into practice. In fly fishing, the fish wait for the bait to come to them. They choose not to exert their energy swimming after the bait. Instead, they hang out in the calm, still water and wait for their food to come.
I’m learning life and ministry can be similar. Rather than spend time and effort looking for who to reach out to, we can simply dwell with the Lord and He will reveal who He wants you to speak to or spend time with. Things are much simpler and more exciting this way. 🙂
In Masaka, my team and I spent time researching organizations and ministries that we could partner with while we were there. We visited some orphanages (read more about these here) and met with a man who helps run several organizations geared towards sustainability in the area. However, God had something else in mind.
One night during listening prayer, a teammate mentioned that Joseph, our hostel manager, was on her heart. We had already built a friendship with him and as we thought of it, it seemed so obvious that God would want us to reach out to him. Previously, we had good conversations with him about the gospel, and what better way to show our faith to him than through acts of love. So the next day, we told him we were there to do whatever he needed, and he was very excited! He acted like a five year old boy getting to pick out his favorite sweets from the candy store!
The next morning, he bought paint, and we were to help him paint a “project.” We walked to discover a larger house he built in hopes of renting it, and we were to help paint two large rooms upstairs.
Paint in Africa comes in large, yellow, plastic, gasoline-looking containers. It’s very thick and is watered down to a very thin consistency. Because it is so thin and dries quickly, you paint many layers one right after the other without much waiting time.
Joseph’s color of choice: white. The walls were a very dingy, dirty white to begin with, and with the thin layers of fresh white paint, it looked more wet than white. As we started painting two and three coats, I didn’t see much of a difference. But Joseph was still so happy for the help, so we kept painting.
He was in and out of the house while we worked, and we prayed for him a lot. Joseph grew up and still considers himself Catholic. He thinks being a “born-again” Christian is radical and extreme. But throughout our time with him, he asked MANY questions about our faith and why we wanted to be followers of Christ. He was genuinely interested and we believe the Lord led us to Masaka so He could continue pursuing Joseph through us.
We left the house for a few hours for a lunch break. When we returned, the four to five coats of paint had fully dried and we could easily tell the difference in color from the dingy white to a clean and bright white. The work we had done had just taken a little time to show.
God reminded me that being His hands and feet will often look the same. We may work and show others the love of God many times over, we may have the same spiritual conversations again and again, and we may feel that it’s not making any difference.
But, we can’t see the big picture like God can, and we have no idea what kind of seeds we may be planting or watering that God intends to bring to maturity in the future to secure that person’s eternal home in heaven.
I learned that week to be okay without a “glory story”. I didn’t get to see Joseph’s spiritual condition transformed from dingy, dirty white to clean, bright white, but I do know that God led us to Joseph to show His love for him through us spending time with him. We gave him the free gift of painting and continue to pray that one day He comes to accept God’s free gift of salvation.
Will you pray that the Lord would continue to soften Joseph’s heart to Him?
