I am officially in my last week in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa. It hasn’t quite hit me yet, so no worries, this blog won’t be too emotional. I can’t promise anything about the next one!
This past month my team has been, for the most part, at two main ministries: building a Christian school called Global Academy and volunteering at a horse farm.
At Global they have a huge rock field that will one day see the glory of high school boys in very short shorts triumphing in rugby games, but for now it is just a rock field. And they have asked us to rake up all the rocks and wheelbarrow them into a pile. Raking up all the rocks… In a rock field.
At the horse farm, visitors of all ages experience beautiful beach rides on beautiful horses. We watch them trot away, as we scoop up the horse poop every day.
It’s pretty humorous. We constantly crack jokes like “Global rocks” or “my day was full of crap, literally.”
But after a couple of weeks of picking up rocks or scooping poop for 5 hours a day, Monday through Friday, it starts to get to you. The enemy starts to creep into our minds and whisper lies to us. He tells us what we are doing is insignificant; that picking up rocks in a rock field or scooping horse poop for horses that poop two minutes later isn’t real ministry.
My team really struggled for a little while. It was hard to encourage those who were discouraged when I was just as discouraged.
Last week I was reading through Nehemiah. The Jews had been taken into captivity, but groups of exiles were returning back to Jerusalem. Nehemiah led the people in rebuilding the wall that was destroyed. There was opposition from surrounding nations, and it says they “each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other hand.” (Nehemiah 4:17)
That is such a great picture for what our lives look like; and what it should look like for my team! The enemy is coming at us hard and we must hold up our swords, while we are building the wall, aka while we are at ministry.
Throughout the book, Nehemiah would ask God to remember the deeds he had done for Him. “Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.” (Nehemiah 5:19)
When I read that, God opened my eyes to the fact that He sees us. He sees our work that we are doing for Him and in the words of a good friend of ours: “He’s going to bless our socks off!” It was a good reminder of why we are here on this trip… Or more like why we are on this earth: to bring HIM glory. And by doing that, God’s reward for us will be so great!
My favorite verse in all of Nehemiah is in chapter 8, verse 10: “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
My team can find so much joy in the fact that God sees our work for Him and is SO proud of us! That joy lifts us up and strengthens us to carry that sword while we work.
I hope that serves as a reminder to you who read this as well. I know you’re probably not picking up rocks or scooping poop everyday, but God SEES you and the good that you are doing for Him, no matter what it is, and He is going to bless your socks off!
Thanks for taking the time to read yet another blog! Please be praying for my team as we prepare for Nicaragua. I’ll keep you updated!
Much love,
Sabrina
