I didn’t do anything in Thailand.

Thailand: I kind of don’t know what to say about it.

Here’s why.

I don’t feel like I did anything extraordinary.

I woke up each morning. Stumbled downstairs to a room full of friends, ate breakfast, sipped coffee, read my Bible, showered. Then I would enjoy team time with my wonderfully crazy group of sisters.

Later in the day I would spend some time walking around the red-light district, praying.

After that, I would walk to one of two bars I frequented, with my teammates Michelle and Rita, and we would play pool and talk to our Thai friends, Anna or Mai. One day I helped them prepare their lunch. I got to smash stuff with a mortar and pestle.

Some days, my team visited Stella and her 90 year old Polish mother. We would sing and dance and play games. We even threw her a birthday. With balloons and cake. Oh and fried chicken!

Some days I worked in a coffee shop.

Coming out of Africa, where our ministry was the typical “missions trip” type of stuff like feeding orphans, door to door evangelism, preaching, visiting widows, it was easy to feel like I wasn’t doing anything. Or that I wasn’t doing enough.

I was doing what I would have done anyway even if I wasn’t a “missionary”. Which brings me to the main point of this whole thing.

We are ALL missionaries. Our lives our ministry.

At moments my deeply engrained performance mindset would kick in. And I would really struggle with the idea that I wasn’t doing “enough.” As if, God might love me less because I didn’t meet some standard.

And I also had to ask myself a question …

Do I believe that there is a hierarchy in ministry? Do some jobs matter more than others?

And the conclusion I have come to is no. Each and every job I do for the sake of love matters. Salvation is the number one priority. But that isn’t my job. It is His. My job is to love.

Who am I decide how someone else should experience God’s love?

Yes, some days might look and feel like I am doing more, that my work holds more weight or value than other days. But that is not true. Each day matters. Each moment matters. And ministry never stops. Ministry isn’t the time I am scheduled to “work” each day during the race. It is every passing minute of my life. Every second I have the incredible opportunity to share love with someone who needs it. And that matters.

Love, in any form, matters.

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” -Galatians 5:6