Last Christmas, my dad and I returned to the first place I had my heart broken.
Costa Rica.
My dad worked construction and I played with kiddos.
Typical.
On their first work day, the men set out for the local hardware store.
They came back with a truck-bed full of supplies and having gained a set of hands.
The secretary from the hardware store had a husband.
The husband wasn't working.
The men from our team asked if any one in the community was willing to work alongside them and help put a ceiling in the Church's school house…
She was on the phone before the words were even out of their mouths.
Get here now! You have a job to do!
The men spoke little Spanish, except my dad… he speaks Spanish the best.
Luis spoke little English, except the cuss words… he knew the cuss words.
For the entirety of our short trip Luis worked side by side with the men from our team.
They loved him and laughed with him, learned from him and taught him.
… and they taught me something too.
•••
This month, my team and I have the opportunity to serve in a nearby village.
We bathe kiddos, sing silly songs, talk about Jesus, and serve hot bowls of porridge.
Then we leave… we go home each night to a plate of warm food, to our wifi, to our beds.
And at the end of the month, we will leave and begin again.
It's the way I've always known to do ministry.
Love others by serving them.
But what if there was a different way?
What if we could serve in these villages the way we serve one another on our team?
By calling out the greatness.
What if we weren't the ones to serve the porridge?
What if we served beside instead of in front of community members?
What if we approached mothers in the village to serve?
What if the children saw their mothers providing the meals instead of us, the white barrangs?
What if the mothers saw the joy on their children's faces when receiving a bowl of food?
What if we called out greatness in community members, and ministered by showing that they too have a job to do?
•••
Sweet friends- what happened in the village is race changing. It is life changing.
It leaves me smiling and in tears and without words, all at the same time.
Each day, I have the opportunity to see more of His Kingdom Come…
In the villages we are serving in this month, the Kingdom looks a whole lot like us handing over the ladles.
It looks like mothers who joyfully and gracefully accept our offer for them to serve their children.
It sounds like children saying thank you in their native tongue after each bowl of food received.
It's a mother asking for us to teach her the songs we sing, so she can sing with the children when we leave.
I have no way of knowing if Luis has stepped foot in a church since our team left Costa Rica, or if the ladies in the village will continue serving the children when the time comes for us to pack our bags and head for Malaysia. But I know that I serve a God who is not merely sustaining His creation but is in the process of restoring all things to and for His Glory.
LORD, teach me to exemplify that we each have a job to do- and in doing those jobs we honor and glorify You.
•••
The idea to hand over our ladles, intentionally involve, and serve beside the mothers in the village came- in part- from a book I have been reading this month, "When Helping Hurts." Second to The Bible, I could not recommend a book more. To anyone involved in ministry, thinking about getting involved with ministry, or who has become burnt out from past ministry… this book is for you.
“The goal is to see people restored to being what God created them to be: people who understand that they are created in the image of God with the gifts, abilities, and capacity to make decisions and to effect change in the world around them; and people who steward their lives, communities, resources, and relationships in order to bring glory to God”
Excerpt From: John Perkins, Brian Fikkert, Steve Corbett & David Platt. “When Helping Hurts.” Moody Publishers, 2012. iBooks.
