I’m sitting in Starbucks reflecting on our last month in Peru, we begin our travel to India tonight, and one of the things I’ve felt this month is that while we’ve been doing a lot of ministry but it didn’t really feel like we were making an impact. This month was a lot of manual labor and working with kids, but also at times working with the kid’s moms as well. While we got a lot done in the aspect of manual labor, we built walls, made a compost pile for the compound, moved dirt to start growing grass etc, the ministry with the kids/parents didn’t really seem to be as fruitful. Many times this month language was a struggle because we didn’t always have a translator so we had to rely on ourselves (Thanks Google Translate) and Holy Spirit to convey the message we were wanting to tell. One ministry in particular that we didn’t feel useful was a bible study with the mothers of some of the kids. For those of you that don’t know, my entire team of 7 is all guys, so what are we going to tell these mothers?? So we would go on Mondays and do a couple worship songs and then tell one to two testimonies and pray for them then leave. Sounds productive right?? It wasn’t until lunch today with all the directors of Inca Link Peru that we truly saw the fruit of our labor. Each director spoke to us of how we had impacted not only them but the people they work with, and we were floored. It was exactly the encouragement that our team needed. The biggest impact for me was when Brenda, the director of Amijai (the ministry with the women’s bible study) began to tell us how much she appreciated us. She talked about how usually only the girls go to the women’s bible study, but this time she felt something was different and decided that we should go as a team this month. She talked about how our testimonies related so much with the women and how they loved hearing our stories. Some of the mom’s had stopped bringing their kids to the programs and because of Jesus being shared through our stories they started bringing their kids again!! I won’t lie, it was hard to not tear up as she spoke because for me it was exactly what I needed to hear. With all that said I want to encourage you, whether you’re on The Race or doing your own ministry somewhere else, even if it looks like you’re not making an impact on the people around you, you really are. Don’t let the enemy get into your head and play games, because sometimes even the most mundane things The Lord uses to change peoples lives!
