What is ministry?
When most people answer this question, it's things like helping the poor, building houses, feeding people, VBS, meeting tangible needs. DOING things. But why? Why do our minds immediately jump to these activities? Don't get me wrong, they are ministry. They are useful, and good, and they show others the love of Christ. But isn't ministry more than that? After all, an atheist can easily volunteer at a soup kitchen. He would be doing a good work; he would be meeting tangible needs. But would he be showing the love of Christ? Can what he is doing be considered ministry? For I would propose that ministry is simply showing Christ's love. It's following God's will. It transcends meeting tangible needs. It's simply being Jesus, shining His light, for a person.
Ministry this month in Harbin has been hard. Not strenuous, not busy, not hard in the "normal" sense of the word. It's been hard because I have had to relearn what ministry is and what it looks like. We're supposed to be building relationships with college kids and witnessing to them. But our contacts are college kids themselves, and they struggle to understand exactly what we want to do, so we end up doing more "touristy" stuff around Harbin, or having to walk around our area, hoping to strike up a conversation with someone, anyone. One day recently we went to some slums in Harbin and played with some of the kids. I had so much fun, and part of me said, "YES! Real ministry! We're actually doing something!" But later when I was processing this, I had a realization. Have we been wasting our time in Harbin, and only did something of worth that one day? NO! Of course not! God called us to come to Harbin at this particular time for a reason. We may never see the fruit of why we're here. Even though it might seem like we aren't doing anything of worth just walking around, we are shining Jesus' light to the people of Harbin. The atmosphere is changing here, and God is using us as His tools to bring change. And that is ministry.
Don't get me wrong, we've made some contacts, usually by "chance" (aka God bringing people to us). Like the other day, Ryan, Trent, and I were having an adventure and eating chicken embryos (more on that story later) and a college kid walked up to us and starting speaking English. We struck up a conversation with him, exchanged emails, took some pictures (we've become celebrities to everyone we meet!). And last night when Trent checked his email, there was one from our new friend Tony. They're going to meet soon and Trent is hoping to share the Gospel with him. God is bringing people across our path, just not on our timeline. And that is what I'm relearning this month; that it is God's timeline, will, and plan that prevails, not mine. We are doing Kingdom work. And when you get down to it, that is the ministry that matters.
