Ministry this month looks different.
Like it will every month. We’re still in Peru and still in “Lima,” but like every metro area; you can be in the same metro and be in a completely different place. Last month we spent the majority of our time in the Callao district with a little time spent in Canta and Chuquibambilla.
This month we are staying in the San Miguel district, working with the YWAM base Ramas, however, our ministry changes weekly.
The first week, we shared space and lived life with a WR Semesters team (Semesters is from what I understand, 3 months long and for ages 17-21?). They had 21 people, we had 6. Space was a little tight for a while.
The first ministry we were partnered with was Estacion Esperanza (or Hope Station) in Ventanilla. Ministry consisted of climbing a sand mountain and digging holes to plant trees (I use the term mountain loosely; it was a giant hill of unstable sand, with just enough rock mixed in to make falling down the hill very painful).
Pickaxes and shovels were needed to get the job done and the terrain was pretty hard to get up and stay up, much less work with. We couldn’t understand why or how we were to plant trees on the side of a giant hill were it was super dry and dusty. We were also splitting up into a second group to gather stones to clean and paint to go around said trees. Soon, we learned that it would be flowers—not trees that we would be planting.
The reason for this was to start vegetation and such growing over the the hill and the people were going to water and tend to the things that were to be planted.
I will admit; carrying water, stones, plants, shovels, and even myself up the hill wasn’t something I enjoyed or even saw the point of doing. Especially when, the day after we were done, dogs dug up a bunch of what we planted.
The rest of that week was spent doing kids activities and cleaning up a construction sight.
But God was doing bigger things in our hearts and in our circles of influence that week.
He spoke to several of us on my team about how we were misunderstanding what our actual ministry was—could it be that we were sharing space with 19 younger adults for a specific reason??
For each of us, how we poured into the 21 new family members looked different but God really spoke to each of us about what living a missional life actually looks like.
It’s not about what our obligation is for the day, week, or even month; it’s about how we use every second of those days to be the reflection of Jesus and continually seeking Him in all that we do…no matter how mundane it seems.
Yes, so glad God revealed that everything we get to do is ministry, not just the allotted time assigned for us to “do” ministry.
A great reminder for all us, to minister where God has us at the time
though the “Life is ministry; ministry is life” concept is easy, it’s so hard to get my head around what the means every minute of every day. It sounds like this is what you wrestled with as you slip-slid up/down the hill planting. Who knows what comment made a huge difference for someone else…maybe even for a teammate!