Real Ministry

In the last few weeks, I've learned a lot about what real ministry looks like. This is going to sound super obvious, but there's a lot more to ministry than holding babies and teaching English. I think I knew that before, but I never experienced it firsthand. Up until recently, the majority of my ministry experience has been quite pleasant. Occasionally there was a hard situation thrown in, but most of the time it was just fun and enjoyable. However, through some recent situations, I'm realizing more and more that sometimes ministry is messy and hard. Sometimes you invest tons of time and love into a person only to have them throw it all away and go back to their ungodly lifestyle. Sometimes you will witness gross injustices involving people you know, and there's not a lot you can do about it. Sometimes it will be extremely hard to love or show mercy to someone because you've seen the terrible choices that they've made. Real ministry isn't always pretty.

You're probably wondering what happened to bring on all these realizations. I want to respect the people involved, so I'm not going to share too many details, but here's a brief summary. . .

In the last three weeks, a lot has happened at my ministry as well as with some of my Thai friends. We've had 2 girls run away from HOS with their children, even though they've been there for several months being discipled. Because they're adults, there's really nothing we could do to stop them. I also have a Thai friend who has been mentoring someone for the last year, only to have him make some poor decisions and hurt her deeply. Finally, there's a baby that I've helped take care of whose mother sold him because she didn't want him anymore. Praise the Lord, the baby was rescued and is now safe and cared for (not with his mother) but still, this situation was absolutely heartbreaking!

Like I said, real ministry can be messy.

It could be really easy to get discouraged when situations like this come up. It's easy to start questioning if it's really worth it to keep investing so much time, energy, and love into ministry. The answer, of course, is yes. It is worth it. There will always be some people who reject our message and love, but that does not mean our efforts were in vain. Even if we never see results, I  wholeheartedly believe that God is still working through our actions. And sometimes, people will embrace the message of the gospel and have their lives transformed by God's power and love. What a privilege to get to be a part of that!

Real ministry isn't always fun. Sometimes it's messy and complicated and heartbreaking. But our job is to be faithful, even in the hardest of times, and trust God to work in the hearts of those we're ministering to.

 

 

 

 

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness."

-Psalm 37:3 (ESV)