W-O-R-K

Once, a few years ago, my nephew casually commented that Aunt Sarah didn't have a job, she was just a missionary.  JUST A MISSONARY?  My nephew obviously never took Pastor Randy's ministry class where he went into great detail to explain that the word ministry is spelled W-O-R-K.  (Faith Landmarks Bible Institute, Richmond, VA)

So, like any good Aunt (or missionary defending her position), I pulled out a scrapbook of photos and began to walk through a typical week in the life of CrossCulture Jesus.

I showed pictures of a clothing give-away.  Then asked my nephew to think about how we got the clothes to begin with?  Who solicited business, churches, and friends?  Who wrote letters, made phone calls, and sent thank-you notes?  Who sorted the clothes by size for the 70 families we visit.  Then who walked miles and miles carrying bags and bags of clothes to visit each family, bless them and pray for them?  How long did he think maybe all of that took?

I showed pictures of our Bible Clubs.  My questions were about planning a class, writing the curriculum, practicing skits, making visuals, putting together to preliminaries for a craft, taking time to buy the materials needed, and then finally teaching the class itself.

Next were pictures of mission teams visiting.  Then food give-aways.  Pictures of preaching in churches.  We talked about the amount of time that goes into fund raising, writing newsletters, keeping supporters in the loop.

Me "endless energy" 4-year-old who is still skipping along after walking literally MILES to visit families

We talked about the mundane details of missionary life.  Not the glory of climbing volcanoes.  Not the adventure of riding horseback to remote villages.  Not the well-groomed image of a missionary on a podium in an American church talking about all the successes.  We talked about the nitty, gritty kind of work that gets our fingernails dirty.  We talked about how many families we visit and how many activities we plan before we see any real fruit.  We talked about real WORK.

After all, God called the base, mundane, foolish , weak things of this world to confound the wise and carry out His plans.  GOD CHOSE ME.  And He chose you.  I have noticed that He not only called the base, mundane, foolish and weak ones, but that also most of the work of the ministry is base and mundane.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things... (1 Cor 1:26-28a)

So let me encourage you today.  As you do "normal" things that don't seem important to you, just remember we are in good company!  The disciples themselves spent most of their time doing "unimportant" things.  Walking for miles and miles between town and villages was far from glamorous.  Surely they stopped along the way to wash clothes and bathe in rivers and creeks.  Surely they stopped to build a fire and cook a meal.  Someone had to gather the wood.  Someone had to hunt the food or catch the fish.  Simple things.  Normal things.

When Jesus fed the crowds he asked the disciples to organize thousands into small groups.  Then to distribute the food.  Although this takes just a paragraph of our Bibles to tell, surely it took hours to play out in real life.  Real work.  Real ministry. 

So, when it is your turn to clean the church or take over the nursery, rejoice, for you are partaking of the base aspects of serving the Lord.  As you practice for hours for 30 minutes of worship on Sunday morning, be glad.  As you plan Sunday School classes, make phone calls to plan youth events, clean your house to host a Bible Study, as you cook a meal for a family, give a ride to a neighbor, or any other endless "chores" on our weekly lists of things to do- know that you too are participating in REAL MINISTRY.

The boys strapped in for an afternoon of running ministry errands.  we were armed with milk, water bottles, snacks and toys to face the hours of errands we had to get in before a mission team arrived.

My well-earned late lunch after a morning preparing for upcoming events: homemade Guacamole, beans, and rice