Ministry Moments

As a leader on this trip, ministry looks different for me than it did on my last. My main ministry is pouring into this team and pointing them back to Christ in all that they do. Let me tell you, it’s so much fun! We laugh A LOT! I’ve seen so much growth in just the 3 weeks we’ve been together and I can’t wait to see what else God does. 

But just because these guys are my focused ministry doesn’t mean that I’m not also getting the chance to pour into the community. Here are two stories of people I have had the pleasure to meet in the squatter camps we have been visiting lately. 

This woman is named Hazel. She fantastic! Meeting her all started when we went out to one of the squatter camps one day. After a morning of talking to people I really just felt like I was supposed to take my teammate Logan, walk around, and just cover the whole area with prayer. So with our other teammate, Amanda, the three of us took to the streets after lunch and just brought Plot 89 before the Lord. Closer to the end we sat on a bench under a tree on the outskirts of the community and continued to pray scripture over it. For about an hour  we sat there taking turns to pray out loud. Pretty much the whole time I was looking at this one house right in front of us, continually praying over that house. 

After a while a car dropped off a woman with a little boy right in front of us. Wondering what in the world we were doing there (we typically don’t look like we belong) she started to ask us questions. We answered them and after a minute or so she asked us if we wanted to come to her house to hang out. We said yes and she took us right to the house I had been looking at for an hour. 

When we got inside and she got all of her groceries and things settled she got her bible and just came right out and asked, “What do you want to teach me today?” Not having anything prepared we all just kind of looked at each other and finally I said “I have something.” I shared with her the verses Jeremiah 29:11 and Isaiah 55:8-9. I just told her about how we may have a plan for our lives but that God also has a plan and His plan is SO MUCH better. The wisest thing we can do is submit our plan to God’s plan.

 She took it all in and responded with some personal things that were going on in her life and how she felt like she could give those over to God. She didn’t have to talk for very long to see that she was already someone completely in love with the Lord. It was such a sweet sweet time of all of us getting to share how God has worked in our lives and praise Him for it. At the end we prayed for Hazel and her family, and she prayed for us and our trip. What a house of peace it was. It was just a nice change of pace to get to spend time with an African believer. 

This man is named Shepherd. He’s deaf and only communicates in sign language. For those of you who don’t know I started to learn American Sign Language about 6 months ago through a teammate on my race. I’m not fluent by any means but I can get by if people are signing slowly. 

We were putting on a kids program in one of the neighborhoods we regularly go to. One of my teammates, Casey, mentioned that she met a deaf man and was trying to sign with him since she took ASL classes in high school. Immediately I got so excited and said, “I want to go.” Knowing it might be our last day in that area we asked if we could leave the program so I could go talk to him. Casey and I, along with our friend, Josh, and one of our African translators named Given, took off quickly to find this man. 

When we got to where they met him there were a lot of men who had been drinking and it was pretty clear Shepherd had been too. We asked to speak to him and you could tell he wasn’t the one most people would come around looking for. Most of the group seemed interested in why a bunch of white people wanted to talk to the deaf guy. Really I just wanted him to know how loved he was and I tried to communicate that to him. We did the basics “It’s nice to meet you.” and the exchanging of names. He had the biggest smile on his face anytime we figured out what the other was saying and I know my smile never went away. It brought me so much joy! 

It was difficult at times to figure it out not only because I’m pretty new but also because he speaks South African Sign Language not American. While there are some similarities it’s pretty different as well. On top of that our African translator was no help because he didn’t know any sign language so there was a double language barrier being crossed. It was crazy and amazing. I got to tell him that God loves him and after talking for a while he asked for a church he could go to. I may never see him again and I can only hope he starts going to that church. Whatever happens I know God was working in that moment. 

There are a lot of things that bring so much joy to my heart in being here and serving the Lord. These two stand out to me for reasons unknown but I hope they brought a smile to your day as well!