I have come to a deeper realization over the last week about just how precious our time is and how much we ought to take advantage of every opportunity we have to advance the Kingdom.
My short term mission in India is a world of difference between my long term ministry in Tanzania. I see the Lord’s work in both of them for sure, but they are different. Its something that I was talking to Lauren about and we were both seeing the stark difference. In Tanzania, it’s the long haul and so much of what we do is based on long term relationship building and seeing the day to day progress being made by those we minister to. It is a blessing and I rest assured that Tanzania is where God has called me to deeply impact the lives of my Treasures. Then there’s India right now. I feel as though I have to take advantage of every opportunity to ensure my mission is the utmost successful. It seems to put a little pressure on me.
Before this time, I didn’t have the most thorough short term missions mindset and now I’m having to develop it out of the larger mindset that I am indeed a long term missionary elsewhere. Before this, I had been on three outside of North America missions trips. The first one was to Poland was blessed, but it wasn’t because I felt called there, but rather I was going where my girlfriend at the time wanted to go. The following two were to Tanzania, where I had learned God would call me long term, so my focus on the here and now of those trips was overshadowed by the larger ministry to come. Because of all that, my best picture of short term missions has actually come from observing short term missionaries come in to Moshi and minister amongst the people there. That picture is hard to take in because some people walk in their short term mission with excellence and others for the most part waste their time. I know that sounds harsh and I admit that I can’t see the whole picture, but nonetheless, for all intensive purposes, it appears they would’ve missed out on what the Lord really wanted to do. Trading the Lord’s highest purpose for a few good pictures and a stamp in their passport.
I don’t want to waste my time here in India and I want to carry that impartation of knowing the precious time with me back to Tanzania. I certainly have been learning a bit about urgency here. I don’t know if, when or for how long the Lord might release me to Darjeeling in the future. The opportunity that I have to minister to the person in front of me may never come again. I need to make the most of that right here and now.
On Thursday, I got a nasty stomach bug and it was seemingly the wrong time for that to take place. I woke up in the morning with terrible cramps in my stomach and had to make frequent toilet visits. Karibu India. That day we had planned to go to House of Joy which houses about thirty Nepali orphans. The home is affiliated with the Assemblies of God missionaries that we are connected with and is about two hours away. The roads here aren’t like freeways at all. They are like narrow, bumpy, windy roads through the Himalayan range and that is the entire trip. Not the ideal trip to take on an upset stomach. I put on my music and try to take my mind off my pain as much as possible. Not twenty minutes into the trip, I think to myself that I should have just stayed home and prayed. We were already running a little late, so that thought didn’t do much good at that point. I suffered through the trip there and immediately made good use of the squatty potty when we arrived. Praise God I brought T.P. I went down and hung out with the kids. The kids were really sweet and it was totally a great ministry they’re doing there. In many ways, its like the Nepali/Indian version of TOA. However, I was totally thrown off from being sick and wasn’t able to play and engage like I would under typical circumstances. I won’t pretend to know the mind of God on this subject, but it came across my mind if I had actually missed the highest opportunity to be at home and just focus on prayer. I thank God for His grace and the way that He redeemed the time in those brief moments where I wasn’t doubled over or in the bathroom ralphing and actually able to be with the kids.
That situation definitely showed me the preciousness of the time and as I realize that that was basically an entire day of ministry, I all the more want to only do exactly what God has for me. It seems to be a thought on the minds of the others on my team, especially as I spoke with Lauren and Katie individually, that we don’t want this to fly by and we miss what God really wanted for us. So I am trying to make sure that I take advantage of the opportunities before me. Yesterday, when the open afternoon presented itself to me to hang out at home and continue my epic Monopoly game, I allowed it for a moment. There is nothing wrong with playing that game, but I wanted the highest. So after Ryan and Lauren took off for the prayer meeting at the church and the rest of the team rested at home, I decided to take off after them and meet them up at the church, to make sure that I didn’t miss anything God wanted to do in that service. I also have been given the opportunity to preach in a church here. I didn’t assert myself to do it, but I felt the Lord tugging that way and no one else said they felt called to do it. So I’m preaching in one church tomorrow with half the team there, while Ryan preaches with the other half at a different church. Please pray for me in this. I trust the Lord’s Spirit to speak through me, only by His grace.
Our life is shorter than we realize and sometimes we won’t get the same opportunity twice. We thank God for His grace to clean up after things behind us, but in an effort for His highest will, let us redeem every moment that is presented to us to the glory of God and His highest plan for our lives. Such acts are a resounding echo heard in Heaven and we are blessed to be able to affect both Heaven and Earth through each opportunity, for this we give praise.
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The Rundown: So yeah, I was sick. I already wrote about that. I’m feeling much better now so thanks for those who saw the update and prayed. Hanging out with the team has been great and I’m blessed by each of them. Our team times have been sweet and its also been great just to hang out playing games, laughing, sharing stories and the like. Ryan is my first roommate since I left Long Beach, so that’s kind of cool. Today we went to the youth gathering and it was an anointed time. We started with just a silly skit that Ryan and Noah did, then we shared some stories and encouragements. After that Ryan asked us if we were ready for what he was about to do and that’s a hard question when your leader is a bit over the top and you don’t know what he’s going to do. At any rate, he had us all get up there and shared with the youth about prophetic words and said that we were going to start doing corporate prophecy over individuals in the gathering. We then prayed and started getting words, scriptures and pictures for the people that were there. We would put them on the spot, but the Spirit of God was so there and the prophecies just flowed from Him. It was truly powerful and I sometimes wonder how it hasn’t always been a part of my walk with Christ. I love being used by the Lord and to receive and deliver a word of prophecy to someone out of the blue (which I was able to do today) and have it hit them in their soul is one of the most amazing feelings I’ve ever felt. I thank God for this ministry of encouragement and truth. So yeah, and then I preach tomorrow and hopefully I’ll update again soon. The strike is supposedly postponed til the 30th, so we’ll just see how all that plays out. We are supposed to be going to the other country on Wednesday so your prayers are appreciated. Thanks so much everyone. Blessings!
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