Traveling in the midst of a global pandemic has its challenges, and despite daily health screenings, temperature checks, and mask wearing, a decent sized group from my squad ended up with covid shortly after arriving in Colombia. With that, we took a step back from normal ministry and separated into rooms based off of our test results and symptoms (or lack thereof).
Myself and another squad mate tested negative for covid and had no symptoms, so we moved into a dual storage room/Sunday school classroom and set up camp. Even though we tested negative and had no symptoms, we were still exposed and thus quarantined (we get out Saturday morning!).
It’s hard when you come to a place expecting to serve and then are all of a sudden unable to do the very things you thought you were supposed to be doing… and you’re not even sick. Through it all, I’ve seen the Lord’s hand at work as He has been redefining my definition of what “ministry” looks like and has been showing me how I can still serve despite the curveball thrown our way.
Ministry is prayer.
As a squad, we started 24/7 prayer. At any point in the day, there are 1-2 squad members praying over this city, this ministry, our squad, and even you all back home. The funny thing is that the day we planned on starting this was the day that a majority of us got our covid test results back and everyone was quarantined. I don’t think it’s coincidental that it happened that way. I’ve been able to be really intentional about my prayer time, which, as I’m typing this I’m realizing is something that I told God that I wanted to work on learning how to do better at the beginning of this month. Spending 3-5 hours a day in prayer might not sound super exciting, and some days it’s kind of hard, but it’s been so life-giving. Prayer can sometimes be difficult because we don’t always see the immediate effects of it, but God is always faithful to answer us. Being able to pray over events at our host ministry as they are going on – like Aguapanela, which is a weekly ministry where people go out into the community and give bread and sugar water to people on the streets struggling with addiction – and then to hear how God answered specific requests that were being lifted up at that time (like when someone is there whose name is the one you prayed over and whose shirt is the random color that you couldn’t get out of your head) is so cool!
(A quiet moment praying over the city captured by a friend.)
Ministry is excel spreadsheets.
One night Sunshine, my quarantine pal, and I decided to edit the excel spreadsheet that we use as a sign up sheet for our 24/7 prayer. We sat on the roof and cleaned it up, and honestly… we had a blast. Now I know that for a lot of people, spending two hours editing an excel spreadsheet is not their idea of fun, but I’m thankful for this friend who finds joy in the little things along with me. As we finalized our edits, we excitedly showed them to our other squad mates who were on the roof. Some matched our level of excitement, and others not so much. But at one point, one of the guys on our squad excitedly said, “This makes me want to sign up for more prayer slots!!” Who knew that the act of doing something so little would encourage another in their ministry (remember, prayer is ministry too)?
Ministry is staying six feet apart.
Sometimes ministry is doing the thing that you don’t want to do. It’s hard to want to justify quarantining when you’re not sick and asymptomatic. But, at the end of the day, I realize that I am showing more love and kindness to my neighbor by separating myself so that I don’t somehow further spread a sickness that I was exposed to. God cares about the example that we set for others and he also cares about us being men and women of our word… so that means respecting the rules of quarantine by social distancing, no hugs, and not leaving the building for now (no matter how badly I want to do all of these things).
Ministry can look like Sunday school class, youth group, and Aaguapanela, but it doesn’t have to. Ministry is all of these things and so much more. I’m excited to get back into the structure of the set ministry that our hosts have for us, but I’ve also been really encouraged in how the Lord is redefining my definition of what ministry looks like. Just because it doesn’t seem like ministry from the outside, doesn’t mean that it’s not. Ministry can be in the little moments and small actions of our day and it can be just as beautiful in the hidden behind-the-scenes moments as it is in the more notable ones.
