Month 11, You Are Weird.

Picture this.
Ten months of required ministry. 4-8 hours a day.
A team with required team time. Required feedback.
Every lunch and dinner are together.
You have the same rest days, adventure days, and are together all the time.

Then it is all stripped away.
You pick your roommates.
You find your own ministry, if you want to do ministry at all.
You are given your budget at the beginning of the month and spend it how you want.
Everyday is what you make it.

Month eleven has been weird and stretching.
My first week here I did not know what to do. We had so much time and it felt like I was doing nothing. I felt guilty when I did not do 4 hours of ministry and often thought about what I would tell people.

One day Savannah and Jenn went on a run and some people from a local church stopped them. They were able to get information and the following Monday, Caleb and I went to talk and see what we could do. Since then we have been able to go to an orphanage, an old folks home, a special needs home, youth group and lead services on Sunday.

As great as these opportunities have been I have truly learned one thing. Required ministry is not how I want to live. To live a missional life is to literally love everyone and be interruptible. I might spend my day working out, going to a coffee shop, and hanging out with friends but it is about the server I can pray for. It is about the person who is right in front of me that I can serve, and love on like Jesus.

I was so caught up in this legalistic view of 4-8 hours of ministry and finding a local organization to serve at that I missed the bigger picture.

This month has shown me that it is okay to take the day to go to a coffee shop and debrief each month. It may lead to you praying for a server who then gets all the employees from the coffee shop to pray for them too.

This month has shown me that it is okay to go to a school and simply share your story of the different cultures and what the Lord has done. It may lead to you realizing how much you have ignored your month in Greece and there is an overwhelming amount of memories and emotions that need to be picked through.

This month has shown me that it is okay to take the day and have fun with your friends. It may lead to a lot of laughs, jamming in an Uber, eating donuts and getting to know your sisters better than before. Missions are not just task oriented they are relational too.

This month has shown me that as I go home it is not going to be easy. It may lead to confusion, heart break and boredom but choosing to listen to the Lord, becoming interruptible and loving others will be so worth it.

Lets live a missional life, not a life schedule with ministry inside it.

Update: I will be home in twelve days. I am freaking out because I am not ready to leave my brothers and sisters that I have literally done life with for the last 11 months. I am not sure what to expect as everyones life has continued back home and mine has continued in a completely different way. I would love your prayers fora smooth transition for the three months I am home!

I would love for y’all to prayerfully consider donating to my blog as I have 5,989 dollars left to raise. With this being said I am selling T-shirts. $25 dollars for long sleeves. $20 dollars for short sleeves. Please contact me if you are interested!!! Available until July 1st, 2018 through Fund the Nations. They are the same brand/style that my first long sleeve shirts were and I personally love the material!!!

“We don’t need to call everything we do “ministry.” Just call it Tuesday. That’s what people who are becoming love do.” – Bob Goff