Lessons from the Dominican - #1

Back in February I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. I posted here about the trip and some of the things we did. But I also wanted to share with you all some of the lessons I learned on this trip about ministry and about people.

Lesson #1 -- You can do ministry.

One of the biggest misconceptions that many Christians have is the idea that ministry is something that pastors, elders and missionaries do, not something that they can do. People are intimidated by the idea of "doing ministry" and often aren't even sure what that means. So they stay away and leave that to the professionals.

On our first full day in the Dominican it became obvious just how wrong this is. For one thing, almost nobody on our mission team was one of the professionals. Everyone on our team other than me and one of our elders were simply church members and Christians with a desire to help people.

Then on Sunday night, before the Super Bowl, everybody filled our dining room to help portion out pills and medications to be distributed during the week. This was a small thing, something anybody could do, but it was actually ministry. It was giving of our time to demonstrate the love of God to people.

Ministry

The week was filled with small, seemingly insignificant things like this. Carrying around concrete blocks, sanding furniture, handing out soccer balls to kids, drawing smiley faces on their hands, handing them a cup of medicine, all of these things were ministry. They all helped both to make peoples lives better and to create an opportunity for the Gospel to be shared.

Ministry

 Ministry

This is an important lesson for us, because these are things than every single one of us can do. We can all do little things that demonstrate the love of God to people. All it requires is that we're willing to try and to give of our time and our resources and, most importantly, it requires that we trust God to take our efforts, no matter how small or weak they may be, and use it for His glory and for the good of His people. That's exactly what God will do and it's what he's been doing for thousands of years. The list of people who didn't think they had what they needed to serve God or minister is long and astonishing. Just consider Moses. He was convinced that he didn't have the gifts and abilities that he needed to serve God (he even argued about this with God) but God used him anyway to free his people from slavery.

He can use you. He can use you to free people from slavery to sin and death. It doesn't take great knowledge or ability. It only takes faith, and just a little bit of that.