You know that dream of Africa that most people have; the one where you picture cute children and just imagine yourself there playing with them, and it being the best thing in the world. Or, that picture you get of wanting to experience a different culture. Those are all fun and great until they fade! No one ever tells you that it won't last forever! Once the Romantic Picture of what you thought it would be like disappears, and reality hits, you hit a wall! That's where our team is right now.

Most of my life I've defined ministry as all that I can accomplish for God. I'm starting to learn that living in this way couldn't be farther from how God calls us to live. Over the past few weeks our team has really been battling with the desire to do more in ministry. We feel like we're not really making much of an impact. Playing the same games at the Care Points every day isn't doing it for us anymore. The reality of how people live here is starting to really set in, and now we find ourselves struggling with the meaning of ministry.

I've started to learn that ministry is not about doing, but about being.  Ministry should be defined as living life. That is, if we're truly living the life God has called us to. Every breathe, word, deed, etc. should be ministry. Simply holding a child, or feeding the hungry, whatever it is it should be part of the bigger picture.

I'm seeing that all of these things should flow out of our relationship with God. He keeps teaching me about grace, and I'm constantly seeing how my deeds should flow out of my being in Him. Wherever I am, and whatever I'm doing should be ministry.

I know my thoughts are kinda mixed around in this blog, but I hope you get the picture of what God's been teaching us over the past couple weeks!

God Bless You Guys!

Jon