No Off Days

Our first day in Costa Rica was our first day of debrief. So technically speaking, there was no designated ministry. A few of us decided to go for a walk up the beach. We talked, played with some palm leaves, saw a giant iguana, and talked to a sweet man named Michael who wanted to give us surf lessons. On the way back to the hostel we were staying in, we saw some guys – most likely more surf instructors who wanted to give us lessons. We joked about asking for their prices to compare them to what Michael had offered us. Next thing we knew, two of them were jogging down to meet us near the shoreline. They introduced themselves and asked our names. We then expected them to try to market their surf lessons. Instead, one of the guys, David, asked me “What is the verse on your shirt?”

In 2019, I designed and sold t-shirts to fundraise for a trip to Nepal (which got cancelled…twice). The shirts had a simple mountain with the verse Isaiah 54:10 under it. Isaiah 54:10 says, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” 

When David asked me this, I began to recite the verse in English. He smiled and said, “I’m sure that’s good but I didn’t understand any of it”. So I pulled up the Spanish Bible on my phone and read the verse to them. David smiled and said “Wow, I really like that. It reminds me that no matter how much we mess up, God still loves us.” He later shared that he struggles with smoking and drinking but still wants to try to live his life for Jesus and by the Bible. 

We got to encourage him and also share with him what we were there to do. Most of the conversation revolved around the Lord. We got to pray over him before we left and as we began to pray his face lit up. He couldn’t stop smiling.

We didn’t walk down the beach that day intending to talk to someone about Jesus. But Jesus led us down the beach to talk to someone about Him. He interjected Himself into the conversation so that we had the ability to testify to a stranger.  

When I designed the shirt, I could’ve never imagined that two years later, it would give me a ministry opportunity in a place I didn’t even plan on being. Praise God that He is that big. That He is that good. That He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. 

Ministry is so much bigger than a few hours on a schedule that is dedicated to serving the Lord. It’s a lifestyle. Some of Jesus’s biggest ministry moments simply happened because He was open, because He was interruptible. In Matthew 9:18-26, Jesus was in the middle of talking to his disciples when Jairus interrupted and asked for Jesus to heal his daughter. So Jesus “got up and went with him”. On the way to heal Jairus’s daughter, a woman touched Jesus’s cloak, he stopped and healed her. Jesus didn’t ignore people because He was too busy, or because it wasn’t a “ministry day”. 

In the same way, as Christians, as missionaries, we must be always ready to minister to people. We don’t have to wait for scheduled ministry. Our God is too big for us to put a label on ministry. He’s just that good. So be interruptible, talk to people, let Jesus show up, He’s going to do it.