One of the things that God has really shown me while I have been here in Thailand is different sides of ministry. I always thought of ministry as something that is none stop and are constantly sharing the love of Jesus. While being here in Thailand, God has shown me that ministry can be that but also something different.
Teaching is a huge thing that we do here. Not only do we teach English to students but we also help with the local home schooling program and teach general education. For the past couple of days, I have been helping teach general schooling to this one girl. I never have viewed myself as a teacher. But, one day I volunteered to help this little girl who needed someone to help her one on one. She had been really behind in her schooling and needed to go over the basics all over again, learning how to pronounce the alphabet. The first time I helped this little girl I was just letting one of my teammates have a break from teaching her everyday. But once I spent time with her, she wasn’t this little helpless girl; she was someone who is incredibly smart and has so much joy.
For someone who has never taught English to anyone or even taught a kid general education before, I had no idea what to do. But God moved through me like I have never seen before. He gave me the patience to go over letters and their sounds many times with her. He gave me the ability to think like her and to understand how she is thinking.
The last time I was teaching this little girl, we had just finished math and were going over the alphabet one more time. We had come to the letters “s” and “t”, which are the two hardest letters for her to remember the correct sound for. We just started to go through the sheet for each one and I asked her what sound the letters “s” and “t” made. When she told me the correct sounds without even having to think about it, it was the best moment/feeling I have ever felt! I was so proud that she was able to tell me the correct sounds for the letters “s” and “t”. Once she saw how proud and happy I was for her, her face just lit up and she had the biggest smile! It might seem so insignificant for a little girl to be able to say the correct sounds for the letters “s” and “t”, but for her it meant the world!
So seeing this side of ministry has been huge for me! Ministry is not always building a house or evangelizing on the street. It sometimes comes as helping a little girl be able to say the alphabet. Through this, God has taught me to look at the little things and to see Him shine through.
