Doing Ministry is an
interior work
I came to help. I wanted to be apart of what God was doing
in France. I thought that I could come to France and make a difference, but the
difference ended up being in my heart and spirit. The work that happened was
usually behind my back and I had nothing to do with it. Glory to God!
Letting other lead
After 6 months of leading English group, I realized that if
students were going to get involved, I would have to stop doing everything. Not
that I was trying to take over and control everything, but the students didn’t
really volunteer to do much. There was progress with those who brought food but
other than that people were not too excited to take charge. When March came, I
had had enough. The students would lead studies and I was going to help them
prepare. My new goal was to not lead any more studies because they had enough practice
participating. All that needed to happen was another formation OIA (training on
how to lead a bible study) with the few students who hadn’t done it before. To my surprise, it worked. Each week someone else was
leading a study and when people didn’t volunteer, I asked someone directly. I
was thankful for my first volunteer who had led studies while she was in
Cameroon, and I think that when the others saw her bravery, they followed her
lead.
Martin leading
I finally got Martin to lead a bible study. He seemed very
uncertain that he would be able to the first time I asked but I asked again a
couple months later, and to my surprise he said yes. We met before the study to
discussed how it would go. I gave him a couple days to write down some
questions and to my surprise he hadn’t prepared much. So we went through the passage
together to plan out the study. All his thoughts were disorganized and not
clear. He wanted to apply the passage to our lives before we even had a chance to
understand it. So I went through with him so that he could be more organized and
ask his questions in a logical order. When he did the study it seemed a bit
rough. I didn’t intervene because I knew he could handle it, and I wanted him
to learn. It wasn’t that complicated and I knew that if I really had to, I
would chime in when necessary. At the end, I was thankful even though I knew
that there was room for improvement. To my surprise, a non-Christian in the
group said that she understood. For the first time, she was able to see what
the passage was trying to say. I didn’t even realize how God used Martin to
talk to her.
Here’s a typical
conversation with someone I meet here in Paris
Someone: What are
you doing in France?
Nia: I work for
the GBU, Groupes Bibliques Universitaires. I support and help students who lead
bible studies here in Paris.
Someone: So what
are you studying?
Nia: I’m not a
student.
Someone: So where
do you work?
Nia: I work full
time for the GBU. I work with students. I was sent by an organization from the
US that is associated with the same group. I was involved as a student.
Someone: Oh.
Nia: It’s like
being a missionary for students.
Someone: Ok…
Either from there I go into more detail about my job or the
subject changes.
