Some Things Don’t Make the Book
One of the things we enjoy reading are stories of great missionaries from the past. Stories of struggles and great victories on the mission field. Stories of incredible miracles and the moving of God among various people and in various places. We read of days filled with a great harvest of people coming to know the Lord. But you know what? I am sure there are many days that didn’t make the book.
We would love to write a blog and send an update about the great move of God we saw among the people of Mongu or about the hundreds of souls saved as the result of a big evangelism crusade we put on or about the converted witch doctor who is now the leader of his church and, while we may write of such things some day, there will be many more days which don’t make the book. Days like today.
Today was not a glamorous day on the mission field. Today was about doing the work. This morning Paul went to work with students from the Bible College. They weren’t doing door-to-door evangelism, but making concrete blocks. Digging sand out of the ground, shoveling it into a trailer, shoveling the sand out of the trailer, mixing it with bags of cement, adding water, and shoveling the mix into block molds.
From there, Paul and Rich went to help a group of men from a local church move a wood planer from out of the church sanctuary to a small building just a short distance away. The planer weighed close to one ton and had to be rolled on poles and maneuvered out the door onto Rich’s trailer.
Velda’s day was similar. Today was laundry day. Before we came to Zambia, laundry day was quite the chore. Now that we are here and do not have a washer or dryer, laundry day is work. Once the clothes were hung on the line, it was time for language study and trying to remember the difference between greeting someone in the morning as opposed to greeting an elder person in the afternoon. This followed by the sweeping up of the sand that always finds its way into the house. Our day was filled with the kind of stuff that doesn’t make the book.
But here is awesome thing about today. Those Bible school students making the blocks….they are on break from school and the money they are getting paid to make blocks is helping pay their fees for the next term. These are young Zambian men called to serve God who are being trained to be the next generation of pastors and possibly missionaries themselves. And the blocks that they are making…they will be used to build the Mongu Youth Center, where young lives will be transformed as they are discipled, taught life skills, and they hang out in a Christian environment. The local church with the one ton planer…I don’t know why the planer was in the church and what purpose it will serve in the other building, but we did get to work together with these brothers as we pushed and pulled as a team to accomplish the task, then celebrate with clapping and cheers of congratulations to one another. And learning the language…the more we know of the language and culture, the better and deeper relationships we will build, enabling us to better evangelize and disciple the people God puts in our paths.
That’s the thing. Not all days are going to make the book. Jesus had days that didn’t make the book as well. John 21:25, says “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they *were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself *would not contain the books that *would be written.” But those days and things Jesus did that didn’t make the book were no less significant. When you serve God, and He asks you to shovel sand or do laundry it is not insignificant—it is extraordinary.
It’s not the size and scope of the task, but the size and scope of the one who you are doing it for. To me that is why the Bible says in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.”
6 THOUGHTS ON “SOME THINGS DON’T MAKE THE BOOK”