Ministry With Purpose

When our family was serving as missionaries in Guatemala we did a lot of ministry among the poor.  Many of these ministries might be what is called social ministry as we provided medical, dental, and eye clinics to the poor that we worked with. 

     In one of the first clinics that we shared with the people we met a young girl by the name of Aura.  Aura was 13 and she was being raised by her older sister because her parents were deceased.  Aura came to the clinic not feeling well and the doctor discovered that she was a diabetic.  In fact so bad was she that her blood sugar was around 660.  The doctor said that if we did not get her to a hospital where she could receive immediate treatment she would die that day.  My wife took charge of the situation.  She unloaded our truck, and Aura and her sister and Gabbie made their way to the local hospital. 

     As Gabbie tells the story the doctors refused to treat Aura because in their opinion she would just eventually die anyway because she would not be able to afford the medicine.  However, Gabbie was persistent and told them you treat her and we will get her the medicine.  The doctors kept her in the hospital because of the persistence of my wife.

     The doctors on our medical team were moved by Aura’s situation and left some medicine for us and eventually we were able to develop a partnership with one of the doctors to provide her medicine that we would give to her.  We loved Aura and wanted to help her with her diabetes.  We knew without our help her chance of survival was minimal.  We did everything we could to help her.

     As we shared this story with our missionary colleagues, a wise woman told us “that her sickness was not her problem.  The problem was that she did not know Jesus.”  She told us that eventually Aura would die, but we must prepare her for that day.  So our prayers and mission to Aura changed.  We began praying “Lord allow us to keep her alive long enough so that she can receive Jesus as Lord and Savior of her life.”  And the Lord answered our prayers as eventually I was able to baptize Aura as my sister in the faith.  We reached out to her and cared for her needs, but ultimately we met her greatest need which was to have Christ as her Savior.

     Ministry fails if it does not present the gospel.  I know this concept is hard to get our arms around, because we want to help people in need.  But we must remember that it does no good to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked and care for the sick, if we do not share the good news of Jesus Christ to those we help.

     Many well meaning followers of Christ can be some involved in social ministry that they forget that the greatest need that people have is spiritual.  We have a responsibility to share with them the greatest gift we could ever give and that is life in Christ.  We use whatever means we can to share the gospel with those who need to hear.  Social ministry is one of the ways that God allows us to open doors to meet this most important need in a person's life.

     What do you think?  I would be interested to hear your comments.  Until then remember to love God, love people and serve others.