Zebra Ministries

Good morning Zebras,

My mom invited me to share any insights or stories God gave me, so here's something that happened yesterday.

As you may know, I live and teach at a Christian school in South Korea, and volunteer with Awana Korea.

After a busy weekend serving with Awana Korea, my voice started going out, and yesterday it almost died on me completely.

I'm currently reading a book called "Intercessor" about an amazing man of God named Rees Howell. In the book, Howell worked at a coal mine all day, then worked at the mission center he started or did home visits every night. And he still found time to pray two hours a day!

I was inspired, but also frustrated- all I wanted to do was teach during the week and then help Awana on the weekends, but just that made my voice go out. How could Howell have had the energy to mine coal and serve God 18 out of 24 hours a day?!

I prayed that God would give me that kind of energy to serve Him with.

As I was waiting on the subway platform yesterday evening, I was reading "Intercessor". Suddenly a temptation came to me to instead watch a show I'd downloaded from Netflix- a comedy show that is not particularly God-honoring.

I knew it would quench my Spirit if I watched that show, and I remembered that one of the first things Howell did when he started his amazing journey with the Spirit was to abstain from all worldly entertainment. So I decided to keep reading and not watch the show.

Less than 2 minutes later two Korean young women came up to me and started chatting with me in Korean. I managed to croak out that I worked at a Christian school, and one girl had to define "Christian" to the other, so at least one of them was not a believer.

They were doing a survey of 20-30 year olds, and asked me to write my life motto down on the little card they had. I struggled for a moment on how to express what I wanted to say in Korean, but God brought to mind the grammar I needed, so I wrote "하나님 위해서 살 고 싶어요"- - "I want to live for God".

My train arrived, so we said goodbye. The two girls were smiling from ear to ear, and seemed affected by the interaction.

I, too, felt incredibly blessed. God had given me an opportunity to share the gospel, the very thing I wanted to do, without having to say a word! How cool is that?!

I thought of the verse,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me." 
(2 Corinthians 12:9)

When we are weak or sick, it's easier for others to see that all the power comes from God alone. And we don't suffer for no reason- we do so in order that Christ's power can rest on us. I love that!

I learned two things from this interaction. First, God always equips us to do what He's called us to.

Later, it occurred to me that if I had chosen to watch the show and put my headphones in, the girls might not have come up to talk to me. So the second thing I learned was that God gives us opportunities when we obey Him.

Dear Zebras, sharing the simple gospel vision with those girls was way better than watching any show. Let's live in Christ's power and obedience, watchful for the opportunities God has for us.

Your fellow Zebra,
Katherine