Day 36: Serve While You Wait

The year was 1988. The city and time – Innsbruck, Austria in August. Peter and I were leading a travelling team of the Covenant Players, an international Christian drama ministry that was solely dependent on income from performances to support the work. We went to Innsbruck following our printed itinerary, but had no opportunities for ministry scheduled on the calendar. Thus, we were short on funds. We stayed with a host family a couple of evenings before moving on to staying in a Baptist church which met above a restaurant. These hosts had an apple tree, and they told us to help ourselves to apples before leaving. The bag we filled sustained us for the days ahead. Our team member Natasha, from Denmark, used a lot of ingenuity and the spices she could find in the Baptist church's kitchen. We had savory apples, applesauce, fried apples, raw apples, and apple stew. Schools were closed, and churches seemed to also be on vacation. All the while we were making contacts at hotels and corporate offices seeking out unique opportunities to serve. Down to almost nothing, we asked the Lord, “Why are we here?” The apples were running low, and we had little gas in the van.

One night, we heard a knock on the church door. This church was very hard to find, since it was over a restaurant—there was not a big sign out or anything. At the door was a Spanish woman who asked in broken German, “Is this the Mormon church?” We told her where she was, and we asked her why she was looking for the Mormon church. She seemed heavy-laden. We took her in (memory fades, but I hope we offered her an apple!). I do know that with our limited common vocabulary and whatever gestures and sign language we could muster, we started communicating with her.

We tried to explain who we were and did a short play for her. It was one we did almost everyday to introduce ourselves to pastors, titled, “The Search.” After watching it, she started crying and saying, "That is me, that is me. I lie in bed praying to God and wondering where He is. I am searching." We were able to pray with her and (again, I hope) we had a Bible to give her. She said that she was on vacation with a tour bus and that they were leaving this evening. She needed to get back to the bus – we drove her on our little gas and thankfully she made it, saying that we were angels.

We finally knew why we were stuck in Innsbruck, and we were filled with gratitude. The next day, a pastor (who was actually a British missionary) whom we had called for an appointment came to see us. We explained our ministry and performed “The Search” once again. He did not know anything about our current situation. He said he could not book anything at this time, but said he wanted to give us something toward our ministry. It was enough Austrian Schillings to fill our gas tank and get us out of town.

We had a pre-conceived notion of how we were supposed to serve—by performing Christian drama in worship services, for the most part. We were waiting for the opportunity to serve in that way, and when it didn’t come, we got frustrated—even with God. But we may have been learning a bigger lesson about serving. While we were waiting to serve, we were learning from how others were serving us. They served us by giving us hospitality; by giving us food (even one large, versatile bag of apples); by a colleague who shared her cooking gifts; and by a faith-supported missionary who himself sacrificed to give us just the money we needed. And the Lord, in His grace, even gave us the opportunity to serve—by performing for an audience of one, and witnessing about His love to a stranger who was “searching.”

There’s a wonderful Christian song you may have heard on the radio—“I’m waiting on You, Lord,” by John Waller. He sings, “I’m waiting on You, Lord, though it is painful, but patiently I will wait.” And in the chorus, he repeats, “I will serve You while I'm waiting. I will worship while I'm waiting.”

Since leaving Covenant Players, we’ve had the opportunity ourselves to serve by giving hospitality, by giving food, by giving money, by sharing our testimony—and even, occasionally, by doing Christian drama! But even when we may be waiting for God to do something in our lives, we try to keep this promise, and tell the Lord, “I will serve you while I’m waiting.”

~Peter & Kristin Sprigg