The Desire to Serve Others

An excerpt from...

The Desire to Serve Others

By Rudy Bazin, Work Team Participant
July-September 2014


For three years, I have been interpreting for missions teams that come to Haiti to serve. To be honest, at first I was interested only in making money so I could keep paying for transportation and books in college. My focus was on nothing else but my paycheck at the end of the week. But the more I hosted and interpreted, the more God was changing my heart, interests, and focus. He developed in me that desire to serve others and not just to be served.

I was part of a World Gospel Mission work/ministry team in Kenya in February 2014. This voluntary service allowed me to live and work one-on-one with missionaries and nationals. I assisted the missionaries and experienced God’s faithfulness in many different ways.

Before the trip, as I shared that with my friends and family around me, many of them asked me one question that had me thinking: Why do you want to go there?

Later on, I grabbed my journal and began to write down my motivation and what I wanted to see happen as I went to serve.

Being a servant means to be in the service of another, giving up yourself for the sake of another, leaving behind your selfishness, and seeking the interests of another.

In the past 10 years, short-term missions trips have become a huge movement that has changed the old reality of missions. In the past, someone would have the calling to be a missionary and be supported by the church. He would tell stories and show pictures when he was back and the church would cheer for him, be edified, and keep supporting him. With short-term missions trips, we can all be missionaries and all be a part of what God is doing, both in our countries and abroad.

In the past two years, I have come to know on a much deeper level that life is not just about receiving, but also giving, sharing the very little bit that you have. The time when you feel so helpless could be the time when you could be so helpful to someone.

But what is the purpose of all that? What is the reason to serve; spend money; and leave work, family, comfort, and everything behind to spend a week or two serving in a community?

How many times has it become more about us as we serve others?

If you find yourself serving without having a reason why you are serving, I want to share with you a couple of reasons why I serve.

First of all, I serve because the Great Servant—the One who gave a great example about how to serve—lives in me and has changed my selfish identity into a servant.

I serve to build strength through honor.

I serve to give courage through respect.

I serve to spread the joy and hope of Jesus Christ.

I serve to build value, dignity, and identity.

Serving is not a pass to go to heaven. Your relationship with God through His Son Jesus will be your pass, but serving is obeying one of Jesus’ commands in Mark 9:35 (NIV): “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

ACT: Have you lost focus on why God has called you to serve others? Take Rudy’s advice this month. Pray, read the Bible, and journal about service. Ask God to refocus your heart and to refuel the flames for your calling.