Laundry as a Ministry

Brittany and Anna clowning around with the iron.

Laundry is probably one of my least favorite household duties.  That is especially true in Europe because I do not have an electric clothes dryer.  Wet clothes are hung on drying racks and of course that also means more things have to be ironed.  (another least favorite activity)  I had volunteered to help the kitchen workers so they could concentrate on hot lunches for the students.

"Can you help with the laundry?" 

"Sure I don't need to speak Romanian very well to do that!"

You can imagine the look on my face when I saw the mountain of laundry that needed to be done at Project Ruth (PR)!  We have a dormitory for our volunteers and guests.  We have had several since this summer and no laundry had been done in a while.  Then when it was explained that the Romanians like their sheets IRONED (!) I really shook my head.  I was excited though because PR has an electric clothes dryer but then I found out it can only be used after the kids have gone home because otherwise it throws the electrical circuits.  Arrrgh!  So Anna, Brittany, and I took turns washing, hanging up the sheets, and then ironing.  It took a week but we got it done!  We also joked around and actually had a fun time.

Ministry takes on many different forms here.  Humbly I realized that for me washing and ironing sheets was a way to serve the Lord.  Thank you Lord for the lesson.