So while in church service a few Sunday's ago I sat behind a gentleman who introduced himself during the Welcoming session. After service ended the gentleman approached and asked if I was a member or visitor to the church. I explained to him that I was a new member and after welcoming me again he began to speak about the Outreach ministry that he supports. He goes on to explain the services provided by the ministry and extends an invitation should I care to participate. Basically the group meets every third Saturday of the month to provide food to members of the surrounding community. Preparations are done the Friday before and everyone's asked to be onsite Saturday morning before 9:30am to receive instruction and prayer prior to performing the task at hand. I see this as a two-fold opportunity to not only get involved with the church but to give back to "something". I don't live in the area so it's not "my" community I'm giving back to per say, but my spirit welcomes the requests so I go with it.

So the third Friday arrives and I'm excited as if I'm preparing for my first day at work. I arrive at the church at the specified time to find most of the members already sorting the items to be handed out on Saturday. I'm introduced to everyone and given an overview of the operation. I can tell from how they all communicate with each other that they've been together for a long time and that I was the new kid on the block. Things goes as planned and within the hour everything's set and ready to go for tomorrow.

Saturday arrives and I'm onsite in time to receive my instructions which are simply to help carry bags to the car. More members of the church arrive in support and we all gather in a room seperate from the recipients to receive further instruction and to be lifted up in prayer. We then enter into the room with the recepients where instruction and prayer is provided to them. While standing and listening the faces of the recepients began to appear to me as if they were all hidden when I entered the room. As I began to take notice of each of them I'm overwhelmed by a sense of compassion as I suddenly realized the severity of the situation I was in. This wasn't some candy-assed ploy to satisfy a childhood fantasy, I was actually performing an act that had a major impact on somebody's life! A life laced with turmoil and afflicted by circumstances to which there's no control. It was then that I got nervous as I wondered what they thought of me. Could they see my affliction? Could they see me as someone passing as a "giver"? I did all I could to hold the emotions that were building up inside as I began to realize the mirror into which I was staring. I thought to myself, I have absolutely nothing to give and I need just as much as they do, yet here I stand. Up to this point I hadn't thought twice about what I was doing because it felt like something I "could" do. My nerves subsided once a passage from Romans 8:31-39 was read as it helped to put things into perspective. Once we left everyone went into action and the operation ended as a success. Towards the end of it all I stole a moment to reflect on the lesson gained from this new undertaking which is all about being obediant. Once I acknowledged the request and obeyed the call everything was revealed to me.

Tags: ministry, outreach, PGMBC

This entry was posted by marvC on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 6:00 PM and is filed under Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.