ministry
Friday, December 23, 2011
A family of volunteers
This morning, 14 members of my family went to a local ministry and volunteered for a couple of hours.
Carmi and Eliana worked in the free store. They moved and sorted clothing, linens, house wares, toys, appliances and other goods that were donated.
Zane and Karys and I worked in the food pantry. We stocked shelves with non-perishable food items and put together small boxes of groceries to be handed out later in the day.
There was a big African-American guy working at the ministry named “Bubba”.
Before we left, Bubba commented that it’s hard to get volunteers during the holidays because, well, people have a lot of other commitments.
He said he dreaded coming to work today because he just knew they would be understaffed.
So imagine Bubba’s surprise when our crazy bunch came walking in.
Needless to say, he was delighted. Which delighted us.
In fact, he wants us to come back next week. :-)
Monday, September 07, 2009
2009 Fair Ministry
Mom, Zane and I went to the County Fairgrounds today and helped our Baptist association feed around 75 hungry carnival workers before their big opening night.
Do you remember a feature series from the late 90’s to early 2000’s on CBS’s The Early Show called “Everybody Has a Story”?
Steve Hartman would toss a dart over his shoulder at a map of the United States, and then travel with his cameraman, Les Rose, to wherever the dart landed. Upon arrival, Hartman would find a phonebooth with a phonebook, and then, after choosing a name at random, would call that person, hoping to tell their “story”.
I loved that segment. And I love the Fair Ministry.
For the last several Septembers, I’ve looked into the haggard faces of men and women - both young and old - who travel the fair circuit and I can’t help but wonder about their story.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
A new season of ministry
Carmi and I have entered into a new season of ministry together. We are now teaching the 7th and 8th graders in our church’s Youth department.
Neither of us has ever worked in Youth ministry before so this is a little out of our comfort zone.
But when did God ever ask us to be comfortable in serving?
Today was our first official day. And to make things even more interesting, none of the other teachers were present this morning…not even our Youth Pastor.
Now I suppose I should back up and say that we did know last week we’d have it to ourselves. Still, it was a little daunting.
But the kids behaved remarkably well and made us feel right at home.
{extended}Sunday, December 28, 2008
Dust off a Sunday suit
Our Worship Leader at church took the day off so I had to dust off a Sunday suit because he asked me to lead the music.
I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The hard part was getting up early for the 8:30 am service after sleeping in for 9 months.
I sang Strange Way To Save The World by 4Him in both services. I wasn’t particularly pleased with my execution of the song in either service but the song did seem to fit well with the message topic. In the 11:00 am service, the Sanctuary Choir presented a song called “God of Every Generation” from the Christmas cantata.
{extended}Sunday, December 16, 2007
Christmas Cantata 2007
I led our church’s Sanctuary Choir in their 2007 Christmas Cantata tonight at 6:00 pm. The musical was entitled “Night of Alleluias” and lasted for 55 minutes.
I’ve had the good fortune of working with our choir for the last 3 Christmas seasons. As grueling as the last 3 months of preparation have been, tonight’s presentation was a little bittersweet because I knew that it would most likely be my last Christmas as their director.
{extended}Monday, December 05, 2005
A Trip To Charleston, WV
I was somewhat out of the loop this weekend because we made a trip to Charleston, WV with my church’s Youth Pastor, Andy, and his wife.
Next July, Andy and I plan to take a large group from our church - probably around 70 people - to Charleston for a week-long missions trip. We conducted a pre-visit to toss around ideas with the local missionary couple about ministry opportunities and to take a look at possible ministry sites.
Did I say “out of the loop”? Pffffft…don’t believe that for a second.
The first question I ask any hotel before making reservations is, “Do you have internet access?”. The Ramada Plaza on Second Avenue gave the first correct answer so Room 228 was our home for two nights.
Wireless internet is so sexy!
Monday, July 11, 2005
Tropical Depression Five
We plan to leave for the Caribbean island of Antigua on Saturday with 17 team members for a week-long mission trip. This satellite photo makes me think we might have a rather interesting weekend.