Being Jesus

In addition to working with Child Evangelism Fellowship, this semester I have also been volunteering for two hours each Saturday at a youth center on the east side of Binghamton. It’s a rough part of town and the kids that attend this youth center come from a lot of different and very rough family backgrounds. I was told that some of them have been or are borderline gang members at the age of nine.

I have been so blessed by my time there. It is very informal and basically all the volunteers do is play with kids for two hours and build relationships. I leave after playing with kids for two hours, and I just feel so refreshed and encouraged. I was talking about this with some friends that also volunteer with me. I realized that I think I am so refreshed by it, because I get to BE Jesus instead of just talking about him.

I am gifting in teaching and so in a lot of the ministries that I am involved in, I do a lot of just that: teaching. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But I am slowly realizing that there are many other ways to show people Jesus without actually teaching about him. And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE teaching God’s word. But I also get to do it a lot. So I think that being in this new environment where I am not really teaching, but just getting to show love to kids, is so inspiring to me. I don’t get to do it a lot and I am so thankful for this opportunity to be able to be Jesus to these kids that desperately need him.

I was also blessed because one of the friends that has been volunteering there with me is a girl from school that I have spent some time mentoring in a sense. It’s been awesome to see her interacting with the kids. She has made a strong connection with one little girl in particular who is a lot to handle. She mentioned to me that the director of the center had said that she was a mentor to that little girl. My friend was excited to me mentoring someone else since she had been so blessed by the mentors in her life. I was blessed because it is so cool to see how God is blessing and multiplying the seeds I have planted for him. It is always refreshing to know that the ministry you are in is not a dead one, but a living one, because you serve a living God who makes it grow.

Two years ago, I wasn’t sure I still had an interest in children’s ministry. Now I am more passionate for it than ever before. God is good, and while I don’t know if children’s ministry is my life long calling, I have been so blessed to be a missionary to the children in Binghamton for the past year.

The picture is of a collage of children's artwork that has been building up this semester. The top left one is from Kaylie, in one of my Good News Clubs. The top middle one is an old one from Caleb, my pastor's son. The top right one and bottom left one are from Naucika at the youth center. And the bottom right one is from Naomi at a different Good News Club. So blessed by these children and their creativity!