Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: Witnessing Transformation

Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: Witnessing Transformation
Week 10: July 20-26, 2014

My week of ministry actually started on the weekend as I was able to serve with my church at Light of Life Rescue Mission on the North Side. It was good to get out of my comfort zone a little and be stretched in serving in a way that’s not so easy to do. And then Sunday morning the ministry continued. Many of the members of our church were away at church camp and so there were only about twenty of us on Sunday morning. After the sermon we gathered around each other and prayed over each other for different needs. We prayed over one lady who was particularly burdened and hurt. As we prayed, I asked God to give me an encouraging word to share with her. God did give it to me and I delivered it to her right after prayer time was over. It was so encouraging to me when she told me that the exact phrase that had been in my message was what God had been speaking to her about. I have had opportunities to prophesy over people before, but it is not so often that those words are confirmed. When they are confirmed it is even more exciting because you know for sure that God chose to use you to share his words with someone else. And that’s exciting! I was humbled and blessed to be able to be used by God in this way to deliver an encouraging and confirming word to a sister in Christ. 

Then the week got off to a start! This was the busiest week of the summer so far with four different clubs. I was feeling a little nervous going into this week because Chloe and I were going to have to handle the clubs on our own. I put out a request for help to Westmoreland County and one of their missionaries, Mary Cooper, graciously volunteered to help out. It was great to have her around to help Chloe and me out. We had two clubs in the morning in Crawford and Harrison Village in McKeesport, then we had a house club in East Pittsburgh, and then we had a VBS in Shadyside. It was a busy week but I think this was one of my favorite weeks so far. We reached over 75 kids, saw 15 of them give their lives to Christ for the first time, counseled several others for assurance or answered other questions, gave away 9 Bibles, and signed 8 kids up for the CEF mailbox club. So to date, CEF Pittsburgh has reached about 230 kids this summer and we have seen 32 children give their lives to Christ. 

Our first club was in Crawford Village. This was a pretty good bunch of kids. From what I have gathered by talking to some other ministries in the area, groups come in pretty often to work with these kids. We held the program at a YMCA there right after a free meal program. We reached thirty kids there. These kids were thinkers, I had the opportunity to lead five of them to Christ and that was exciting. But most days our counseling time was used to answer the multitude of questions kids had. “Why doesn’t God always answer prayers?” “Can God make me a NBA player?” And there were others even harder than that! There were also leaders in the room with them that also heard the gospel. I smiled on the last day when we were singing a song and I looked over to see that one of the leaders was singing along while she worked on something else. As you pray, don’t pray that only the children would come to know Christ but that the leaders and parents we come across would as well.

Next was Harrison Village. We arrived on the first day and were a bit surprised to discover that there was no structured program for us to partner with. Our hostess had not realized until that day that they are in between buildings and without a summer program for the kids. There was a free lunch program going on however. So we went over, tried to get kids to participate with a game, but we couldn’t get anyone but a young girl to come play. We tried to continue with the young girl, but it was very hard to hold her attention because there were many people milling around the facility. Some of the girls that had refused to play were sitting in a doorway near to us. One little girl called out while we were in the middle of talking to the little girl, “Can I play?” We figured she was messing with us, so we tried to ignore her, but she kept at it. Finally I said, “Yes, come on over here and sit down.” I watched her to see how she’d respond, she didn’t move and instead she yelled, “Sike! I DON’T wanna play!” A passing by adult made her apologize to us shortly after but needless to say we ended early and left feeling very discouraged. 

The first day had been a disaster! But I didn’t want to just give up on those kids… they clearly needed to know about Jesus. So we got to brainstorming ways we could still minister to these kids that were hesitant to participate. I figured it wouldn’t do any good to try and make them sit through a structured program and we probably needed to build some relationships first. So I went and got some face painting and the next day we planned on playing games only. The kids were gathered in the gym again and we called out to them offering to paint their faces. Many of them were reluctant to come participate because they were gathered around a movie. But the same little girl that had mockingly yelled at us the day before, anxiously ran forward to have her face painted. I learned that her name was Sanai. As I painted her face, I went through the wordless book with her. Sanai asked Jesus to clean her heart from sin that day and gave her life to God. We gave her a Bible and I painted a few more faces and then we were on our way feeling a little better about the club. We went back the next day and this time kids were looking forward to face painting and other games. We also brought nail polish for the girls. Mary painted nails, I painted faces, Chloe started off playing sports with boys but eventually had to help with face painting. Kids were coming out of the wood work! Kids were getting their faces painted, leaving and telling their friends, and bringing more back with them. I shared the wordless book as I painted with many and was able to lead two other children to the Lord that day. Sanai was there again and informed me that she was going to a VBS at a church and had started reading her Bible. She now seemed to have a genuine desire to learn more about God. We had so many kids that we stayed twice as long as we were supposed to! These kids had wanted nothing to do with us two days before, now they didn’t want us to leave. Thursday we returned with games to play but planned on trying to incorporate a circle time to share the gospel with the kids. We played kickball and hand clapping games with a few kids and then gathered around in a circle. Chloe shared her testimony with the kids. Most of them had already accepted the Lord but they were still very attentive to Chloe’s story. When Chloe asked them if they had believed in Jesus to save them from their sins, Sanai got a wide smile on her face and raised her hand, excited to show the other kids that she had done this. It was so amazing to me to see the transformation in her in just a few short days! She went from mocking us to reading her Bible and telling others. I have had the opportunity to lead many children to Christ, but I have never seen as dramatic a transformation in a child in such a short time as I saw in Sanai. The last day we returned and played with play dough, sidewalk chalk, and some board games. This time they were anxious to see us and came running forward to see what we would do today. This was one of the hardest club locations I have ever been to, but even though we weren’t able to do a structured 5-Day Club program, those kids still stole my heart. It also helped me learn the value of building some relationship when doing ministry. I think Harrison Village was probably one of my favorite locations this summer. Pray that Sanai would continue to grow in her faith.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we had a house club in East Pittsburgh. This was a smaller crew of mostly saved kids but we still had a good time. These kids gave us lots of laughs. One day while I presenting the missions moment about the CEF Missionary we are sponsoring, I asked, “Do you guys remember who this is?” And one little boy called out, “That’s the guy we have to give all that money to!” The honesty of a child is a beautiful thing and should be cherished. He gave us all a good laugh. We hope to be back there next summer and maybe do a couple monthly clubs throughout the year there. The hostess shared with me that she wants to try and build relationships with the children in her neighborhood which is a great thing!

And Monday through Thursday we helped at a VBS at Third Presbyterian Church in Shadyside. The kids there were dramatically different than the ones we had in the McKeesport clubs, but they were equally as lovable. We had a lot of fun with them. I know God must have given us energy for this club because there is no way we could’ve been so energized by our own power. We weren’t seeing much of a response all week from this group at counseling time in spite of having a lot of fun with them. But on the last night when I gave the invitation I was able to lead six of them to the Lord. I was surprised to see that several of the children that came back were actually teen helpers making a first time decision for the Lord (once again, pray for the leaders as well). The coordinator of the VBS had the kids write on large pieces of paper the first day. There was a “What do you know about God?” category, a “What do you want to know about God?” category and on the last day they filled out the “What did you learn about God?” category. It was good to see some of the responses. It was evident to me that they really had learned something which always makes me feel better about the ministry I am doing. 

God is doing great things through CEF in Pittsburgh! Keep praying for us as we fight the enemy and try to reach lost children with the gospel. By the way, I love my job! I feel blessed almost every day to be able to be doing this kingdom work in Pittsburgh for the Lord.

Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: A Cultural Experience

Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: A Cultural Experience

Week 9: July 12-19, 2014

I realize this weekly update is coming three days into the week after, but it’s been kind of busy lately for CEF Greater Pittsburgh.  The week started off with the blessing of getting to see a girl, who’s not so little anymore, get baptized. This was special to me because she shared in her testimony right before that she came to know Christ for the first time after praying for salvation with me at a VBS at our church in 2010. It was a huge blessing to get to see someone I had the opportunity of leading to Christ make the decision to publically proclaim that through baptism.

The rest of the week continued and I had lots of helpers! My friend Nikki who I met at CEF Training School in 2008, came for a week to help. She was a huge blessing to me and she actually gave up a week of vacation to come to Pittsburgh and help. She is also the one who recruited Chloe for the summer, so she has been a huge help to CEF Pittsburgh. I am blessed to have a friend like her who has such a servant’s heart, has truly stuck with me through lows and highs of life, and goes out of her way to be a help to me. I also had a girl from church tag along a couple days as a helper. She is thirteen and able to do CEF next year. So I offered to let her tag along a couple times and be helper so she could see what it was like to decide for sure. So Chloe, AJ, Nikki, Sophia, and I all set out for ministry in the Pittsburgh area.

We were originally supposed to have three clubs but I am quickly learning to be flexible. One club, due to lack of advertising needed to be pushed to another week. And the remaining two clubs had to be shortened to four days instead of five days. But we proceeded and made the most of it regardless. It was kind of nice to have Monday off. I took Nikki into Pittsburgh and we did some tourist stuff since she was giving up her vacation to come help me. Our two clubs were in Elizabeth and Braddock. These are vastly different areas and so the clubs were also very different. But we experienced different cultures as we went to both. 

The first culture we experienced was apartment culture in Elizabeth. We quickly discovered at the apartments in Elizabeth that these kids had a hard time listening and following rules. The first day was chaos as we tried to maintain control! But we lost them. We piled into the car after it was finally over and debriefed and came up with ways to make the next day better. Our hostess explained that a lot of apartment parents leave for work and let their kids sleep in as long as they want and stay up late as well. Then most of them go swimming all day and the lifeguard is basically the babysitter. This proved to make the group of apartment kids rather challenging to control since they were not used to much discipline outside of a school setting. We came back the next day with coloring sheets and moved games to the middle and found that it was much easier for the kids to pay attention. And praise God, we saw at least one salvation decision come as a result of that club.

The second culture we experienced was inner city or urban culture in Braddock. Most of the kids that were at the next club were tough, street, city kids. It was a little intimidating at first, but we eventually found that they actually were better behaved than our apartment kids. This was especially a cultural experience for Sophia. Sophia has been all over the world and seen many different cultures, but this was a culture she was not used to. I was reminded of how different of cultures we were with on the first day when a little boy I was sitting next to pointed at Nikki’s converse shoes, crinkled his nose, and asked, “What’s wrong with her shoes?” He couldn’t understand why someone would wear scuffed up shoes like that. I was reminded again of the different culture a couple days later when counseling some boys that wanted prayer. One of the boy’s requests was for his family because his uncle had just been shot. I was reminded that these boys had probably seen more hurt and pain than me even in the short 5-12 years they’d lived. And they definitely needed to hear that Jesus was always with them and would never leave even if people do.

This week was a good reminder to me that you can experience many different cultures without even leaving your city. You can even experience different cultures with people of the same ethnicity. But Jesus loved across cultural lines, so people going into ministry better be prepared to minister and love across cultural lines as well. 

Be willing to get out of your comfort zone, keep an open mind to other’s backgrounds, and learn to be flexible.

AJ enthusiastically sharing the missionary story at our club in Elizabeth.

Nikki teaching the memory verse at our club in Braddock.

Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: Trusting God in Sickness and Success

Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: Trusting God in Sickness and Success

Week 8: July 6 to July 11, 2014

Week eight of my summer ministry and week three of doing clubs was an awesome week. I felt like this week, Chloe and I actually got a real taste of what our summer doing 5-Day Clubs would really be like. It only took us a couple days to fall into our own groove and way of doing things. And we are still figuring some things out, but this week finally felt less like we were preparing and more like we were actually doing! So that was exciting. We had two clubs this past week. One was in Rankin and the other in Elizabeth. We were happy to have our Westmoreland County friends come and help us with the Elizabeth club. We always have fun working with them. I have found that it is so much easier to be high energy when you have more people to work with as well. 

On the first night of soccer camp, the Elizabeth club, I had the privilege of teaching and then also leading some little ones to the Lord. My heart is always warmed when kids come over for counseling and respond to me asking why they came back with, “I want to ask Jesus to clean up my heart from sin.” We were blessed with some really great clubs this week. I really enjoyed our morning club in Rankin, the kids there were very sweet and eager to learn. We reached 123 kids this past week. We had the opportunity to lead 16 of them to Christ for the first time. We counseled several for assurance of their salvation and gave away 7 Bibles. I was very pleased with the way the week went. And I share these numbers not because of anything we have done by our own strength, but as a testimony to the work God is doing through us. I am so honored that God has allowed us to take this part in children’s lives. I can’t wait to reach even more children in the rest of the summer!

I had a little bit of a health scare on Wednesday night and I was reminded that there is an enemy at work. I passed out right before our Elizabeth club started. I came to after about a minute to Chloe tapping me on the shoulder. I had been shaking a bit and moaning as if I was in pain. Instances like these are always extra concerning for me, given my history of seizures due to the brain infection I had when I was sixteen. I was concerned that this little episode had been an unexpected seizure. That was especially concerning because if it was a seizure, I would have to give up my license for six months. And I really can’t afford to not be driving, especially this summer. It was a very worrisome event. I have gone to a doctor and my chiropractor since then. Both have told me they believe it was a vasovagal reaction to either kneeling, having pulled a muscle in my neck shortly before, or a combination of both. While they don’t think it was a seizure, I am still going to go to a neurologist to get checked out as a precaution. So please pray that all of the reports will be seizure free and that God would continue to bless me with good health this summer.

The whole incident was pretty scary, but I was reminded how important it is to trust God in circumstances like these. It reminded me that I am so limited in what I am able to do. But it stretched me to trust God and remember that he is not limited in anything that he does! I’ve been reading through the Psalms in my personal devotions and I was making my way through Psalm 37 this week. It was great timing because the psalm is pretty much all about God being faithful to those that follow him and defending them from the enemy. One part of the Psalm says, “Wait for the Lord and keep his way and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.” This was such a great reminder to me that I need to be praying expectantly, waiting for God to answer my prayer as I follow and serve him. For this reason, why should I fear? What can man or the enemy do to me when I have a God who is faithful and protects his children. And because of that, even the possibility of seizures shouldn’t give me reason to worry. God is way bigger than anything that could harm my body. So though the situation was scary, it was also a good reminder that I need to trust God and pray expectantly.

Keep praying! Pray that all the reports as the result of appointments I’ll have to go to will continue to point towards being seizure free. Pray that God would keep the enemy from me and the work of CEF Pittsburgh this summer. Pray for endurance and energy as the long weeks go on and we have three clubs next week. And pray that we would continue to be able to reach many children and have even more make decisions for Christ.

Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: A New Experience

Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary
A New Experience
Week 7: June 29-July 5, 2014

This past week working with CEF was a week of new experiences. Because of the shortened holiday week, I wasn't able to book any clubs in Pittsburgh. So we had already been planning on going over to Westmoreland County again to work with them. Cathy, their director, books this week in a nursing home. So obviously, this was not our usual audience. In fact this was on the complete opposite spectrum of our usual audience. 

So Chloe, AJ (who was back and able to work with us this week), and I all went over to work at this nursing home with the residents there. The residents gathered, and the summer missionaries put on the club as they normally would. This was extremely out of my comfort zone as I am not very gifted in the area of ministering to and working with elderly people. But just because you're not particularly gifted at something, is no excuse not to minister.

The residents, while not necessarily able to respond as well or do some of the motions with us, still loved the program. On the last day we were there, we had several calling out, "They should put you kids on TV!" Lots of the summer missionaries were able to relate to the residents very well. By day three, we had a hard time pulling them away so we could leave. AJ really related with a woman named Ethel, that was special to him since his grandma had been named Ethel. And Chloe, the extrovert that she is, talked and prayed with several different residents.

To my knowledge, we had no reported salvations as a result of going to the nursing home. But we shared the gospel every day and many residents and nurses were there to hear it. I firmly believe that many seeds were planted as a result of our obedience to share the gospel with people of all ages.

Next week feels like a more official start to the summer ministry. We'll be on our own as we're not planning on partnering for anymore clubs with Westmoreland County. Pray as Chloe, AJ, and I start working on our own now. Pray that we would have the opportunity to lead many children to Christ. Pray that we would have good turn outs at all of pur clubs. And pray that we'd jave energy to make through the weeks as we have a busy schedule ahead of us with 2 or more clubs a week. Keep praying!