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.
No comments:
Post a Comment