I know, I know, it’s about
a month later and there’s three weeks of ministry that you never got to read
about. So here I am, more than a month later, writing the last installment of
updates from the summer ministry. Maybe once I explain what’s been happening in
my life over the course of the past month or so, you’ll understand why I’m just
now getting to this update.
I spent Saturday, July
18 volunteering at the local rescue mission in Pittsburgh. This is always an eye
opening and humbling experience for me. It’s also good for me to get involved
in ministries that require me to do the behind the scenes work or that is just
serving people. I am all too often used to ministries where I am the one
leading or doing the evangelizing. But it is good to spend some time just
serving.
The next week, we had
two clubs. Both of these clubs were going to be at Salvation Armies. A summer
missionary from Westmoreland County, Dakota, was scheduled to help me that
week. Unfortunately she was only able to help the first two days because she
got sick after that. I was praising God for a committed and available board
that gave up their time to help me the other three days of the week. We went to
the first club, which was a day camp with the Salvation Army in
Homewood-Brushton. The kids were a good group of kids and we had a lot of fun
with them. This was a new club and a new opportunity to reach the kids. I had
conversations with some of the older boys in the club about who Jesus was, how
we knew he was real, and other deep questions. Once that club was over, we
drove down the street into East Liberty to do a club at the Salvation Army
Family Caring Center. This is a homeless shelter that we went to last year. It
was once again, one of my favorite clubs for the summer. We had five little
ones that were full of energy and love. One of the little girls at that club
was named Yazlin. She was talking to me one day and when I was asking her about
sin, she mentioned that she sinned and so did her mommy because her mommy stole
from stores and had been kicked out of CVS and Target and the list went on. She
also mentioned that her father was in prison and so they were living in the
shelter. I was heartbroken for this little girl. I was especially heartbroken
because she spoke about this so nonchalantly. This was her life. She knew that
what her parents had done was wrong but it was a normal part of everyday life
for her. Even at 7 years old, Yazlin had witnessed and faced a lot more
struggle in life than I ever had. The good news is that Yazlin and two other
boys accepted the Lord as their Savior that week. Now, even though there’s not
much hope in the world they live in, they have hope in the Lord in Heaven.
The next week was one
of the busiest weeks of the summer but also another good one. We partnered with
Hosanna House Ministries in Wilkinsburg and helped out with their summer day
camp. We took over an hour rotation of their regular schedule. This was 10 AM
to 4 PM every day and it was 6 rotations of kids and took lots of our energy.
But these kids were a ton of fun and we really enjoyed our time with them even
though we were exhausted at the end of every day. I had two favorite memories
from that club that stand out to me. The first is that after giving an
invitation with one of the groups, nearly all of the boys in the group
responded. Granted, a lot of those boys were just copying others. But I believe
we still had nine of those boys give their lives to Christ that day. The second
was that while I was counseling a group of girls, I asked one girl there if she
had ever believed in Jesus as her Savior before. She explained that she had
believed and given her life to Jesus while I was just talking. I was reminded
once again that this work of evangelism is not done by my own strength, but
through the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to his children. There were about
160 children enrolled in the camp and at the end of the week, we saw 31 of
those children give their lives to Christ. It was an awesome week of ministry.
At the end of that week
we put on a Summer Scoop event that was supposed to be an end of summer
celebration for all of the children that we reached. Unfortunately, only 2
children showed up. It was yet again, an excellent reminder to be flexible in
ministry. We went on with the program with the kids and board members that had
shown up. Even though it wasn’t what we were hoping for, it was still a good
time of fellowship for all that were there.
That brought me to the
last week of summer ministry, August 3-7. This week was much calmer than the
prior week as we just had three house clubs. House clubs usually have a lot
less children than community centers and since it was the last week, I was kind
of looking forward to a break. Mary was back to help me with the clubs for the
week since AJ was at horse camp. Our first club that week was at a house in the
North Hills. This club was a ton of fun and another one of my favorite clubs
that summer. The kids were definitely suburban, upper class, churched children
and were completely different than most of the other children we had
encountered that summer. But they were so much fun! They loved the club and
were very enthusiastic. They were also a bunch of nerdy, Harry Potter loving,
and goofy kids- I suspect that’s why I liked them so much. We didn’t see any
salvations at that club but we did have a few days where we just allowed the
kids to ask some really deep and important questions like, “If Jesus is the
only way into Heaven, where did people go when they died before Jesus died on
the cross?” Ministry isn’t just fruitful when you can count salvations. This
was definitely a fruitful club even without salvations.
After that, we went to
a café in the North Hills that my friend owns. This was a tough club as not
many kids were in attendance. But we did gain a family of neighborhood girls
that came several days. We made the most of the children that we had and still
had a good club. I was encouraged a few days ago to see a Facebook post from my
friend that owns the café with a picture of her daughter and one of the
neighborhood girls. The girls said they were already saved but they didn’t go
to a church. I am praying that my friend and her family will be able to
continue ministering to this family.
And the last club of
the week was at one of our board member’s homes in Wexford. This was another
small club of girls that were already churched. We weren’t able to meet every
day but we did have a good time with the kids that we had. One of the girls had
been attending Good News Club for a while and one day, she was the only one. On
that day, I handed her the pictures and let her tell me the story as best as
she could. It was an excellent opportunity to disciple her and hopefully put a
spark for missions and teaching in her heart. She was only 10-12 years old, but
she was really mature and I know God has big things in store for her. Be
praying for growth in Christ for Celeste.
If you haven’t already
heard, that week ended in me getting engaged and so things have been pretty
busy since then. But God is good and it was a good summer. It wasn’t always
easy at times and I was definitely forced to be flexible and trust in God even
it seemed like everything had gone to chaos. But God never stopped being in
control. At the end of the summer we had reached about 500 children and saw 62
of those children make first time salvation decisions. It was a great summer
and God did an awesome thing in Pittsburgh.
I am getting married,
graduating, and moving on from Pittsburgh. It saddened my heart a bit in that
last week to know how much of a harvest for ministry and evangelism there is in
Pittsburgh. I can only pray that God will send someone into that harvest as I
move onto another harvest. Pray with me that God would send willing laborers
into the harvest so that even more can come to know the Lord as their Savior.
Rejoice- For
my personal devotions, I have been reading through Revelation. I read chapter 4
most recently and was reminded of God’s holiness and the fact that he is worthy
to be praised. Revelation makes it pretty clear that God is worthy to be
praised just for being God. But Revelation also lists other reasons why we
should praise God. We should praise God because he is powerful [Revelation
4:5]. We should praise God because he is outside of time (was, and is, and is
to come) [Revelation 4:8]. And we should praise God because he created all
things [Revelation 4:11]. Above all else, in spite of anything else, we must
remember that God is worthy of our praise and so we have reason to rejoice in him.
Hope- God taught me a
lesson on hope this weekend too. I arrived at church on Sunday morning to hear
that one of the members of our church that has used a walker for as long as
we’ve been there, was hospitalized with a heart attack and loss of oxygen and
is on life support. It is what seems like a hopeless situation. If he recovers,
he goes back to life with a walker and other health issues. But if he doesn’t
recover, he dies. To the world, that is a hopeless situation. But to the
believer, there is hope on both ends because of Christ. No matter what, we know
that God is his provider. We know that even if Bob never finds healing on
earth, there is eternal healing waiting for him in Heaven. I can never
understand how people can through life without Christ, because without him
there is no hope. This verse reminds us to rejoice in that hope that we have
which will help us to be patient in tribulation.
Prayer- Lastly, God
taught me about prayer this week. Patrick and I went to see “The War Room” on
Friday night and I thought it was one of the better Christian movies that have
come out recently. It was an excellent reminder of the power of God that is
accessible to us through prayer. I was convicted to spend more time praying
over things and less time trying to fight battles on my own. This verse
instructs us to be constant in prayer- definitely easier said than done. My
prayer life isn’t so hot but this verse adds to the importance of heating it
up. How much effort we put into fighting battles on our own when we have a God
that wants to help us! That is all the more reminder to be constant in prayer.