Ministry

Wow. God is so good!!

My life has been so full and fast pace. I feel like there is barely any time to think, process, call family, let alone, post on my blog. BUT ALAS! Here we are!!

Ministry has been so so great! Matt and I are the team leaders and so we work with the priest and youth minister in the parish to get involved in the ministry, and then we are left to plan it all out. So far, our weekly ministry includes teaching two online classes, teaching two in person classes, leading two youth groups, and going to choir and singing in the choir for mass.

When we do ministry on our own, it is a lot less formal. We don't necessarily teach the Gospel, and may not even bring up Jesus or religion, but we will give people our time of day and ask how they are, about their family, and their experiences, and hopefully if that gets reciprocated, we can bring up our '3 Minute Testimony' that quickly explains our journey towards faith. So this kind of ministry is in our free time. We do door-to-door ministry, street evangelization, and visiting the families who invite us into their homes.

This week, we finally started a Bible Study with some of the ladies from Youth Group who have never had a bible study before. It was beautiful being able to teach them how to navigate through a bible. We started "In the beginning" (literally) with the Creation of Man and Woman (Genesis 1&2). We brought up the term 'Crown of Creation' and how Woman was the LAST THING God created before putting away his paint brush and admiring his beautiful masterpiece.

We are always looking for more opportunities for ministry, so we are trying to contact the nursing home nearby to go in and make friends. I would also love to do pub ministry and talk to the Irish folk over a pint of Guinness. I would also love to do some homeless ministry. Here is a quick glory story about homeless ministry:

We get one day off in the week where we don't have to be as a team, or do any ministry, or any ministry preparations. Last Saturday was our day off and so I packed my bags to spend a day in town, by myself, to recharge. A couple days previously, I saw a homeless lady in town on the sidewalk sitting on a small mattress under a blanket. If I had food, I would have given her some, but I didn't. And I don't normally give money unless I feel called to. So when I was packing a lunch, I packed an extra sandwich hoping to see her. Anyways I went to the local coffee shop. I spent hours and hours journaling, writing letters, and calling people. It was great having that time for myself. It was coming to lunchtime and so I departed to find the homeless lady. I came to her spot, and everything was left the same, but she was not there! I began to write her a letter to leave with the sandwich, and then I saw her come back to her mattress. Yay! So I went to her and gave her the sandwich and asked if I could eat with her. She looked so surprised. She responded in a language that I was not familiar with. So I sat down. We sat there eating our sandwiches. I asked where she was from and I could only make out the work "Bulgaria." When I told her I was American, she looked at me in awe. Oh yeah! It added to my American Pride. We started to have the smallest of conversations that an American and a Bulgarian can have. I learned that her dad is deceased and her mother lives in the same town, but that she doesn't have a good family.

She then asked my age. "Guess!" I said. She lifted up the fingers to guess I was 18. Haha. That made me laugh. I pointed up to indicate that I was older. She looked shocked. Then guessed 21. "Yes I am 21. How old are you?" I shouldn't have been surprised when she told me to 'guess.' Hmm, she looked like she could be in her 30's, but to be nice, I said "25?" Then to my surprise she said, "No, 18." My heart broke. An 18 year old is out living on the streets in the same town that her mom is in.

I asked her about her experiences being homeless. She said that people walk up and down, never talking with her, never looking at her. How sad. I asked if she was religious, motioning to the sky, saying "God" then showing prayer hands. She said that she prays every night to God and that he is so good to her. After that, I started talking about faith and Easter, which she had never heard of. I tried to explain using chopped sentences, small words, and lots of hand gestures. When I asked her a question, she looked at me blankly and then I knew that she probably didn't understand a word I said. 

She kept calling me "Good Woman" and that was when I realized we never exchanged names, so I gave her my name, but she just kept calling me "Good Woman." And her name was Stephanie. "Stephanie," I said, "I will be back another time with another sandwich." And I left. 

The whole time I was sitting there, the town was very busy with traffic. I got stared at by so many people. I'm sure they were wondering what a girl like myself was doing sitting with a homeless girl. I pray that in our interaction that others witnessed God's love. But do you want to know what was a beautiful witness to me? As I was sitting with Stephanie, the Youth Minister, Laura, that I have been working with passed by. She was with her little friend, Sophia, who is only 7 and was extremely shy with Stephanie. Laura was surprised to catch me on my day off sitting with a homeless lady. I introduced everyone and then when Laura and Sophia were about to leave, Stephanie reached behind her and pulled out a whole package of biscuits to give to Sophia. "Here, a gift for you, little girl!" 

My heart grew two sizes. Stephanie, had so little to give. In fact, this bag of biscuits could have been her whole meal for a day, but she gave it to Sophia. It reminds me of Mark 12: 41-44 where the poor woman gives everything she has. That was true beauty and sacrifice. And the best part, Laura told me that Sophia wanted to go back and visit Stephanie before leaving town that day. And so they did.

Praise God.

And as for our down time outside of ministry, it has been wild. We had our Supervisors for a week which was basically a retreat when we weren't doing ministry. The Supervisors are in the picture with us! Awe look how cute we all are.

We have also had a few kinks with the home that we are living in. So we are trying to sort out whether or not we will be staying in our host home, or get relocated. The only downside is if we get relocated, the men and women of the team will most likely get split up considering it would be hard to find a home with proper accommodations for 5 people. Prayers for the team!

Okay, if your read to the end, you're a champ! God Bless you!!