Woah!! We are in training mode! These last two weeks we’ve had speakers and have been able to experience hands on training before we hit the field in January!
Week: Sep 28-Oct 2
This week was Women’s Retreat week! We had a Women’s ministry called Beauty for Ashes on campus giving us teachings everyday! The last 2 days we got to learn how to lead ministry and lead our own women’s retreat when we go abroad! One of the most important parts when ministering is vulnerability. When you open up with the women around you, it allows them to know it’s a safe space and share their stories with you. There is freedom in telling your story. When we were practicing giving our testimony’s or sharing hard stories, we asked the Holy Spirit to give us a picture of that moment and we drew it. On the missions field, the language barrier might make story telling more difficult so drawing can help share stories! We also practiced hearing Bible stories and planning how we would incorporate our life stories into those bible stories when preaching. Woah. I feel like I’m actually learning how to be in ministry now. It’s so cool because I’m realizing this is part of what my Grandpa did every Sunday.
This is the first lesson I taught to my team:
Luke 10: 38-42
Jesus Visits Martha and Mary
38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
I love this story because I can definitely feel like Martha in times of my life. This past summer, my grandpa passed away and my family was overwhelmed with planning for the funeral while dealing with our grief. We had to figure out how we were going to have a service in the midst of covid and keep everyone distanced and safe. My mom and I were leading worship for my papa’s service which was really stressful because we were very emotional and every single time we tried to practice, our voices were breaking and it ended with tears streaming down our face. I got caught into thinking how can I possibly sing this in front of hundreds of people when I can’t even sing this in front of my family without crying. I was also trying to be there for my nana who was starting a new stage of her life and my heart hurt for her. Just like Martha in the story, I was overwhelmed with everything happening around me and I was forgetting the beauty that was right in front of me. My papa started preaching in the streets at age 17 and preached all the way till retirement. The Lord used Him by bringing hundreds of people to God. That is beautiful. I was so caught up in the stressfulness of life and the service that I forgot what we were doing, we were celebrating. We were celebrating Jesus and how He gifted my papa with the ability to love others so deeply like how Jesus loves us. I was too distracted by my frustrations to realize that Jesus was moving right in front of me, like how Martha did not focus on Jesus who was in her very own home. The blessings of Jesus continued to follow. The bagpipe player for the funeral service remembered my papa, and how he played for the first Easter sunrise service in 1974. The funeral home also knew my papa and donated to the service. Many members of the church dropped off food for my nana. Oh. And so so many beautiful flowers and plants. So many blessings. It reminded us to celebrate Jesus and how He uses people even in the midst of chaos.
Wishing y’all joy and sunshine,
Madeleine
