It’s the end of week three in Ireland and God has already worked through us in about six different ministries. Talk about spreadin’ the love!
- We’ve worked at Jim and Kathy’s (our contacts) house to help them get house and yard work done to make their lives easier within their ministry away from the house.
- We directed worship at Jim and Kathy’s church in Bray, the next town over.
- We went on a crazy road trip, stopping to witness and share the message in several different towns along the way.
- We helped some church leaders from Dublin attract and retain listeners as they preached on the streets.
- We ministered and loved on some incredibly strong men at Betel of Ireland, a Christian-based addiction recovery house.
- And Bethsaida Portalatin and I just got back from a weekend as Christian kids camp counselors.
And that’s just what I’ve been involved with…who knows what God is going to use us for in our last week? I don’t think much could surprise me at this point, whatever it is.
I had a crazy revelation this past weekend while we were over in Avoca for the kids camp. Bethsaida and I were obviously the fresh faces of the place and attracted a lot of attention and questions about where we come from and about The World Race. Considering I just graduated from college, I had to explain what my major was all about several times since it’s a little unusual. For some reason, though, I never made the connection between strategic communications (a fancy way of saying I studied how to run campaigns, different styles of presentations, event planning and marketing) and ministry until now.
All throughout my college career, I was intensely focused on public relations and community outreach. I never thought that God was actually preparing me for a life of ministry. It takes a campaign and experience in planning and marketing events to raise support in a church. Presentation styles and public speaking… that’s all about preaching. And I didn’t even mention my college minor of leadership studies, which is crucial in discipleship.
God knew all along what he was doing. All it took was for me to pay attention to His will rather than my own and trust in Him. What’s crazy to me is that even when I wasn’t paying attention, He was still working, knowing that I would come around one day. And now that I am, I see how well He’s prepared me. Jeremiah 33:3 at it’s very best!
This is a link to a really good children’s story about this exact concept that we shared with the kids at camp this past week: http://www.word4life.com/threetrees.html.
