Something I missed when I came back form Ecuador was the active aspect of ministry, having a consistent outreach opportunity back here. Basically as soon as I came home, the Celebration service was put on hiatus, and thanks to school I didn’t have the opportunity to go to the Benjamin House or La Casa anymore. But thankfully, it has given me some very cool one-time opportunities in the last couple of months and has made me think about what I rally think ministry is and what a church should be.
All that aside, tonight was my second night going back to do the chapel service at the Benjamin House, and I’m immensely thankful that that has worked out. I know it was God’s timing for Toni and I both to be there last week so that I could do it by myself tonight, and what a ministry that is to those twelve awesome people. But I also know what a ministry it is to me.
One of the best things about worship there is that if I can’t find a page I’m looking for in the Bible, or if I screw up the chords on my guitar or if I just can’t find the key vocally (I massacred “Amazing Grace” tonight), it’s okay. Not because I’m not giving my best to them and for God, but because they are so forgiving. And they are so honest and passionate in their worship. When Ben put his hands up tonight during a song or when Jason listed off nineteen prayer request, it’s not because they are thinking about how anyone else in the room looks at them or for any attention for themselves. It’s because they are taking everything that they are to God.
That was actually something I prayed about this morning, and it’s encouraging to see it lived out. I always ask for a volunteer to pray at the end because I know I’ll never be able to remember all the requests, and not for lack of trying, but simply because there are a ton of them. But Jason seems to always nail everything anyone says, and honestly, I’ve never heard a more heart-felt and eloquent praise brought to the Lord than the one he closed his prayer with tonight. By the time Ben says “Dis….MISSED!”my mind is racing with ways that they both encourage and inspire me to be grow in my faith.
Billy says my blog has recently become a rant against things I don’t like. I hope that was a little more uplifting.
