Oh me, the stuff in my head… I have so many ministry opportunities that I see and desire to be a part of, but unfortunately I am a human being that is indeed bound by space and time and my own set apartness by God. I can only do what God will allow me to do at the present time. At this present time my ministries are wife, mother, homeschool mom, children’s ministry director and teacher at my church, homeschool co-op co-administrator and chapel leader, devotional author, blogger… and well all the stuff that entails… and I still have all these other things floating around in my head that are just not possible for me to do at this present time.
However, maybe, just maybe, you are reading this and you are wondering “what could I do to serve my Jesus and His people” let me just shoot out some of the things I see that I would love to do if I could take on just one more thing.
Prison ministry: I would love to teach in the prisons… hey they are a captive audience and are no doubt, quite possibly hungry for light and life
Foster care: This is still something that I think will be doable to add to our family where we are at… and is something I hope to do in the near future… but hey what better ministry opportunity than to embrace a hurting, abandoned, little one in your arms and love them with grace and mercy and show them the gospel lived out.
Nursing home ministry: Once again a captive audience, what joy it would be to bring the study of the word of God to those who can no longer go themselves.
Shiftwork Bible study: My husband works a swing shift… I am not sure anything is on our schedule. I would love to begin an at home Bible study for the wives of those on his shift or if you are a shift worker why not begin one in your own home with meeting times that swing with your schedule
Stripclub Bible study: That’s right! I said it. This would be a great one for a 60+ year old FEMALE. Just march yourself right on in there and find a table and open up the Bible and start a study with whatever girl is willing to stop and ask you what in the world you are doing there.
Government housing Bible Study for single moms: Bring a friend to teach the kids and teach the moms!
Pampering Bible study: Do you do hair? Start a study in your home, if you don’t teach partner with someone who does, at the end of the study, whoever finished the course, gets a new do for free?
Princess party: do a weekend preteen Bible study that focuses on teaching these girls what it means to be God’s princess and do nails and junk food and all that slumber party fun as you study through Song of Solomon or Ruth or Esther
First Priority: Be an adult leader in a first priority group at your child’s school
After school Bible study: Do you have the privilege of coming home with your kids after school? Maybe choose one day a week to open your home or church to an after school Bible study and fellowship with food and fun with your kids peer group, and not necessarily the ones that go to church with you, but the one’s who don’t go to church anywhere.
Maybe you are not teacher? That’s okay volunteer. Do you know how many teachers would love to have someone come and serve along side of them who can keep up with paperwork and communication with the people they are teaching. Can you be the one to make sure everyone has a pencil and paper, can you be be the one to send a thank you card and we missed you last week card? Those are HUGE helps to a teacher!
Maybe you can serve as volunteer at a food kitchen or pregnancy resource center or nursing home, be there as friendly face and a helping hand… there are so many things… I know a lady who was a widow, she served as a volunteer at the pregnancy resource center and when a young girl came in pregnant or not with no place to go… well they came home with her and she loved them. She made them go to church with her and they could stay until they got on their feet again.
As the children’s ministry director at my church, let me tell you that if you would just be willing to serve a turn on the extended care rotation at your church, to help take care of the little ones so that their moms and dads can hear the Pastor and attend Bible Study and be strengthened in the Word so that they can in turn teach their children at home… this is huge as well!
These are just a few thoughts, just the things on the tip of my brain, running through my head… friend there is so much to be do, so much that can be done… I talked with a missionary from the Ukraine this past Monday and he shared with me how there is so much work to do in the Ukraine… he works with children in the Ukraine, with the orphans. Not only does he see the work that needs to be done in the Ukraine but he sees the work that needs to be done here.
He shared how he spoke at a church once here in the United States and he shared about his ministry work in the Ukraine… he told me that after he shared a man in the church came up to him with an attitude and wanted to know why he was wanting money for the kids in the Ukraine when there were kids here that needed support, his answer to this man… because I am doing what called me to do, God has called me to the children in Ukraine, what are you doing?
The man had no answer…
My friend there is so much to do for the Kingdom… what are you doing? God has given you an ability, an opportunity, an open door to make a difference in this world if it be only through the life of one that he has placed in your path… what are you doing? May we open our eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.
“Opportunities to display abilities and gifts come to all kinds of people, Christian or not. We can play it safe and get what we can for ourselves—or we can risk reputation, possessions, and life itself so that God may have what He wants.”
~ Pastor Ray Stedman
And I can wonder about the state of my heart all I want, if the arteries and the valves are hardly warmed over —
but give me a break, it’s right there in my hands.
It’s my hands that are content to mindlessly scroll through Pinterest and Facebook and too often it’s escapism and not ministry (and it could be. Anything can be made a ministry to somebody. All things are Big in the Kingdom of God).
It’s my hands that grow numb and cold and refuse to fold around God in prayer, refuse to fold hope around all this bleeding everywhere.
Hands are the thermometer of the heart.
And a heart that burns for it’s First Love — it flows like mercury to the hands that then reach out to warm a numbed world.
~ Ann Voskamp