God,
I believe, calls each of us to a ministry. And God may call us to many different
ministries over the course of our lifetimes.
God, I also believe, gives us opportunities to explore new possible
ministries, to develop skills for ministries, and to exercise leadership,
including spiritual leadership.
There
were lots of these kinds of opportunities during our Eastern Kentucky mission
trip. And the trip affirmed for me the
concept of call. Let me elaborate on
each of these.
Because
our mission team was so small, everyone got a chance to shine and lead. This was the case even though on a trip with
a bigger team, some of us might have been eclipsed by others who were more
outgoing or more assertive.
Our
chances to lead came at our home base (the house next to the First Presbyterian
Church of Hazard – where we cooked, ate, cleaned, played, and had devotions),
at the work site (at the two houses which he tried to help the Housing
Development Alliance finish), and out on trips where we experienced the beauty
of the mountains and learned about the issues that mining raises.
I
took a photograph that I love of the three young people – Hannah, Emily, and
Ethan – scrubbing the floor of an HDA house that was almost done. But Emily is taking a break to chance the
station – or whatever – on her smartphone.
I was initially skeptical when the kids started listening to one of
their phones at this site. But the kids
had all just cleaned a pile of gross garbage out of the front yard and the
street, they were into the music, and they seemed to be working even harder to
the sound of the music. I eventually was
happy enough that I moved on to our second house, leaving them and Hilda to
finish up.
Later
that night I was leading food preparation for dinner when I decided there were
a couple of more food items we needed. I
wondered whether I should stop cooking and take time to drive to the grocery
store to buy those items. But, after a
while, I decided there was no need for me to do this, when I could simple send the kids to the
convenience store a couple of blocks away, which should have what we
needed. And off they went on what turned
out to be a bit of an adventure, but they came back with what we needed, and I
was happy for them to take the lead on this.
Many
of you know that I’ve been involved in a bit of a career transition. It now looks that I may teach college next
year. It’s been almost 10 years since I
taught college students, and occasionally in the past I wasn’t firm enough with
my students or I wasn’t very popular with my students, or both. While on the mission trip, I was sometimes
firm with your kids, and they usually listened to me. And often they still seemed to like me, which
was I nice combination that gave me some good experience and confidence going
into teaching.
On
those long car rides, they kids also share with me some insight and information
on youth culture, which I’ve fallen a little behind on, and on school
norms. For example, they told me that kids
a year or two or three away from high school shouldn’t be surprised if they
were told to put their cell phones, tablets, and laptops away before class.
Finally,
your kids and Hilda and I, along with the carpenters, electricians, HVAC
people, and landscaping team formed, I thought, a pretty effective
cross-generational, cross-gender, cross-class, and cross-cultural team. Many of my classes will definitely have to
also be this if I am going to succeed back in the classroom.
So,
I thank God and you all for this opportunity to serve, learn, grow, and
lead. I’m also thankful for experiences
that confirmed for me that I might have a new call and prepared me a little for
that call.
May
it be so.
-Perry
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