Our Lives

Well I have 2 Stephen Ministry classes left.  Then at the end of the month we are commissioned.

What a mixed bag.  On the one hand, I have learned so much.  On the other hand I am a little scared about the responsibility that comes with being a Stephen Minister.

In the comfort of our class, doing role playing has been very useful.  The relationships we have developed over the last six months amongst our class have been really strong.  We have shared things that have been difficult to share in our role playing which has helped to strengthen the bonds that the 14 of us have built.  We have been practicing ministering to one another.

But to go out and minister to someone else is a little scary to be perfectly honest.  But I do think that the process of arriving at the care receivers home and taking a minute in the car to pray for the right words and the right responses is a great way to handle things.  After all, it isn’t us but God who is ministering to our care receivers through us.

I am sure that as we built caring relationships with the people in our class, we will, over time build the same kind of caring relationships with whomever we are assigned.  I just pray for strength in remembering to focus on the process and not to “get in the hole” with the care receiver - but to hold onto Christ for support and extend a hand to help bring my care receiver out of the hole.