Refresher Course: Ministry 101

I'm posting out of turn. Usually I set a year's worth of entries to private, look over the past year, and then post a long summary of things I've learned, and then set goals and list desires for the coming year.

Today was such an improvement over a normal Sunday for me. I usually barely scrape something together for worship, deliver it, run around after service cleaning things up, then Sunday School, then leave for Stephen Ministry training right after, and before I know it, it's 5 pm and I've basically treated Sunday like a work day.

I deconstructed the worship set/team for today and it was just me and a guitar today, which makes for easy practice, setup, and breakdown and allows me to spend time with people after service, which thankfully I was able to do. Even for cases I was not able to talk to people or preferred not to sacrifice the general fellowship time for, I arranged for other times during the week or month in which we could meet.

I had to pack the drums into the garage, so I was the last one out of the church. While locking up, it was starting to grow stormy, and I was just putting the final padlock into place on the front gate, but it was jamming since it was so rusty. I saw Brenda, a local homeless person that I've talked with before, pushing a shopping cart along Sacramento. Part of me swore at the lock for jamming because that part of me just didn't want to invest the extra time to talk to her, and just race home.

"Happy New Near!" she says to me.

"Happy New Year, Brenda," I reply. She seems to recognize me but does not remember my name. She halts the shopping cart and gives me a hug. She begins talking up a storm as the winds kept picking up - soon I'm just standing there, listening, while she continues on and on about what has been going on in the past couple of days. As the story descended into darker and darker events, she begins describing how much she hurts, and begins crying. She continues to narrate, interspersed with tears, inches away from my face.

I still sort of want to leave, but to be fair, the wind is knocking the hell out of me while I listen patiently. She mentions church many times, as well as her Heavenly Father, and  Jesus. Still crying, she says she talks to her Heavenly Father every day and that He talks to her.

I ask her what He says to her. There is a slight pause and a sniffle.

"He say Good Morning Brenda," she begins, much like a child would. "Then I say Good Morning Father and Good Morning Jesus."

Another pause as she wells up again with tears. "He say You're my child and I love You."

I affirm that she is God's child, and that she is loved and valued. It is about an hour later and I am freezing, my car parked with the hazards on in front of the gate, with me and Brenda standing before it. I am struck by what has happened, but at the same time Brenda is continuing to pour herself out, and I still haven't locked up. She continues to talk, and I take a risk while slowly moving towards the padlock while indicating that I'm still listening. It then hits me that I can lock the padlock by turning the key while fastening the lock rather than just pushing it closed.

It locks. Brenda has moved her cart over by this point. An opening presents itself, and both of us mention that we have to be going. She keeps mentioning the word "hurt", which I reflect back to her to indicate that I understand that she is hurting. After one last long hug, I walk back towards my car and she brightens up and tells me that she'll come to our church on Sunday.

With that, we both leave in opposite directions.