What This Ministry Has Meant for Me...

So, as part of our venture to keep an updated blog, I'd love for you all to be sending in your stories of what the ministry has meant to you, what God has been teaching you or anything else you'd just like to share with the group as a whole through written words. Since I ask this of you, I thought it only fair for me to go first :).

I was discussing with Rachel the other day what our "word" would be to describe our last year. Mine was "broken." Before you feel sorry for me, let me explain. The past 2.5 years have been the hardest I have ever endured. If you don't know my testimony of them, I'll gladly share with you sometime, but they have been by far the most trying, trial ridden ones of my twenty eight years on this earth.

I have believed in God and had a personal relationship with Him since as far back as I can remember. It is sometimes with a faith like that, you can have a lot of "head knowledge" without the heart knowledge. It is not until intense periods of difficulties come that you have to decide, am I in or am I out in this thing called Christianity? It is an all or nothing choice. Black and white. Yes or no. There is no maybe, on the fence, when it is convienent Christians. God's says, the gate is narrow, many will say "Lord! Lord!" like you know me but I will have never known you.

So the past couple of years, my word has been "broken." God stripped me down to my bones and made me decide if I was in or I was out. Was I going to trust or going to falter? In the midst of this, He planted in me a desire to minister to other military wives. The thing real brokenness has taught me is that we are all broken. Every one is walking wounded. Most of the time we try to hide this fact, but if you take the time with people and "get real" as Dr. Phil would say, you figure out we are all broken, hurting people, just in different ways. One of my favorite quotes is "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."-Plato. It's true, the deeper I get into this ministry, the more I realize we all got our own junk we are dealing with. And the more I realize we all just want someone to journey through the storm with us.

Anyway, so during my intense "junk fest," I somehow, through the Holy Spirit and some incredible Ebenezer Stones (this week's lesson if you missed it), got the awesome task to head up a ministry for military wives in our area. As I got deeper and deeper into this, God was doing an incredible work in me. Through serving, He was able to bind up some of my gaping wounds that I had and start the healing process in so many ways. He focused my mind and my energies on other people and I watched as He bandaged up a casualty. He put others in my path that were going through some of the hurts and pains I had already experienced and allowed me the chance to share how He brought me through those things and give hope. When you get those opportunities, it gives purpose for all the pain you have endured. When God can use your brokenness, He can start to do some incredible things, some healing things, some eternal things. Things that can make a stay at home mom, following a man around as he chases his dreams, feel as though her life matters.

So, when I think about what this ministry has done for me, I think it has healed me. God gave me suffering to allow me to understand just a small taste of the suffering Christ endured. He gave me ministry to help me understand the servant leader Christ was and how the old addage, "it is better to give than to receive" is more than just an overstated cliche, it is an enduring truth.

I know a lot of you are hurting. You are wading in a pool of your own junk. My prayer for you these next few weeks is that God reveals to you the ministry He has for you, both within this group and in your sphere of influence, so that you can start to experience the incredible healing work He so longs to do in your life.

Thanks for being one of my Ebenezer Stones...

In Him-
Catherine