rob's reflections

When I was a teenager, I went to a Baptist church, and a few times a year we would go on a week long missions trip. Later I became a youth worker and I led trips like this.

On a trip like this, there is usually a time where kids and leaders are sent out to do some sort of street evangelism. They go and talk to people, tell them about God, and invite them to follow God with their lives. Then after a time like this, there is a time later that night where the students all debrief and give a report of their conversations to the entire group. There is this enthusiasm in the air as students share how God lined up a conversation between them and this person that they had just met. We would call it a “divine moment” or a “God thing.” During this testimony/ story telling session, everyone would be full of joy and awe and feel led to pray for all of the people that they had met. 

Now I am a hospital chaplain, and I work with a number of volunteers. These volunteers are CPE students, retirees, and novitiates, training for ministry. I print a list of patients for them to see. I give them resources like Bibles, rosaries, and notecards to hand out to patients. Some of them walk the floors with foldable chairs so they can sit and have a long, meaningful conversation.

When they come back to my cubicle, they always want to debrief and give a report. It has those same vibes as youth group missions trip. Each volunteers lights up as they tell how a patient shared a story with them; and how they listened, and prayed for them, and gave them a meaningful Bible verse. They are all so amazed at how God led them to this person, at this time, and on this date; and they all can’t wait to talk to this person again. 

I love these talks, and I try to add fuel to the flame of the enthusiasm of these volunteers. I hype them up just like I would hype up a youth group kid: I say, “wow! It sounds like you were really listening well!” “You really had just the right thing to say in that moment.” “I think that you were the best person to talk to that person; I’m so glad that you were available to them.” 

It’s funny how God uses these skills from working with kids to have a ministry to adults older than me. We can all use some cheering, no matter how old we are. 

Ephesians 4 says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

God is love.
-rev-rob