Ministry is medicine for the soul

By 10:00 this morning, all I wanted was for this day to be overwith and to wake up and start anew tomorrow.  I woke up sad and in a cranky mood.  Today is the anniversary of my big brother Ryan's death.  He died 11 years ago and every year it is still hard, but I love remembering him and hope that Ryan never goes away from my memory.  Matt and I both were snippy with each other this morning (I may have been griping at him for everything and he may have been reacting to how I was treating him).  Then sometime after breakfast Matt was cleaning the kitchen and I was getting ready to shower when we heard something in Haley's room crash.  We walked in to find the chest of drawers on top of her.  I was relieved to find nothing was broken, although I thought her nose was.  Haley was sore all day and a little grumpy but not bad.  We gave her Tylonol and chocolate to help her feel better.  At this point, I was really having a bad day and did not want to see anyone or talk to anyone for the rest of the day.  I just wanted to go to bed and restart in the morning.  However, life doesn't work like that.

Matt and I committed to work with kids on Saturdays.  We spend about 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon with some poor children in a community near by.  As mentioned earlier, I didn't have a great attitude this morning, but since I committed I was going to go because I want to be a person that honors my commitments.  We went with Chuck and Mary (who I wrote about last night), and once we arrived in the village, I felt that the burdens of the day were lifted from me.  I had not even prayed today when I was having such a yucky day.  I calmed down, in the midst of loud noise, and loved the time we spent with these kids.  We talked about the story of Noah's ark.  Of the 6 in my class today, only 1 had ever heard of the story of Noah.  Wow!  Only one person in the class had ever heard of Noah before.  Haley was passed around the older girls who shared their candy with her.  These kids have learned a few Bible songs and sing them several times before the class starts.  We also played some games.  One of which Matt and I were the basketball goals and the boys and girls played each other.  They didn't dribble though.  It was supposed to be passing from one to the other and not ever running with the ball, but it was more like a mob around whoever had the ball trying to rip it out of their hands.  It was quite hilarious to watch.

Tonight after we got home, I was thinking of how many times people become so consumed with their own burdens and worries that they "don't have time" to serve others, but when we listen to God's call and reach out to others, our problems don't seem quite as big.  I pray that this week we will all get out of our comfort zones a bit and serve someone different than us.