the first post is always the hardest

I love reading blogs and I always wanted to start one but I had no idea what to write about. So now I have to write a blog for class once a week so we will see where this goes.

A little background information; as a requirement of my BTh I am doing what we call a Junior Praxis. For the next two years I will be intentionally and consistently volunteering in one ministry setting. On this blog I will be reflecting and writing about my experience throughout the year. So stay tuned each Friday for a new post.

Now for the good stuff: As I sit in Starbucks drinking my Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino I’m trying to figure out what the heck I should write about. You see I’m in an unusual predicament. This past spring when I started thinking about where I wanted to volunteer I was all for doing children and/or youth ministry – I love kids and middle schoolers are my kind of people.

But as usual God said “Oh Emily when will you learn that I am in charge and I have a plan?”

God had something planned for my summer that I did not see coming. Through my job (more on that another day) God worked in my heart and opened my eyes to see the joy in community outreach ministry. Over the past few months I have just grown to love working in the community sharing the gospel and just hanging out and getting to know people.

So here I am. The past few weeks I have been volunteering at community centre that offers many programs such as an emergency shelter, step-up housing, a nine month addiction recovery program for men and referral for women, life skills, GED, and daily biblical studies. So far all I have been doing is making and serving coffee, which is a little frustrating because I have gone from serving and leading a community outreach program this summer to serving coffee. I feel like I have gone from leading in a huge role this past summer to a smaller much less significant role and I feel like I am not making much of an impact yet. But I have only been there 3 times so we will see what will happen as time progresses.

As a side note, I am leading at a middle school youth group once a week so be expected to read a post about that every once in a while.

I hope you enjoy and come back next week!

Thanks for reading,

Em