Perspective

Many of us on staff have experienced the same thing you have experienced when you came to serve with the Crisis Response Ministry. Most of us came on a team to serve for at lease a week before we came to volunteer longer term. We all came with expectations. Some of us came with the expectation that we should have no expectations. We read the information packets sent to us or viewed them on the website. We packed our bags, our tools, our Bibles and our work clothes. We came to Louisiana thinking we were going to be doing a great service. We were going to get a lot of work done on our assigned project. But then as we first arrived, we heard about flexibility.

Of course we can be flexible…as long as it is on our terms, right? I personally came on a team back in April of 2007. I was expecting the unexpected. We became workaholics. We saw a roof that needed shingles and thought, “hey, we can get that done this week.” We worked hard the first two days. The homeowner was not there so it was easy to get wrapped up in the work. By the second night our team realized that we needed to put the people first. Here is where our “flexibility” had been tested. Even though the homeowner was not home, there were still plenty of neighbors to speak with. We huddled our team that night and prayed that God would help us to be able to drop our tools and would provide us with the opportunities to speak with people.

The next morning we arrived to our job site and before all of us could even pile out of the van, a man walked up to us and asked if he could have some cookies which opened the floor for some conversation. God had answered our prayers and not only provided the opportunity to speak with someone, he even brought them to our van door.

Has God brought someone to your “van door” this week?
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Amy Stokes
EFCA Crisis Response