Family Life

04.09.09 | Katie Bernier

Understaffed? To God be the Glory! God still accomplishes His purposes with or without us!  A common theme in ministry is a shortage of people to get the jobs done. There's always tons of people who need to be ministered too, but not usually enough people to do the ministering. Many of us face burn out. Why?

In my own life it's because I take my eyes off Jesus. I focus on the people or the events and not on the One who gives me the strength to minister in the first place!

He only gives us as much as we can handle. He knows our limits! Sometimes He stretches us when we face the impossible, sometimes He's trying to teach us to rely on Him. 2 Cor. 9:8 says "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have abundance for every good work."

In the Youth Action Department of Family Life, we have recently experienced this. At the end of September our director left unexpectedly and the pervious spring  one of our staff members left also to continue his education among other things. So we went from a staff of four to a staff of two, doing the same number of events. My remaining Co-worker, Steve, is a very talented actor and was involved with our Performing Arts department putting on the Gifts of the Magi dinner theater all across our network. Steve could help plan our events but couldn't physically be there for most of them this fall because of the show.
 
I will admit I had my moments of doubt and brief panic attacks as I wondered how we were going to effectively minister when Steve and i were pulled in so many directions. During those times, I was forgetting two things; God and the body of Christ. Once I placed the events in the Lord's capable hands (we were doing the events for the Lord anyway right?), He took them and we had some amazing time of ministry! Every time I would start to get over whelmed a co worker from an other department would come by ask what they could do to help or a friend would call. God placed people at just the right times when we needed the help the most! It was amazing to watch God work through His people.

Looking back, I'm blown away at how well everything went and how many people the Lord used to help get His work done. During the last month and half we have held 7 large youth events all over our net work. Two of these events were overnights!  We had contact with over 1000 adults and teenagers in that short 6 weeks and were able to present the Gospel message to them.

We couldn't not have gotten through this time without the body of Christ. Staff members from other departments stepped up and helped in tremendous ways. We also have an amazing crew of volunteers! Thank-you!

God will always get the Glory and will make the impossible, possible if we let Him!