Things are "percolating"

I suspect that if I only had eyes to see as God sees, I would recognize remarkable processes at work. As it is, I'm seeing some glimpses of possibilities for which circumstances are coming together.

My church held a "Missions Fair" yesterday after worship. After a good ol' Methodist potluck lunch, we heard representatives of various local and regional missions, explored their agencies' displays, and finally helped assemble overseas school kits in homemade book bags created by various church members.

One speaker represented "Depression Connection," a good solid ongoing ministry in our annual conference. They are trying to expand the number of support groups in our area. I've been getting nudges for a while that I need to look into volunteering for small group facilitation, but between my schedule and a lack of need at my own church, I hadn't identified anyone to approach about this. "Ding" - connection made. I learned afterward that my pastor had contacted the speaker in response to an "ad" asking for volunteers and venues, but she'd not been sure we'd be much help to him because so far no one had "surfaced" as potential facilitators. So both my pastor and the agency rep were quite pleased with my volunteering for group facilitation.

In the discussion following this event, my pastor also indicated she would be speaking with our Pastor/Staff Parish Relations Committee concerning long-term staff needs and an eventual expansion into "general" ministry areas for me. We also talked about our church's immediate need for a staff coordinator for children's ministry--our current volunteer is spread too thin and seems incapable of delegating any tasks. Though there is no money for this at present, we do recognize the need and are seeing an increase in new families with elementary age children in our church, due to intentional efforts at reaching these families in our growing community. I have agreed to be an unofficial liaison for the present time so that we can begin to build a children's council; this would do wonders for keeping us accountable and eliminate some of the "double-booking" that comes from people not talking to one another about event scheduling.

Anyway, my point is: I'm beginning to find outlets for my skills and gifts in other areas of ministry beyond music. Music's going well as well, as we begin to get geared up for the fall. It's just that sometimes I long for those longer-term eyes, as the Spirit percolates things through my soul and I wonder what's "cooking." (This Christian "not being in charge of my own life" thing sometimes can chafe!)