Community Ministry
JOY IN THE
EYES OF
A CHILD
Alyssa Perry – Discipleship Supervisor
Community
Ministry
Photographs by MEDIA STAFF
As a part of our Summer Ministry Program, the Summer Ministry
Team reaches out to children in our local community of Giddings.
It began at one apartment complex and has since grown to include
the entire Giddings area with multiple opportunities to reach
hundreds of children, youth, and adults with weekly backyard Bible
clubs and service opportunities.
27 | Pages 2012
Going to Community Ministry for the
first time was an eye opening experience for me.
I saw many children that were hungry for attention and love. As soon as we got out of the white
van, they surrounded us by running around with
excitement and joy and tried to show us the bugs
they had found or tell us about their kitty cats. As
I watched them, I began to think that it was going
to be impossible to get them to sit still and listen
to the lessons that we were going to teach them
all summer. It was an overwhelming feeling.
I wanted to help them so much, but it just
seemed to be impossible.
As I was experiencing this strain, I
noticed a little girl that was constantly asking us
to pick her up and spin her. As I began to spin
with her, I saw a joy in her eyes that I’ve never
seen before. In that moment, God opened my eyes
to fully understand the importance of Community
Ministry. God taught me that day that Community Ministry is not just about getting the kids
to sit still and patiently listen to us teach, it’s
about showing the love of Jesus to the children
and showing them the difference in our lives that
comes from knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Over the past weeks, some of the kids
have noticed a difference in our lives. When I was
talking with a boy that had recently had his cancerous foot removed, he told me that we sounded
different from the people where he lived. I asked
him what he meant and he began to give me
examples by adding more emphasis to his exclamations. I realized that he was trying to explain
to me that we had more enthusiasm in our wor ??)????????????????????????????$???????????)???????????????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????????????))????????????]????????????????????)??????????????????????????????????????????)???????????$?????????????????????????)????????????? ?????????????????????????($)]????? ??????????????????????????)??????????????????!???????????????????)???????????????????
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