Life is hard sometimes. Lori Regneir's story of ministry to families of child sex trade victims was hard to listen to today on GirlfriendIt radio. It's a subject so heavy and dark, but it is so prevalent that it has to be addressed, it has to be STOPPED. And Lori couldn't do anything else but jump in and help stop it. To find out more about this organization, go to Starbright Foundation. God bless her for using the gifts God gave her in serving these hurting families.
What has God given you that is a gift to hurting people?
The next guest on this show, Jessica Pierce, talked about not knowing where she was gifted or what her mission in life should be. Now a career finder and life coach with Career Connectors, she is passionate about helping people see their gifts and helping them focus on where they should be headed in life.
When I took the Myers-Briggs personality sorter, it even confirmed my suspicions that I am basically put here to entertain, as comic relief. And while that is a tongue in cheek statement, it is true to a big extent. If I get carried away, my children even look at me with serious eyes and say, "Mom, focus....really." But God has been so kind and generous to me, to use my silliness as a way to minister to people who are hurting. Time and time again, I am drawn to people in pain, trying to move through healing and find myself making them double over with laughter. It's kind of shocking sometimes, I don't even try to do it, but I let God use it when it comes out. (What else can you do?) I feel like it comes from a deep place of compassion for them though, so it's somehow appropriate.
Two years ago, another ministry family, David and Diana Johnson, had a tragedy happen with their son on the other side of the world. They got a call from Africa to inform them their son had been killed in a motorbike accident while traveling to a village to teach. He was 21 and a semester missionary in Mozambique, Africa.
Four months later, I found myself traveling to Africa with them and my husband to visit the places Jeremiah had worked and meet the people he ministered to. It was a match made in Heaven, because they needed comfort and help to walk through those places and to hear the testimonies of how their son touched so many people. I have never appreciated my gift of humor more than this trip. I didn't go thinking that would be my offering, but it was and I thanked God for letting me have something to offer. My journaling on that trip is here if you would like to read about how one young man touched the world and our visit to those places. In the end, it was an honor to be able to go on that trip and share that hard experience with my dear friend and add some comfort...in my own way.
As Patty Wyatt asked on the show, "What had God put in your hand?" What is God already using in your life to help people? I found humor was not shameful and immature (most of the time) but was quite healing and freeing when used appropriately.
Just remember to handle humor with care or you get in trouble...a lot of trouble. As a pastor's wife, I know this to be true. *ahem*
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