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  • I Remember When I First Began In The Ministry. I ...

    Contributed by Chris Surber on Apr 28, 2007 (message contributor)

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I remember when I first began in the ministry. I was a young Marine Sergeant living in Yuma, Arizona. I had gotten involved with a retired Pastor.

He and I would lead a chapel service every Sunday at various retirement communities, assisted living facilities, and at rescue shelters. I was basically a volunteer chaplain to these places. At Emerald Springs retirement village there was a feisty 92 years young woman, barely five feet tall, named Elsie. She would tell me the same thing every time I was her.

She would say, “Preacher!” (She always called me preacher.) “Preacher, I grew up on a farm in Southern Arizona riding a horse and buggy and now we have put a man on the moon! I remember when we used an outhouse and now they have bathrooms on airplanes and you can fly anywhere on the planet in a day!”

The world is always changing and while we can’t control everything that happens in the world… we do have power over what happens in our world… in our immediate lives, in our families, in our church, and in the lives of those around us. God has not called us to change the entire world; He has called us to be instruments of His change in the lives of those around us.