Human Seeds and Humans Flowering

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2024 Blog #19

May 6, 2024

Human Seeds and Humans Flowering 

Several years ago, we had a youth group at the church. We had a good core of young people some of whom grew up in the church and were part of Sunday School and confirmation classes, but most were friends of those kids with no affiliation with the church apart from the youth group. It was a wonderful group but it didn’t last forever.

The youth group leader took a paid job in another congregation and the kids involved in the group got interested in other activities and the group disbanded. I didn’t know how my interactions with this group would bear fruit in the future of this congregation.

I learned from this group that the future of the congregation was intertwined with the growing Hispanic population in town. The group had, not a majority, but many Latin kids in it. It was a barometer of our future as a congregation. This reinforced what I had already concluded, we needed to develop Hispanic Ministry.

Just a few weeks ago, our congregation began the search for a new secretary. The former one had to retire due to medical difficulties. As we began to search, we concluded that our next secretary ought to be bi-lingual, Spanish-English so he or she could relate to both our worshipping groups, Spanish and English. Three people were interested in this position, and we began interviewing.

We hired a new secretary this week and I began her orientation. Much to my pleasure, Ambar, the new secretary, was one of the kids from the former youth group. She was one of the ones who made it clear to me that we had to do Hispanic ministry as a congregation.

Looking back, it is strange how God used many people to bring Ambar to us. She was not affiliated with our congregation but came to youth group through her friend who was part of our church and a member of my first confirmation class. In addition, the friend’s mother is an elder of the congregation and was a member of the search committee that brought me here. It was this mother who first told Ambar that we were seeking a new secretary and that being bi-lingual was a requirement.

On Ambar’s first day of work, she walked in, looked around and said, “it is good to be here again. I have a lot of good memories from here from youth group.” I told her that I also, had good memories from the days of having a youth group.

And so, I am training the congregation’s first bi-lingual secretary to go along with our new bi-lingual ministry. She was brought by a friend and enjoyed her days with us even though when the youth group broke up, I never thought that I would see her again. The elder who was on the search committee, whose daughter brought Ambar to the youth group, also brought Ambar to be our secretary. Relationships matter and we never know how the seeds we plant will bloom, or when they will bloom. The youth group seeds we planted took more than ten years before they bloomed into our new secretary. God has a different time perception than we do.

This week’s lesson is to keep planting seeds, even if we see no growth. In due time, God will make these seeds grow as a blessing to us. That is, of course, assuming that we are doing God’s will.

Keep doing God’s will, keep planting good seeds, be patient and watch God work!