This week I believe God has shown me my gift to be used for His Kingdom. I thought that gifts were for those "special" people in the family of God. The ones that you see every Sunday who preach, sing, play musical instruments or even lead in Children's Church. I have learned that it takes all of us working together to be a family of God.
I remember a few weeks ago, in a class that Neil teaches called Community and Growth, we actually had a chapter in the book about spiritual gifts. After a month or so of being here, I thought well....God hasn't shown me my gift in the 10 or so years that I have been searching. well....He's probably not going to show it to me now. Then I went to this class and we were talking about how some gifts are just so simple. Such as the gift of serving. If it wasn't for people willing to do the mundane tasks in life, then the important people such as those who lead in church on Sunday couldn't do what they needed to do. We talked about several roles including the "grandparents" of the church who are the people who are willing to give advice because they have lived life and know how to navigate it. We talked about several other types of people that day.
Then we talked about one gift and I forget the exact name of this gift. But there is this really sweet guy here, who is mentally delayed. He always stands out as the most cheerful and bright person in the room here. He's someone who, if you were sick, he would attempt to draw you a Get well soon card. (just like he did for my roommate this week) He is always willing to say hello and what's up when you see him. He's always happy and now that I think about it this gift is the gift of joy maybe? not quite sure. Anyways, if God can use this fellow, then I know that He can use me.
I've been praying and praying and praying and praying....etc about this. This week someone said to me that I'm always willing to help out if I see people sad and I'm always willing to say hello. If I see one of our senior's here in the lobby and they seem to be sad, I try to go and talk to them when I'm not working to make sure that they are okay. I know that there is a time to be sad, but I don't like to see people sad. Anyways, I know now that I have the gift of encouragement.
Well, sorry I haven't been posting very much. I've been busy with work. class, magazine work, and homework, that I don't really have time to blog anymore. Well, if I cut out the time that I spend listening to audio books and reading books, then maybe I would have time to blog. haha. This week one of the ladies I know who's sister comes and visits a lot. The sister's friend gave away a lot of clothes she didn't want anymore. So, the sister gave the bag of shirts to me. Yay, more clothes which I always need ever since the fire. Before the fire, I had a pretty good amount of clothes. Since the fire, I've been building up. I kept a whole trash bag of new clothes. I'm so excited.
I went to a clothing bank that we have at one of the shelters we run called the Free Store. Where people can donate clothes and our clients (people in the shelters) can come by and get clothes. Sometimes people who live in the community can get permission to go up there and get some clothes. So I talked to the lady who runs it and she said that it would be fine for me to go to the free store because I needed to look for pants. Well i didn't find any pants, just one shirt. :(
As of this past Friday my roommate has been sick with food poison. I was kind of wary at first of helping her because I thought it might be the stomach bug and I didn't want to catch it. She was so miserable and I hated seeing her being so sick like that. I remember about a month before I came here, I got the stomach bug and it wasn't fun. She wasn't getting better after the first few days, so I went with her to the doctor, who is 2 blocks away at the nearest hospital (it's not a very good hospital). They said she had food poisoning and put her on antibiotics.
I thought she would get better but then for the next day she got worse. Then after that worse day, she felt a lot better. I would check on her almost every hour. I would also bring her things if she needed it. Water, ginger ale, bubbly water, anything. I'm so happy me and my roommate are close. I remember sometimes having roommates in the past that I wasn't so close to.
Well, to all you mothers out there I hope you have a happy mother's day.
