By Elaine Reimers, Adult Ministry Director
Those of you who read my blog in February (check it out here) know that our adult ministry team has grown. The team of me, myself, and I became Erika and me in August of last year, and with this expansion has come more POWER, more brainpower, and, of course, more (wo)manpower. As we wrote our goals at the end of last year, I believe Erika and I both sensed that 2026 would bring new experiences and learning opportunities; however, I don't believe either of us envisioned that expanding both our ESL and Citizenship programs in the same trimester would be a "thing".
Given everything we already had going on in our day-to-day lives as part of the ministry team, I thought we were probably at capacity with the programs we were offering adults in our community, at least for the time being. I quickly discovered that with God's help and provision, we were capable of much more than my human brain thought possible. God has a supernatural way of helping us along, especially when we ask for His help. I believe that God has been in every one of Erika's and my weekly 1/1 meetings. He has heard our prayers and conversations about not wanting to be a mediocre ministry and how, at times, it's easy to feel like we are not doing as much as we could or should. Ministry work can be tough at times.
As Erika and I have talked about our personal walks with God, I see similarities in the way that God is working in us and through us. I have noticed our prayer lives have deepened and have become more intimate. Our faith in Jesus seems to be at an all-time high. We have a hunger to share the gospel and life with people. It's been beautiful to see Erika's relationships with volunteers and students grow and flourish from the tiny seeds planted along the way as she has walked through the process of joining the staff and becoming the Community Integration Manager over the last year. There have been relationships that have challenged her both personally and spiritually, but she always concludes that God is trying to teach her something and runs with it.
God is definitely up to something in Erika's and my ministry. He is setting divine appointments, sending us people who need Him, and putting us in the right places at the right time. He is opening doors and inviting us in to do His work, and we don't even realize it sometimes. As I am sitting here writing this article, it's dawning on me that His work is as simple as answering a call to start morning Citizenship classes or an offsite ESL class. The truth is that we don't always need to look for opportunities to serve Him by serving others. We have the opportunity every time we walk past a homeless person or notice someone who is clearly having a bad day or season in life. And we don't always have to offer money. Money is great, but sometimes people just need to be listened to, smiled at, and shown that they matter to someone. If we make ourselves willing and available, God will put what needs to be done in front of us. It may not always be what we expected or what we would like, but God's "to-do list" will always be in the right order. His plan for our days will always be better than ours, and will always work out for good!
Please pray with us that our programs would continue to draw participants into our loving community and that we would have an abundance of volunteers with a shared desire to build community by sharing life. Ultimately, and most importantly, let us pray that God would continue to open doors for us, equipping us with spiritual discernment and boldness in sharing the gospel with others.