AVAILABILITY – A Blog by Rev. Grace Verrier
I was teaching a workshop on Children’s Ministry when I first met Patti Loranger. She told me later that when she saw how I taught children at their own level sometimes using outrageous methods, she questioned my validity. However, as we got to know each other (and she eventually moved to the city where I ministered regularly) she not only appropriated everything she could learn from my experience but she greatly surpassed me in Children’s Ministry. I knew that the day she went on her own and immediately started a bus ministry and neighbourhood out reach programs, that she was not going to just stay in her church to teach – she was going “into all the world” as Jesus instructed. (Matthew 28:18-20)
I thought about my own call to Children’s Ministry. I remember I didn’t really like children except my own. However, the church I was saved in had a shortage of Sunday School teachers and was about to ask me to teach (because they thought I would learn the Word as I taught it). The day they were about to ask me I slipped down the church steps and my children and I took a tumble. I was furious at my husband for not helping and I yelled at the top of my voice chastising him. (Remember I was just a new Christian.) Needless to say they couldn’t have someone like me teach Children so I got to sit in the adult teaching session and learn the Bible for over a year. Then I asked God to use me in any way He wanted. I heard in my spirit that He wanted me to teach children. I argued that I only liked my own children and anyway, the Pastor’s wife had witnessed my outburst the previous year so she would never approve it. She was the Sunday School Superintendent and because I felt I heard God’s voice I cautiously approached her and asked for her position. She just stared at me open mouthed. Then she waved to her best friend, Esther, and in front of me said, “Well, it seems our prayer was answered.”
The pastor’s wife had been feeling a tremendous amount of pressure because she had too many duties in the church and the day before, she and Esther had called out to God to send someone to help her. They had asked God to have the right person approach them and ask for the job of Sunday School Superintendent. (I am sure that they would not have even considered me as a prospect if they hadn’t asked for God’s confirmation.) Needless to say my application was accepted and I knew I would have to study teaching methods and organizational methods to do the job and I began research immediately. I was uncertain if I could do the job properly, however, one day God spoke so clearly to me, “It is not your ability I look for – it is your availability!” I have never looked back.
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