Story 14 :: New Place, New Ministry

My biggest fear going to college was that I would not find a place to turn my gift as a worshipper or find a place to minister. Coming from a supportive church and family, I never hesitated to speak up. In fact, it was expected. I just joined in and flowed as God lead me. Case in point, the first night when everyone got on campus, I remember walking by the gazebo. The gazebo was in the middle of a great grassy area and it was a beautiful place to hangout. This night a bunch of people were playing guitar and worshipping. Everyone at Lee seemed to be able to sing (and sing well), so it sounded amazing. I joined in with the group. After a while, it was opened up if anyone had something to speak from the Lord. Well, naturally, I did. The Lord had me speak up and encourage the people with a message. I ended up making friends with people from that night that shared life with me during the next four years.

I remember one evening my roommate telling me about a group meeting on campus that was amazing. The group was PFC (Pioneers For Christ). I went with my roommate to one of the meetings. A special evangelist was there. He was speaking to a packed auditorium. At the end, he was calling different people up for prayer. A few minutes later, he asked for someone to come play the keyboard. When I heard his request, it was like something kicked me out of my place in the row. I ran down the aisle of the auditorium and up the keyboard and started playing. Talk about gumption. It never dawned on me that the worship leader would do that. I later realized that the worship leader was walking down the other aisle, I just beat him to the keyboard. Thank goodness he did not take offense to it. I offered to turn it over to him, but he let me continue to play. The evangelist was moved by the playing and prayed for me and many others during this time. A great and wonderful spirit of praise filled the place. A few days later, the leaders of PFC approached me and asked me to be the worship leader. For the next two years, I ministered every Thursday night, weekends (when soccer allowed), and Fall and Spring Break week long ministry trips. In addition, the local youth group at Mt Olive COG needed a worship leader, so for a semester, my Wednesday nights were there.