This past September, I was privileged to be able to attend the International WIC Conference in Atlanta, Georgia along with Flo Wolfe, Irene Jones and Rhonda Acree.  At the time, I found myself wondering more than once, “I don’t have much of anything in the way of skills or talents and I’m certainly not leadership material!  Why am I going?”  Well, I found that maybe God had bigger plans…plans to open my eyes to His purposes and some of the ways I could come alongside Him in the work He is doing.  The overall focus of the conference was “Generation to Generation” and the theme verse for the weekend was Psalm 71:17-18, part of which says

“Do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those who come.”

Throughout the 3 days I spent at that conference, I had many opportunities to reflect on the ways I was (or more often, wasn’t!) making myself available to “proclaim [His] might to another generation” or enabling others to do that.  In the 15 or 16 years that I’ve been a part of this church, I’m sure I have vowed to assist hundreds of parents in the Christian upbringing of their children during baptism.  Each time, I did so with a slight twinge of guilt, knowing that I was not really carrying through on the promise.

Starting this past summer, the Women’s Ministries team took a giant step of faith in offering childcare for the Tuesday morning Bible studies.  Many hours have gone into brainstorming names, making phone calls, and talking with women face-to-face, trying to recruit childcare workers.  Requests for volunteers have been printed repeatedly in the church bulletin and Women’s Life.  There have been a few willing and dedicated women, and a teen or two, who have been staffing the nursery and helping in the preschool room, but nearly every week we are short-handed and scrambling to provide adequate coverage. 

When the fall studies began, we were short one adult worker.  Although I had signed up to attend a study, and felt woefully ill-equipped to work with children, I decided to volunteer to help.  To my amazement, after the first week of not really knowing how to best help out, I came to love my time there, getting to know the children and seeing them learn God’s word.  Even more precious, though, were the heartfelt thanks that I heard every single week from the moms who were enabled to attend a Bible Study because we were there to provide care for their children.  I found that I didn’t really need any special skills, just 2 hours of time each week, a willing pair of hands, a watchful pair of eyes and a caring heart.

God’s call to us to proclaim his goodness to the next generation reaches beyond the walls of our individual homes.  We are all part of one spiritual family at SPEP and the children of this church are the responsibility of every single one of us.  Training and equipping the young mothers (and fathers!) of the church is the responsibility of all of us.  I challenge each of us to prayerfully consider serving the families of our church by offering 2 hours on Tuesday morning so that mothers of young children can attend Bible Study.  I can promise you that the blessings you receive will be every bit as great as those you give.

Michelle Ward