We have a very creative and energetic children’s minister, Jackie Frazier. She has a great ministry with lots of volunteers, kids, and their parents. Vacation Bible School is one of her specialties. She hosts statewide VBS clinics and her preparations and decorations are among the best I’ve ever seen. This year’s theme was “In The Wild” from LifeWay. Her decorations were exceptional with every hallway decorated with a different habitat: Arctic, Antarctic, African jungle, African plains, and Asian animal habitats. She had live animals each night: from sloths, to bunnies, to llamas and alpacas; she also had kangaroos, goats and sheep… and this year she had a Zebu! The kids loved them all. They added to the enhancement of the theme and excitement of the whole VBS experience.
On the third night of VBS, the Zebu was the featured animal. This Zebu was small even for a miniature cow, had large charming cow eyes and a calm disposition in spite of the wild surroundings, loud music, and kids singing. The Zebu had just completed its session of petting and parading, when, as all animals do… it did another p word… it pooped! Fortunately, it was not around the children but it was near one of the entrances to the building where children and their parents would soon be exiting. Several people quickly got to work doing Zebu dung remediation. Mind you this is a cow, they don’t drop biscuits, they leave piles of manure. At first, I was a little taken aback… as if I expected the poor Zebu to have better manners than to relieve itself at the entrance of the church building. But then, I had to laugh. I began to think how many people in United States churches can say, “yeah, I cleaned up Zebu dung at VBS last night.” Then I started thinking, “Wow, I’m a part of a church that will go to any length to reach kids with the Gospel, ‘that by ALL means we may save some.(1 Cor. 9:22)’”
This was a messy ministry night, but Rick Warren reminded me years ago at a conference that ministry is messy (and not just when we have animals at church). Warren points to the principal behind Proverbs 14:4 that says, “Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.” Warren says, we want to love people, disciple them for Jesus and bring them into the church, but humans have messy lives and when we love them well, we eventually find their mess. When we follow Jesus, we become people who love each other especially well through our messes. We could have squeaky clean churches, but they would all be empty. When we do real life ministry, there is always some dung to deal with.
Those who love me well, deal with the not so pleasant stuff in my life. They help me clean it up and I’m grateful. I hope you soon get to enjoy the great privilege of loving or being loved so well that life's mess gets cleaned up. If we love each other well, I believe we will get to see the increase.
