At one church we had a very creative and energetic children’s minister. She had a wonderful ministry with lots of volunteers, kids, and parents. Vacation Bible School was her specialty. One year the theme was “In The Wild.” Her decorations were exceptional. Every hallway was 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 she had a Zebu! A Zebu is a small South Asian cow. They are less than half the size of regular cows and they have a distinctive hump on their back near the shoulders. They look like miniature Brahman cows. On the third night of VBS, the Zebu was featured. This Zebu had large charming cow eyes and a calm disposition in spite of the wild surroundings with loud music, and kids running all around. The Zebu had just completed its session of parading, and being petted, when, as all animals do… it did another “p” word… it pooped! Fortunately, it was not in front of the children, but it was in one of the hallways where children and their parents would soon be exiting. Several of us quickly got to work doing Zebu dung remediation. Mind you this is like a cow, they don’t drop biscuits, they leave piles that are the consistency of porridge. At first, I was a little taken aback… as if I expected the poor Zebu to have better manners than to relieve itself in the hall of the church building. But then, I had to laugh. I began to think how many people could 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)’”
I was reminded that ministry is messy (and not just when we have animals at church). We humans have messy lives and when we love each other well, eventually our messes are revealed. When we follow Jesus, we become people who love each other in spite of our messes. Peter tells us, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”(1 Peter 4:8 NIV) 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 have to deal with the still-needing-to-be-redeemed messy stuff in my life. They help me get cleaned up and I’m grateful. I too have the privilege of helping others clean up.
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!
(Edit of an earlier post)
