Tregaron and its wonderful residence!

My senior Pastor and the Music Minister have asked me take over the ministry and become the Pastor at an independent living facility that our church has had services at for the last fifteen years.  It's called "The Church at Tregaron", has about twenty five people each Sunday.  99% women, from many different theological backgrounds, with an occasional husband or son attending.  They are a lovely group of people, who are very caring and who are just appreciative that someone is taking the time to provide them spiritual care.  They have been a very receptive to the Gospel Message but everyone has expressed already having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ our King.
The ministry team is made up of a gentlemen and two ladies who do all of the music and set up and one lady who does snacks and hands out hymnals and the bulletins.  I have found that Lifesprings Church put some money into the equipment that we use. I have preached in many nursing, independent living and assisted living and only the really high end facility have anything to support a service. Our mother church really shows how much they care about these loving folks.
Personally, music has not and probably will never be a strength, unless we start singing like the Old Appalachia Baptist's?  You'll have to look that one up, I found it really interesting.  We sing hymns out of the old Baptist Hymnal and sometime the Music Leader gets a little excited.  He really does love God's music and he just pours his whole self into rejoicing in God. I so enjoy watching a man who is on fire for the Lord and shares so much through his worship.  It makes it hard to laugh and sing at the same time!
God has luckily gifted all of His people in different ways.  I have to remember that though I have been there for a few months know, one of the Ladies and her now deceased husband started it 15 years ago and the music guy has been there almost as long.  They are very gracious with me, even when they think I'm supposed to be the leader of our little circus but I'm supposed to do it the way it has always been, Ha, ha, ha...
It's all to the Glory of God! May he bless you and keep you close to His bosom!

I was just reflecting on a passage from Scripture because I have a bone deep weariness.

     ^"11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrew 4:11-13.

As I find my self more and more consumed with the cares of this world, the less and less joy I seem to have.  I was at a NAMB event over this last weekend and we were told that we needed to prepare a short sermonette, about 8 minutes.  My Bible time and my time with God lately has been like a desert but the sermon.  
There was joy, my heart seemed to sing out to God and the beauty of His word sung to me.  For the last several years all I have had the opportunity to delivery has been funeral sermons.  I do realize the importance and can be important evangelism tools but preaching Gods word, that different.  When I preached those 8 minutes it felt like it was "right", that's the best way to explain it. 
The weariness lifted, it seemed as if I had walked out of the desert from which I had put myself.  Its funny how we do this, I work a bunch of "ministry" jobs that barely pay, have incredibly odd hours, very high demands and seem to be hurting my family.  I have made the excuses for the longer time in between family devotions and my devotions with my wife.  My own spiritual life is in the tank; it would seem from doing the very ministry that I should be working harder on my own spiritual life for.
God is good, in one days study for an 8 minute sermonette He corrected me with His love, wow!

How God changes His children

I have finally finished my first credit hour of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). This summer program changed my life. I spent upwards of 70 hours a week at the hospital, Saint Luke's in Kansas City. A lot of the time was split between Saint Luke's on the Plaza and Saint Luke's South, which anyone from Missouri or Kansas knows Johnson County. Each hospital had its own personality, of staff, patients and experiences.
God opened my eyes to what the effect of the Fall is and just how far we are away from our heavenly Father. How sin ravages our bodies, a lifetime of it effects everything, even how we die. How our pride and arrogance keep us separated from His glory and the amazing gift of Christ crucification but also the strength that the Holy Spirit can bestow. I have seen mankind's underbelly, people who have worked hard to be good and who become the targets of random violence just because of where they live. Hatred of Man for Man and how that is played out in our interactions with each other, beating, stabbings and abandonment. The ravages of drugs, alcohol, on the person and there families and finally death. Watching death and how it can be so utterly terrifying or can be such a sign of His Grace. Watching people deny God and die, I would realize that there suffering wasn't ending as they hope but was going to be eternal. Do you know how heart wrenching that can be, how you can plead with someone, praying that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell within them, asking if not begging them to except Christ. Only to watch them die, unrepentant and afraid?
God also showed me how love and compassion knows no race, age or gender. That He pours out His love to us and carries us through what should and can be the scariest things that ever happen to us. How many believers ministered to me, the Chaplain Intern, in his times of need. They where the ones sick, they where the ones in need of compassion, yet the Spirit moved them and gave them strength to minister to me and show me love. The love that comes from the fellowship of believers and how they can bring that to those in greatest need.
I ran out of my own strength about the 3rd week, God put me in my place. I got what is called "Compassion Fatigue", or as it may be better known as type of burn out. I cared to much, opened myself to others peoples emotions and suffering to much and tried to do it all on my own strength. I was taught how to rely not on myself but on God and the people He puts in my path. I will expand on all these topics, the people I met (no real names) and my current school semester, soon...