I’ve written about this before, but today is sort of a momentous day for me. The first thing I ever did in ministry was take a group of students to the Creation Festival. That was in 1998 and the 2018 festival starts today. That’s right, for all intents and purposes this is the 20th anniversary of the starts of my ministry. Now I don’t know the exact starting date of that festival back in 98, but fittingly Creation is where it all began. It’s been 20 years since I first sat on that beautiful hillside and saw God demonstrate his faithfulness in what would be my ministry. It was a day of turmoil and stress, a day where I thought I heard God completely wrong. It was a day when I wondered who I was to think someone like me could ever be in ministry and it was a day where I saw the light of God shine through. It was the first time God reminded me that the only thing that really depends on me is that I would be faithful and that he would do everything else. I’ve needed that lesson almost daily ever since, but God has continually been faithful.
So many things have happened since that day. I became a youth leader, God showed me how to use art in ministry, I started to train for ordination, I got ordained, started a church, closed a church, started a web site to share the creative ministry ideas I was getting, started getting invitations to speak around the country, and today I pastor a church and continue to do and teach art ministry every chance I get. I’ve been blessed to write books and a ton of Bible lessons, make a ton of art and meet thousands of wonderful people and those are just the external blessings. One year during the festival I had the privilege of baptizing my son Christ at Creation. I had the privilege of marrying quite a few of those girls to their husbands and one of the girls from that youth group married my son, became my only “daughter” (so far) and blessed me with my grandson David John. Through it all my loving wife Dawn has been by my side. Her organizational skills made that first trip possible and her love has helped me over and through every bump in this journey since. I am a blessed man and it’s been an interesting 20 years.
I’ll share with you what I believe God said in my spirit on that first night 20 years ago. “I never said it would be easy, but if you will be faithful, I will be with you and use you.” Take that to heart because it wasn’t just for me.
Thank you Jesus!
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