The context of my ministry certainly is unique in that my entire ministry at the moment is within the

confines of a funeral home. With that said, it certainly isn't limited to the funeral home but seems to
be proven ground for low hanging fruit. Over the past few years my ministry has seen some real
victories. In fact, i'd say they're the biggest victories i've seen in many years. Something's happening
to me that can be explained and it's impacting my ministry. I'm becoming bold for Christ, no matter
my audience or context i find myself in. I've come to a point in my life where i realize it's not about
myself but about reaching others for Jesus. An example of one great victory came when I was
directing the funeral of a Jehova's witness. During the arrangements the Lord spoke to me to just love
them and speak to what I know of His word without adding or taking away, only what I know.
Furthermore, I the Lord impressed it upon me to shed myself of any argumentative posture, but stand
firm in love when sharing God's word with them. To make a long story short, the family came to me
after the funeral and told me they've never felt so much love. They told me they were prepped by
their clergy that anyone offering the love of Jesus that wasn't a JW was being deceitful. They received
genuine love from me and it was evident to the entire family. I received a call from the famlily 6
months after the funeral and they informed me that God had been speaking to their hearts since the
funeral. They felt the Lord leading them away from the Jehova's witness church and into a nondenominational setting. This is a Huge victory as the family had only attended the JW church for 30
years. The entire family left the JW church, grandparents, parents, children, and grandchildren.
Since that time, God has brought me to multitudes of family's to share His truth through action. The
action is love without prejudice, without judgment, without contingencies. I'm reminded of what Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 13: 1-7. Love is the message, no conditions, no exceptions, no
contingencies, just love. Through our unadulterated acts of love, we guaranteed to be more than
clanging symbols. Once the sound of a symbol is gone, all that's left is the memory of a loud noise but
love continues on, metastasizing through our individual lives, ministries, communities, and offering
hope for salvation to all who experience the genuine love of Jesus. Amen!
If anything, in terms of needing a prophetic word of hope for restoration, I'd say that the
prophetic word needs to come to me as much as it needs to reach my listeners through me. While i'm
in a state of orientation, I find that I need continued edification through encouragement from godly
people, and through God's word. When it comes, and it always does, I feel refreshed. There's a direct
relationship between my delivering God's word from a refreshed spirit vs. the contrary. The spirt of my
ministry is being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ through the direct contact with people
at a time in their lives when they need the love of Christ more than ever before. There's something
about the vulnerability of those grieving the loss of someone they love. It's that special moment that
allows the ministry to really reflect the likeness of Jesus Christ.
I believe my ministry is fulfilling the great commandment through the unwavering service to the
broken hearted. The nature of this business is purely service driven and 24 hrs/ day. With that said,
God continues to refresh me mentally and physically so the ministry can carry on. Each and every
recipient feels the love of Jesus through the services provided and often times, the financial breaks
offered.
Not only is the aforementioned ministry my personal ministry but the ministry of the entire staff at the
funeral home. Because we're all Christ followers, we share in the same goal, to love everyone and
serve them the best we can. Because we're equally yolked there's uniformity in our words, actions,
and behaviors. We represent the body of Christ with unity and uniformity in our context no matter
how diverse our audience is. More often than not, family's comment on the love they feel from
everyone at the funeral home.
During the arrangements conference with the family's, emotions are heightened. Many family's bring
strife to the funeral home. Often times, planning a funeral brings famly's together that have been
seperated by conflict for decades. It's during the conferece that I'm able to gain their confidence
through love and respect. It's not uncommon that I speak to family's about how forgiveness will allow
the family to reconcile and healing can begin. It's amazing to see God's hand work in the midst of
hatred, and how His hand alone can transform hatred to love. Amazing!

At the risk of sounding redundant, our service driven ministry serves the needs of our immediate
community. With that said, our immediate community consists of our entire city and surrounding
counties. Our outreach is broad in the local sense. We embody Christian hope through the way we
live, speak, and encourage our families. More often than not we're reminding the grief stricken that
they'll be with their loved ones again in Heaven. This of course is dialogue shared with actual Christ
followers. To those who aren't, we share through loving conversations, and often times with a certain
amount of cleverness, about our own faith and how we'll be together in heaven. It's not uncommon
for a family to not have a pastor to officiate their service and they'll ask me to do it. I'll let them know
that i'll speak about my faith. Rarely am i met with resistence since i'm offering my time to conduct
the services. I share the story of Jesus last walk through the streets of Jerusalem carrying the Roman
cross. I conclude the story on Golgotha and the thief asking Jesus to remember him. Jesus response
to that thief had an incredible effect on the thief and to each family i serve. They leave the funeral
home with hope that they too can be saved without a lilfe of good works first.
The context of my ministry forces people to think about their own mortality and the mortalilty of their
loved ones. Nothing makes people think about their own mortality like the moment they walk into the
visitation room and look at their loved one lying in a casket. Again, i have a unique relationship with
my community because everyone needs my services at some point. Because Jesus is at the helm of
our business, while we're not a popular place to hang out, people know they'll be loved when their
need for us arises. While our community has a large number of churches, there's still a significant
number of un-churched people in the community. In our context, scripture needs to be heard in a way
that provides hope. Often times it's not reading the word, or quoting scripture but rather living the
scripture out loud through our actions.