A few weeks ago, we had a Stephen Ministry Appreciation Dinner to celebrate the newest volunteers who have completed their training and are now ready to join the ranks and help those who need a trusted Christian confidant. There were thirteen in the new class (seated in the photo above), including quite a few men, which is really great. Men often have more trouble asking for help, so there are not usually as many male care receivers, but because we are only paired with someone of the same gender, it's very important we do have male Stephen Ministers available when needed. Since most of us were there that evening (with the exception of a few who couldn't come that night), we took the opportunity to get a photo of all of the Stephen Ministers who serve at our church.This brief post from last April, when I completed my training, explains specifically what the Stephen Ministry is: click here.
We're not the only church with a Stephen Ministry. This ministry is all across the United States in churches of many different Christian denominations. It's a great program, and I am honored to serve Christ this way. In the year and a half since my commissioning, I have been assigned one care receiver, and was privileged to walk with her through a difficult time in her life. Once she felt that things were on the right track, we transitioned our formal "caring relationship" into a friendship. We're planning to meet for dinner sometime in the next few weeks. Currently, I don't have a care receiver; quite a few of don't, but we're ready when the need arises. Since we only have one at a time, we try to always have more care givers than care receivers.
The Stephen Ministry is in other countries as well, including Botswana! Our church helped a church there get started with this ministry, and the first group of trainees is almost done. In addition to the "typical" problems we have here, like divorce, job crisis, and so forth, they have many other issues to deal with; the current life span in Botswana is only 35 years on average because approximately one-third of the population suffers from HIV/AIDS. Think of that; one in three people. So even if you did not have it, you'd likely be suffering the pain of losing friends, neighbors, and loved ones to this disease.
When we go to Botswana this summer, one of the things we hope to do is to teach a continuing education class for the brand new Stephen Ministers at the church there. We're required to have a certain number of hours of continuing education each year on topics that we don't have time to cover in our 50 hours of basic training. I'm not one of the trainers at our church, but I know I'd enjoy doing that at the church in Botswana. I'll keep you posted on whether or not that will work out; there's still a lot of planning to be done for this trip.
I'd also like to send a big congratulations to all the new Stephen Ministry "graduates," both here, and in Botswana!
