Thoughts from Joanne Yeager

Joanne At VBS on Saturday

One god sighting that I saw on the trip was when I was out doing subway and homeless ministry. For the subway ministry, I was too nervous. I could hardly stand still. I was afraid that I wouldn’t know what to say or if I did say something, it would be completely wrong. Practically all of the team told me it would be all right, but I didn’t really believe them. We got on the train and Pastor Devin started us off with a few songs. As we were singing, I thought to myself, if I can sing in front of all these people and not feel awkward, why to I have to be afraid of talking to them. As soon as we finished I started looking around for someone to talk to. No one really stood out to me because they were usually with someone else. Finally this one lady boarded. Something about her seemed to remind me of myself. I think maybe because she was really quite and just had this shy look about her. I felt like a complete fool talking to her because I would just randomly stop talking. Thank God for that thought because I started talking about how shy I was, and when she had left, she turned back and told me that I had encouraged her to talk to her running buddies more often. I just felt uplifted. Unfortunately, I only talked to one other person after her but I was so much more confident. I thank God for that one encounter. The confidence followed me as we headed out for homeless ministry. I honestly wasn’t nervous at all. On one of our last stops, I met this wonderful man named Wolfgang. He was from Britain and he had gone homeless 4 years ago. We talked for about an ½ an hour and at the end, when we asked if he wanted to know Jesus, he told us he didn’t know. He was too confused. However as we started praying, he started agreeing with us, and he seemed so much more open to it. I hope that it moved him to find Jesus and live for him.

For the heroes, I would have to say the entire team. They did the work that they were supposed to do without complaint and did it with so much heart. Also, I have to say all of the leaders. They poured out so much for us. They bought us things we wanted and some of the time needed. They would stay up late with us to talk, play games. They counted us so many times I cant remember as we went to ministry sites and just explored New York. They were always there and they were such a blessing for me.

Some of the things I learned on this trips were when we’re at our weakest, God is at his strongest. I had gotten, I guess you could call it sick, and because of the late nights, I was exhausted. Because of God, I still managed to keep up with everybody else, putting my all into the work. Another thing was that people are so much more nicer than we assume. Like for instance on the subway and at the homeless sites. Of course there were some people that would shut you down, but the majority of the people would let you explain yourself and if they still weren’t interested, they would say so. But through these ministries, I conquered some of my fear of talking to and in front of people.