A space, a time and a clear designation - these are the parts that shaped my understanding of ministry, from an early age.
Born and raised in a small Eastern-European country, I was privileged to be surrounded by a loving family who managed to beautify poverty with timeless meaning. In our small house there were three modest bedrooms, one for grandparents, one for parents and one for my older sister and I. The latter one also happened to be a guest room, extensively used by others. While random visitors were brought impromptu by our grandmother from all walks of life, a more predictable weekly visitor was the itinerant pastor who would travel from far away to shepherd our small village church for a few years at the time. It was then that our little bedroom was christened with the name of the pastor assigned to minister at our church: “It’s in Uncle Uba’s room...” my parents would say, when pointing to our bedroom, then designated for Pastor Uba. As Pastor Uba was moved to another church, Pastor Parvan came and our bedroom became “Uncle Parvan’s room” while our sleeping quarters would be quickly relocated and often improvised.
The pastors left one by one, but the memories of the sweets they brought to us, along with their prayers and the beautiful worshipful moments became fertile soil for my calling to ministry. The little bedroom remained a quiet witness of such transformative encounters and an allegory of my own call to ministry: I’m but a simple, unsophisticated room to be occupied by God’s Spirit for a special time such as this, with a clear designation of service. There is nothing that qualifies me for this call, other than His willingness to work in me a marvelous salvation and through me His healing and reconciliation. In this journey of service I learn patience and humility from trials, I gather strength from His grace and direction from His wisdom. I am reminded every day that I am of value because I bear His name, I bear His name because He lives in me - He lives in me because He loved me first and He chose me to be His own. I am committed to cohabitate with Him for the rest of time as measured under the current sun.