Why I am Here

I recently became a Small Group facilitator. This new title or step in faith has brought about many questions, emotions and thoughts. Am I adequate for such a position? I am quickly reminded of Philippians 4:13 “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” And the powerful Ephesians 3:20 “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Now that puts all thoughts of inadequacy to rest.

Am I doing this because God has called me? Well, really if you get to the brass tacks; a small group facilitator is a fellowship enthusiast, and God’s word in1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” So, walk with Jesus (the light) and fellowship (share the love of Jesus) with people, and remember that Jesus gave His life for us so that our lives could be transformed to His likeness, which creates a desire to see others be transformed as well. Which paves to another question. How does someone know God has called him or her to a position? Pray, pray, renew your mind, be transformed, use spiritual discernment, then pray, and pray some more. Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” God has opened many doors for me showing me my ability to lead. Recently, I know God has been calling me to be more and do more. How do I know? I will just say, I felt the uneasy pull on my heart to do something more and the joy of working for the King. Then, I prayed and prayed, not wanting to follow my vain ambitions, and I accepted the opportunities God has presented.


First, a Contamination Control Champion title was available, and I accepted this role, which only brought more responsible – no pay increase. I admit, I initially took this role to sweeten my resume’, but soon realized God was preparing me to lead at some capacity. You see, while all this was happening at work, I wanted to learn and take on a mentorship to be a teacher or preacher at church, although I have no Bible college degree. So, I went and told my desire to the Senior Pastor, and he told me to first lead my family with grace, and if God were calling me to lead; He would bring people to me to lead. What do you know, people started saying I should be a small group leader. I asked them, “Why?” and their response was usually vague – like: I think you’d be a good teacher. So, the group with the idea of fellowship, decided to start gathering bi-monthly. And lo and behold a couple of times our conversations turned to life struggles and I found myself standing in front of the group sharing Jesus, and encouraging them not to quit. Then, a Team Lead position opened up at work, and since there were no other takers I was offered the role. I accepted, once again even more responsibility but no pay increase, but the experience is beyond compensation.

Furthermore, I’ve found over the years and different jobs, I love helping others be successful when they think a task or a situation is impossible. Thinking back, God has been training me to lead for a long, long time. My first real job was a laborer for a brick mason at the age of 13. I learned what hard manual labor was and to this day I’m not scared to roll up my sleeves and get dirty. Then, I was a bagger at a local grocery. Where I learned how to treat people, and that I like to help others, even when they insisted no help was needed. Next, I worked for a huge hospital where I transported all the garbage – from every floor - to the incendiary room. Once again hard work, and I learned to manage my time. Then, I was promoted to a Floor Tech in E.R., refurbishing and refinishing all the corridors and room floors. Here, I learned to be subservient to the head nurses and schedule around the mass chaos of a very busy E.R. Many times, wet wax was trampled and I would have to start over. Frustration turned to patience and understanding – I guess. (However, I still let circumstances control my attitude at times – still under God’s construction.) Next, I cleaned carpets for a large floor restoration company. Again, I worked hard, but also learned to meet the needs of others, or meet in the middle of what was actual physically possible with the condition of the floor and the budget. Next, I journeyed back to the hospital for a short stint – once again redoing floors, but this time for the new layout of the prompt care and E.R. Which was more assessable, since prompt care was only opened till 8 or 9 p.m., but my hours were 1:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Plus, I had the added responsibility of fixing the floor care equipment, which in itself kept me busy. I learned to sacrifice and adjust my schedule to meet the current need of the hospital. I also attempted to sell vacuums door to door and found that I cannot sell if the product or practice is unethical. For instance selling a product for $100 to you and then selling the exact same product to your neighbor for $300. I just could not do it. I’m glad sharing the love of Jesus is sharing truth and not devised schemes and false practices.

Then, I worked for a equipment company that owned several local dry cleaning facilities. My first job here was a counter clerk. Basic interaction with customers that sometimes evolved to very frustrated and upset customers when a damage claim needed to be filled out, which leads me to my next role as the Sales Manager. Where I scheduled, trained, and supervised 10-15 employees, while resolving customer complaints and seeing the, when necessary, damage claim process through to finality. The owner then presented me with the covenanted position of “being a dry cleaner.” A lot of responsibility: had to ensure there were clothes waiting for the pressers upon their arrival at 6:30 am, check all the pockets ensuring all items have been removed, sort all the clothes by potential colorfast (bleeders - needed a special load), colors (darks, lights, or variation of colors), sometimes delicate fabrics, which were then sorted down to color and like fabrics, and wash loads (believe it or not some people pay to have clothes washed with a DO NOT DRY CLEAN care label. I trained three people at the art of dry cleaning, which really is an art (and took me several years, to begin to fully understand and then and even now if I was still dry cleaning would be learning and perfecting the art.) If you don’t believe its an art, take a silk shirt or silk tie and try to remove a spot with steam and plastic picks without discoloring or stretching the fibers, or preparing loads to allow colorfast garments to bleed on each other, intensifying the colors of the entire load.

My next job was at a phone center, here I assisted customers with promoting, installing, hooking, and programming their electronics, which may be as simple as programming a VCR to running diagram charts of multi-media theatre systems. Of course, I also dealt with unsatisfied customers. This job taught me more patience and learning to let people vent about possibly defective equipment, and thinking through every situation before attempting to give an answer. Finally, I ended up at CAT where over the years I again found hard work, and at times, thought I would not be able to fulfill the role of assembling tractors on a moving line within the allotted time per station. However, God’s grace and mercy prevailed, and over these last 5 years I have been privileged to train people on assembling tractors and running computerized test, which are both overwhelming and sometimes seemingly impossible jobs for outsiders, depending on their mechanical aptitude and willingness to learn.

God has wrapped all this up for me on the night before my first official small group.

Still, sometimes, just the thought of leading people makes me nervous and excited at the same time. I think to myself. “I can do this; if and only if I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, and let Him lead the way.” And conveniently Hebrews 12:2 clearly verifies, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Changing thoughts slightly, I bought John Maxwell’s “21 Irrefutable Laws to Leadership: Special Edition” after asking our Equipping Pastor what is good leadership book to read. I’ve only made it through 2 laws, but together they have reassured that all have been called to be leaders at some capacity, and all can become good leaders. So far I’ve essentially learned that a manager, does just that, manages resources, but a good manager utilizes all available resources to cooperatively achieve short and long term goals. However, a leader influences people to follow, but a good leader has and uses no leverage as influence, and people intentionally follow; believing the leader will lead them all to a known victory. Thus, a leader must have a clear vision and a passion to see the vision come to fruition, while allowing everyone to participate in achieving the goal.