To tell our story is to ask us 'how have we helped to bring about the Kingdom of God'? As ministry tells us to act upon and meet the needs of others it brings me to reflect on an example of ministry with untraceable beginnings and an unstoppable future. This ministry is not scheduled for the masses of our population to take in at a set time on a set day. It may not reach that many people this week. But it has inspirable depth and unmeasurable teaching.

My Mom is a minister. Though unofficial or recognized, my mother has ministered along with my father to the most intimate of groups, my family. She brings us into the Kingdom of God, making the ordinary Holy. Celebrating closely in our lives, she has nurtured our physical, emotional and spiritual growth. She embraced what was cÙlosest to her, welcomed many challenges and invested in the future. A future that tells us her ministry has not merely been a service, but a proclamation for living. One that warms newcomers to our home, one that feeds the hungry, forgives our mistakes and teaches unconditional love. Her ministry is committed and time-tested. She and my Dad brought three little people into the world and she honours her ministry to us with her devotion, time, and her whole self. Now I wonder, is not the ultimate ministry one that has been passed down from one before you and creates a vision for one beyond you? My Mom's story of ministry, of the haven she shelters us with where our truth and potential thrives, brings church and God to us. Her story does not abruptly begin with her and probably did not with her mother or her mother before her. Instead, her ministry has nurtured a legacy that makes home the primary church.

How do I define my Mom's ministry?...By carrying it on, and my story has just begun.