Faith Through Service

 Faith Through Service

          Hello friends, my name is Nashya. I am a Protestant Christian and I attend GIA, which stands for Gereja Isa Almasih (Isa Almasih Church). I am one of the youth who is active in serving the church, both on stage and behind the scenes.

Since I was a child, my parents have been brought me to Sunday School, which is why I already have many friends at church, and they later become my ministry partners. My very first ministry in church was dancing on Christmas Day. I danced together with my friends. From that ministry, I began joining other kinds of service such as choir and drama. As I entered my teenage years, I joined catechism class to be baptized, because in my church you must receive adult baptism in order to become an active servant. After being baptized, I started serving actively. There were many ministries I participated in, but the three I joined most often were ushering, multimedia, and being a Sunday School assistant teacher.

Each ministry had its own challenges. For example, when I was an usher, sometimes when I smiled or greeted people, they didn’t smile back or responded coldly. When I was on multimedia duty, sometimes I accidentally showed the wrong lyric or was late in displaying a slide, which made people turn their heads toward the multimedia area and made me feel embarrassed. When I was a Sunday School assistant, the children often ran around everywhere and were difficult to manage, which made me tired at times. But despite all the challenges, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve God using the talents He has entrusted to me.

Besides those three ministries, I also took part in non-platform services such as preparing food, helping decorate the church, and joining the prayer community. In my church, there is a small community called GIFT, which stands for Grow In Faith Together. In this community, we do many activities such as networking, sports, and playing together, but most importantly, we study the Bible together. My friends in GIFT also taught me many new things, such as playing musical instruments and more. In addition to GIFT, I am also active in attending church events such as Bible Camp. I really enjoy Bible Camp because I get to play and learn about the Bible with my friends for several days. Worshiping and praying together with my church friends has a special kind of feeling. I hope that those who read my story will also find brothers and sisters in faith.

My ministry journey has not always been smooth. There have been times when miscommunication occurred with my church friends, causing conflict. But in the end, we always managed to resolve it and continue serving God together. From all my ministry experiences, I have learned many examples from Mother Mary—faithfulness in serving despite conflicts, obedience in ministry and in living out God’s word, and caring for others. I also learned something important from those conflicts: “Church is a hospital for sinners, not a university for perfect Christians.” This means no one is perfect; everyone has weaknesses and makes mistakes. Therefore, I must be willing to blend with others, be corrected, and be continually renewed to become better. Through serving, I also learned to listen to God’s voice through the people around me and through many things He can use to speak to me.

One unique fact from my ministry journey is that I once wanted to stop serving because of a conflict with a church friend. But somehow I felt that if I quit at that moment, I would be wasting the good things that God had prepared ahead. And it was true—over time, serving brought many blessings into my life, such as building more relationships.

Before I end my ministry story, I want to share a quote that I always remember whenever I serve: “God gives us talents not to keep them for ourselves, but we are given the choice to use them for good or otherwise.”And I choose to use my talents to serve the church and others. Serving does not always have to be in church—our daily lives are also a form of ministry, shown through how we speak and behave toward ourselves and other people. So I want to encourage everyone reading my story to actively serve God and others. Don’t be someone who only wants to be served; instead, let us grow in faith through service.                                                                                                               Matthew 5:16

❝In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. ❞