|
My Ministry
I was in the fourth grade and had missed a few days from school (can’t remember exactly if I was sick or out of town). When I got back, my teacher asked our class to turn in a book report that I had no idea had even been assigned. I remember after talking to teacher with my dad, he decided to give me an extra day or two to get the assignment done. This was the first book report I had ever done as a kid in school. I remember that it was going towards the “Book-It” program that Pizza Hut offered to get a free personal pan pizza.
I didn’t have a chance to go to the library so I found myself looking around the house at the last minute trying to find a book to read. That’s when I stumbled across a book that my parents had in their collection. It was called “The Cross and the Switchblade” by David Wilkerson. I was maybe 10 or 11 years old at the time and had no idea who these people in the book were, but I was captivated by a story of a small town preacher who was drawn to go to New York City to start a street ministry to reach drug addicts, gang members and underprivileged inner-city youth. It was through that ministry that Nicky Cruz, a notorious gang-leader got saved. I’ve read a million books since then (ha, well maybe not that many) but that one has stuck in my memory all of my life.
It was my senior year in high school and my mom started going to a new Bible Study that was being held in the basement of another church. The church we were going to at the time was, we’ll just say, not feeding me spiritually, so she finally convinced me to go with her one night. As I started going and grabbing ahold of the message and the vision, I knew that this was the ministry God was calling me into. The people giving the Bible Study were being launched out by a church called Victory Outreach. I didn’t know the history at the time, but as I look back on my life, God had called me to this church even before I was born.
It was 1976, a couple years before I was born, and a couple men driving through our small town, Raton, New Mexico, got stranded there because their vehicle broke down. One of the men was a preacher from a ministry called Victory Outreach, so he decided to make the most out of the situation. He found a place to preach and revival broke out in Raton. It made the front page of our local newspaper. People were getting saved, delivered from drugs, healed, restored and set free. God moved in a powerful way and it turns out that the church launched from that revival was the church that my parents got saved in.
Church politics led that church to decide not to be under the name or accountability of Victory Outreach, though. Looking back, I believe that lack of accountability is what caused the church that we grew up in to fall apart later on. From around the time I was in middle school and on we tried many different churches, but we never found one that we could call our home. It wasn’t until that Bible Study in the basement started that I truly found a church that I loved and knew that I was called to.
Victory Outreach International was started in East Los Angeles by Sonny Arguinzoni in 1967. He was a converted heroin addict and gang member from New York City who went through Teen Challenge, a faith-based organization founded by David Wilkerson. He was mentored and helped along by ex-gang leader and now world-renown evangelist, Nicky Cruz. Sonny started the church out of a one-room house and it has grown to a world-wide ministry. Victory Outreach now has over 500 churches all over the world.
Our mission statement reads, “Victory Outreach is an international, church-oriented Christian ministry called to the task of evangelizing and discipling the hurting people of the world, with the message of hope and plan of Jesus Christ. This call involves a commitment to plant and develop churches, rehabilitation homes and training centers, in strategic cities of the world. Victory Outreach inspires and instills within people the desire to fulfill their potential in life with a sense of dignity, belonging, and destiny. Victory Outreach works cooperatively with others of mutual purpose in accomplishing the task before us.”
I’ve been with Victory Outreach for around eleven years now and I wanted to write today about the ministry God placed me in to give you a little background of where I came from and how God placed me where He did. He had a specific plan for my life even before I was born. Isn’t it awesome how God orders your steps? He places you in the right places and situation and puts the right people in front of you to get you where you need to be. I love how God has orchestrated each and every step of my life.
Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…”
You may have had some bad experiences growing up. You may have suffered and gone through many trials. But if you are alive today and breathing, you can still thank God for giving you life. God has brought you to this point in your life for a reason. He has called you and He has chosen you and He has plans to prosper you and give you life. He loves you so very much and just know that He has ordered your steps.
Next week I will be attending the Victory Outreach International World Conference in California in which we are celebrating 40 Years of Ministry, so I thought it would be appropriate to write about how I’ve been blessed to be a part of this ministry for these past eleven years. I’ve worked with the youth in the past and am now blessed to be a part of the worship team at my church where I play guitar and lead worship on occasion. I thank God for keeping me and using me here in Victory Outreach Houston. God has a specific ministry/church that He has for you also. I encourage all of you to find that place where God has called you to be.
w/muchluv,
geno
NO COLUMN NEXT WEEK!!!!!
geno’s column will not be sent out next week due to the fact that I will be at World Conference, so you get a break from me for a week, ha. I pray you all stay blessed and I promise to have a super column for you two weeks from now. Luvya all!!! - geno
|