Tag: Serving

The summer of 1975

January 26, 2025

In 1975 I traveled farther than I had ever gone.  I rode a Continental Trail Ways Bus from Springfield, MO to Harrisburg, PA. I left Missouri on a bright morning and by the next afternoon had checked into a hotel with over a hundred college and high school students from all over the United States. We were there for orientation to the Student Summer Mission Program of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Leaving home wasn’t that hard. I spent the last semester of school in a dormitory on campus in Bolivar. That is about thirty miles north of my home. Ron, my roommate, and I got along well, and we both went home every weekend.  He went to Waynesville and I to Springfield.  He had transferred to Southwest Baptist College that year as a junior from the University of Missouri, Rolla campus. I did the same thing from Southwest Missouri State University. He was a mechanical engineering student, and my major was creative writing. I was going to go to the University of Missouri at Columbia before God called me to the ministry.  Ron’s plans were changed by God, also, before we met.

During the first week of my first semester, I saw signs around campus promoting the Summer Missionary Program. I filled out the paperwork and applied. We would find out if we had been accepted after the new year.

That year, I met many new people, not all of them at college. I went to church one Wednesday evening for dinner and joined a youth excursion to a haunted house. At church, I met a cute little high school girl. As we waited in line at the haunted house, we began holding hands, and I made myself available to comfort her when she was frightened.

I failed to ask for her phone number that night. I later asked the girl she had attended with for her number, and we began dating. When I received my acceptance for the summer and learned I would be going to PA I wondered about leaving her for ten weeks.

When I left in June 1975, we were engaged. We wrote letters—yes, I know that is old-fashioned—and spoke on the phone. I missed her terribly. I returned in August; I had decided that by next summer, we would be married. I was graduating in the spring and did not know if I would be going to seminary or where God would take me.

I took a part-time job in February of 1976 and was offered a full-time management trainee position two weeks before graduation. Two weeks after our wedding I was told they needed me to move to Joplin, Missouri. Cindy was still in high school. I left for Joplin on a Sunday evening and stayed in a hotel. She joined me on Friday after she quit her summer job.

I was so glad to have her in my arms again. She graduated in December, and we returned to Springfield in August of 1977. Over the years I have been asked why we did not wait until she finished school to be married. My answer is simple. I did not want to be away from her like I had been the previous summer.

I did not know that God intended me to move so close to home. I thought I might be going hundreds of miles away again. I had considered Dallas, TX, Kansas City, or even California for Seminary. That was not God’s plan. I did not need a master’s or doctorate. I needed to learn to be a workplace minister.

The question is sometimes asked by teenagers, “How do you know when you are in love?” For me, I knew that summer. I never wanted to be away from her again. I’ve gone on short mission trips of about a week. I’ve traveled for training and my job. Ten days was the longest we have been apart in fifty years.

Shortly after I accepted the call to full-time Christian service, my pastor told me to carefully select the woman I would marry. When I transferred to SWBC (Southwest Bridal College), I dated several girls. I prayed for each one. Was she the one I should marry? I do not believe I ever asked God about Cindy. I knew I had to spend my life with her.

If you are looking at major changes in your life this year, graduating, moving, or changing jobs, be sure that you are seeking the Lord’s will. Nineteen Seventy-Four was a pivotal year for me. God told me He wanted my life, and I gave it to Hum. Is this the year you should do the same?

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

HIGHWAY & HEDGES MINISTRY

November 7, 2023

In forty years of ministry, it has often been asked, “You’re a minister?  Which church do you pastor?”  The explanation is often difficult.  Not all ministers are pastors of churches.  When the calling came, it was to full-time gospel ministry.  That was a term that had a lot of possibilities.

At the time, the pastorate was the assumption.  Music ministry is not this Christian’s gift.  My passion was for the written word.  God could not use that.  Or could he?  Lesson plans have been conceived, drawn up, and used.  They were not published, yet.  Plays, skits, monologues, etc. have been created and performed.  Once again they have not been published as yet.  Articles have been written and published, but just in the past fifteen years. 

Full-time does not necessarily mean that you make your living by it.  As the road has taken a salesman to different locations, ministry has been accomplished.  As others came to a purchasing agent or manager, the same has happened.  Stories about these encounters are numerous.  Some are shared in “Doulos”, others have yet to be written down.  You may see these in later pieces.

Ministry by definition is difficult to pin down.  A cup of cold water is a ministry.  A kind word or listening ear may be another.  A bowl of stew or other nourishment may be another way to serve some. A listening ear and shoulder to cry on is another way to help.

Another thing I have learned is that every believer is a minister. Accepting this call may seem difficult for many people. I remember the days when I could not speak to people without having my knees knock together. When I accepted the call to serve, I struggled with being the kind of person Jesus could use.

Because I expected to be bivocational, after college I went into secular business. Christians in the workplace can be good employees. They can also be available for prayer and listening to difficulties. Training is not needed for most of us to be friends.

Jesus told a parable about those invited to a wedding feast. When the servants returned to the groom’s father and said that none of the invited guests would come to the dinner, they were instructed to go into the highways and hedges and bring in anyone who would come.  That may be your ministry.  People from work or school need comfort or help.  Those standing in line at Wal-Mart may need a smile or a “good” joke.  Ministry is not hard, but it can be challenging.  What is your challenge?

Copyright 2023 by Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

God Experience

December 12, 2022

Welcome my friend Tuesday. She is not an author. She shares stories on Facebook. She said I could share this. I hope it speaks to you as it does to me.

By Tuesday Welch

Just had a God experience and wanted to share.

Something I can’t stand is when people comment on my grocery cart, I have a family of 5 and I cook my own food, so I buy lots of ingredients. I was unloading my cart and a man made some comments about how much food I was getting. God clearly said, “Be gentle, be kind, let him speak.”

I firmly believe that if God gives a command your only response should be, “Yes, sir.” So, I did, I spoke to him and was kind. And after a little bit more of him chatting he revealed he had had a stroke and the left side of his body didn’t work right.

At first, I only responded, “Aw, I’m so sorry, that’s awful.” And then I heard God again, “That’s why. Now pray.”

I asked the man if I could touch his arm and pray, he seemed excited! He slightly raised his bum arm and I prayed. As I was praying, I felt Holy Spirit nudge me about the man behind us in line, that he was also supposed to be blessed somehow by this prayer.

Afterward, when I was outside putting my stuff in the car the man with the bum arm said to me, “God Is real and He loves everyone doesn’t He?” And he RAISED his left arm, WHILE holding a gallon of milk!

God puts people in our path, if we can learn to shut up, and shut out the noise of life we can be more open to seeing those people God sends to us. I saw God heal this man today. Maybe the man behind him in line is struggling spiritually and witnessing someone pray reminded him of a God who saves. A God who looks after and takes care of His own. He saw David alone in the field. He saw Elisha alone plowing with oxen. He sees you too, even when no one else does.

This isn’t a brag post (that would be gross) this is simply a testimony and a reminder:

Love on others, because God uses us when we let Him. Don’t give up on the strangers around you, they aren’t strange to God.

And Yes He does love everybody!!

©Copyright 2022 by Tuesday Welch