Smile! You're on the SCAM camera.

I went to the Southern Bridal Show in Birmingham with my mom and my mimi. We had a lot of fun. Basically, I walked around and signed up for free giveaways. lol. …and as of a result of all that, we won a free weekend vacation!!! Sound too good to be true? …it was. In order to get the free weekend, we had to go to Birmingham the next weekend to a show that sold cookware. We didn’t have to purchase anything to get the trip, but everything they were showing us just seemed so cool! This man presented this awesome cookware that was all around healthier for you. It was not made of any of the materials that cause cancer or Alzheimer's like other cookware. The cookware cooked out all of the oil and fats. They even poured the fat out into a cup of ice! ....That was going into my body! Gross! You could just put your food in the pot or pan, and it would whistle when it was done …I mean, the cookware whistled when the food was done--WOW! Ok, so I know it sounds dumb now, but I promise you it sounded good at the time. So, if you became a customer of the Carico cookware that night, you got a 5 day 4 night cruise in addition to the other weekend trip. AWESOME! …not! Anyways, we became a customer of this cookware, and we were really excited about it the whole ride home. We even got free wedding bands, too because we paid the tax in cash. So, once I drop Kyle off at his car (we left from his work) I really started thinking about this whole deal. I started to get nervous and realize that it was a really impulsive decision that we made. (This cookware was WAY WAY WAY too expensive, and we should not have bought it, with or without all the free stuff.) I tell Kyle how I feel once we get back to Jacksonville. He tries to reassure me for a while, but then he starts looking up articles about Carico. I can’t take it so I go to bed. He calls me back into his room a little while later. I think it is to reassure me about the situation, but instead, he found an article that someone had written that recounted our WHOLE experience—from the time I got the call, to the cruise, to the whistle, to the type of pots and pans, EVERYTHING!!! It made Kyle sick. We realized that we were scammed. Not that the company wasn’t legit, but just that they get you to come to their seminar, not telling you what they sell, so you will only see one side of the story when you buy it. Luckily, in that article that we read, the lady mentioned that there was a 3-day cancelation period. We have filled out the cancelation paper and overnighted it to the place in Florida, but we are still worried that everything is not going to work out. When Kyle call talked to a representative about it, he said we could keep the weekend vacation for coming to the seminar. We shipped it ALL back, though; we don’t want any part of their company. I wrote them a $260 check for the taxes, and we are hoping that I get all of it back! So, lesson learned: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! 

A Ministry of Presence

As I have matured and grown older, both in age and faith, I have come to understand that there are different kinds of ministries.  There are the most obvious and well known types such as pasturing a church, serving on a church committee, being a missionary, etc., but within the past six months, I have been introduced to a different, not as obvious, type of ministry: A Ministry of Presence.

I was first introduced to this concept of a Ministry of Presence a few months ago when I was discussing a worship service held at Jacksonville State University’s Wesley Foundation. As a resident at the Wesley Foundation, I was discussing the low attendance for that night’s Mosaic with some of my peers and the campus minister. The concern and disappointment over the low turnout inspired mine and my peers’ conversations that night; as we were discussing, someone briefly mentioned how much of an impact someone’s presence can be. Our campus minister went on to explain what an effective ministry and opportunity a Ministry of Presence can be.

Our campus minister explained it like this: a Ministry of Presence can be as simple as showing up to an event. For example, when the Wesley Foundation hosts their weekly worship service, Mosaic, it means a lot to have several people in the room. Presence holds value because new people that come to the worship service are welcomed more by a room full of people rather than by an empty, cold room. This concept made sense. As a former “follower,” I would never go anywhere alone. I was terrified of having to be outgoing. I could relate to how much more welcoming a room full of people is than an empty one where only one person seems to be in attendance.

So after this first mention of Ministry of Presence, I also began seeing this concept “pop-up” in other areas of my life. Also at the Wesley Foundation this past semester, I taught a bible study on Monday nights based on the book by Gary Chapman entitled, The Five Love Languages. Two of the love languages—Acts of Service and Quality Time—come into play concerning Ministry of Presence. Not only do these relate to our love lives, but they also spill over into our relationships with our friends and family. Let me explain. When someone you know loses someone they love due to death, often times we spend time with that person in order to comfort them and to help make them feel better; I would call this comfort session Quality Time. However, if an acquaintance loses someone they love due to death, it is often times common for us to attend a funeral in recognition of the friend’s loss; this is what I would consider an Act of Service. You are showing your friend (or whoever) that you acknowledge their loss by being PRESENT at the funeral home—hence, Ministry of Presence.

With all of that being said about Ministry of Presence, I have not fully understood or comprehended what exactly this ministry encompassed until this past December. Let me explain. My fiancé, Kyle, has had a rough semester both with school and with his family life. His older brother was recently admitted to drug rehab for taking prescription pain medication, and due to his admittance into rehab, he was not able to attend all of the holiday functions as he normally did in his past 25 years. He missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, his 26^th Birthday, and New Year’s, and although Kyle would not take his brother’s presence over his health and safety, he still missed his brother during the usually fun and joyous holiday season. So, needless to say, the holidays for Kyle were rough. So, on Christmas Eve, Kyle’s granny always hosts their family’s festivities, and Kyle and I had just turned down the road he and his granny lived on. I looked at him as we drove down that road, and I fully understood what it meant to embody a Ministry of Presence. I knew that there was nothing I could do or say to make the Christmas season of 2010 any better—nothing was going to fill the absence of his brother. The best and only thing I could do for Kyle was to be in his presence. He needed me—My Ministry of Presence.