At the church where I am pastor, we are hosting a conference for the national Stephen Ministries team. These ministries provide training for one-on-one Christian care giving for hurting people.

As we are hosting the conference, a letter was sent out from me to 1500 congregations in the LA area inviting folks to consider attending. One of those letters reached Bethany Baptist Church of West Los Angeles. The pastor, LA Kessee spoke with one of our Stephen leaders, Vickie De Blasio, about the struggles occurring at his church. Just recently, they have had 13 deaths in their congregation!

Overwhelming, but the people of God are there. Bethany is sending folks to the workshop, but our Stephen leader, Buzz Brown decided we could offer more. Four of us traveled down to their church on Tuesday. We did a mini “taster” workshop for their congregation including help with dealing with grief, healthy healing, and visiting folks who are grieving.

The people of Bethany were such gracious hosts and interacted greatly with us as we shared our experiences and the experiences of other Stephen Ministers from LIFEhouse. What a blessing to see God at work connecting two communities of brothers and sisters in this way!

As LA said, “Can I get an Amen?”

Everyone is invited to attend this workshop September 19, from 9-1 p.m. If you are interested, here is the information.