Alice Ochs

 

Ministry/minister:  an agent, instrument or means; a person or a thing through which something is accomplished, to serve others

 

Very early in my Christian walk, God put a passion for ministry in my heart.  Through the many years since then, He has used my desire to be in ministry to teach me, correct me, and heal me.

 

My first ministry was with precious adults with mental retardation at Cedars.  The Lord had just delivered me out of a 17-year haze of drug addiction.  It was amazing to be free from that bondage.  But I still smoked cigarettes...a lot.  Then I was told I could not smoke and minister.  I discovered that my love for ministry was stronger in my heart than the love for cigarettes, and I was motivated to throw my last carton of smokes into the garbage.  God blessed that decision and delivered me from a 27-year addiction to nicotine.  As if that weren't enough, after that He launched me into an incredible new place of personal growth and ministry.

 

My ministry opportunities increased with this newfound freedom.  When the door opened for me to go back into the jail where I myself had been saved, my heart soared.  The first night I went into the jail, I was so impacted with the experience of partnering with God to touch the lives of the women who were so much like I had been; it felt like my feet didn't touch the ground for a week!

(Continued below)

 

 

Alice Ochs, Kingdom Writers

 

But the "high" of ministry isn't always enough to motivate me to be consistently active in ministry.  Once, when I was scheduled to go into to the jail, I called one of the other ministry partners and told her I couldn't make it.  I was hurting over a relationship and wanted to stay home and feel sorry for myself.  Thank God, my friend said "no" and exhorted me to get up and go to the jail in spite of my miserable feelings.  That's when I learned that pouring myself out was a cure for discouragement and depression!  It took an act of my will to choose to minister to others over the choice to stay at home and "minister" to myself. Only then was I able to experience freedom from my own pain along with a renewed desire to reach out to others in pain.   

 

The joy of ministry hasn't worn off in over 20 years.  Once or twice a year, when we go into the jail with dramatic presentations for those who are incarcerated, everyone in the jail comes.  The presence of God comes, too, and just increases and increases during our time together.  More than a hundred people typically come to the altar to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts and lives.  Truly what Jesus said about giving can be manifested through our lives in ministry; "It is better to give than to receive."  For me, there is nothing in this world that compares to this privilege.