“Where is your misery, there’s your ministry.” I heard that strange comment on talk radio recently and it rang in my head. The speaker was explaining what brought her to her career in counseling. But it immediately made me think about what I am doing with my life, and wondered if I am living my mission or ministry?
I am a community relations manager for a social service agency, communicating our message and helping seniors and others in need of transportation and nutrition. As such, I write. I make visual images. I do public speaking. I roll up my sleeves to pack food and deliver food. I encourage co-workers, recruit volunteers, thank participants for their efforts, and teach health-based classes. I spend time helping older adults and their caregivers. I am not a social worker, or a nurse, I am just a person who tries to give encouragement to those around me.
Is that a mission, or a ministry?
I started my career in public relations, publishing specialty pieces, then worked in television and radio production, news reporting, feature writing, and editing. As I raised four sons and cared for aging parents, I juggled my work hours around my personal commitments.
I watched my father deal with the loss of my mom over the period of 15 years, as she slowly declined into dementia. All the while, I helped him with house repairs and groceries. Finally, in losing him to a heart attack meant that I needed to find full-time help for Mom. Entering her inmemory care, enduring falls, hospital stays, skilled nursing, holding her hand, and sneaking McDonald’s into the dining room. All this was part of my regular day-to-day, as I learned all the magic words needed to get her the help that she needed. After working eight to 10 hours, I would drive back and forth for a couple more hours. I would stay at Mom’s bedside for as long as possible, then manage her banking and bill-paying, her house repairs, and finally the sale of her home. I subsisted on fast food and five hours of sleep at night for years!
After my mom passed away, I felt the most incredible loss of purpose. So many times, as I maneuvered my way through the confusing maze of senior services and older adult care options, I asked God, “Why do I have to know this? I don’t want to be here.”
Three years later, I quit my job as a news reporter, and started a new career managing volunteers through Senior Services Associates, Inc. When I drove work that first day, I found myself clutching the steering wheel and breaking out into a cold sweat. What was I doing? I am afraid of old people!
Well, I managed, working over four years with Senior Services, before moving to Voluntary Action Center of Northern Illinois as Community Relations Manager. Every day I laugh a bit and cry a bit.
Helping seniors and their families through tough times is a worthy cause. Their stories resonate with mine. Their loved one’s lives are so valuable. I hate to see their stories lost forever. One of my greatest joys is to become part of telling their stories and championing their causes. The reporter is still inside me. It is the stories that needs to be told that drive me.
We all have a mission, whether schoolteacher, or banker, or financial advisor, carpenter, plumber, or garbage collector. Each of these is worthy, valuable, and necessary, and every professional in every profession touches the lives of those around them. We learn so much about who we are through tough times, and these instruct us for how we can help one another in the future.
It is the moments in life that make us cry and laugh that make our life’s work a mission and a ministry. But reaching retirement age does not equate finality. Can you look back on your life and determine what made you choose your life’s work? What moments resonated in you? What miseries created your ministry?
Agencies such as mine are desperately seeking volunteers. Your life experiences make your service extremely valuable. Try www.volunteermatch.org/search for opportunities near you!
Barb Nadeau is the community relations manager for the Voluntary Action Center of Northern Illinois, representing five counties. Barb has worked many years as a professional television and radio host, as well as a print and social media journalist, and as a volunteer coordination professional, networking amongst non-profit social service agencies throughout Illinois. She is a freelance writer and an elected alderperson in the City of Plano government. Contact Barb at bvnadeau@gmail.com.