I was at camp !?!

I was attending a Luther League retreat at the local camp.  [There are at least two surprising things in that statement:  one is Luther League and the other that I actually spent a weekend at a camp voluntarily!]

In any event, I was on a retreat at a local camp sponsored by the youth committee at my local church. We did Bible study and personal meditations.  We explored gifts and talents.  We talked about and practiced prayer.  And I heard God calling me into ministry.  I was probably 11 or 12 at the time; just before I was confirmed.  It was the first time I clearly 'heard' a call to ministry, although not the first time I had become aware of God's presence in my life.  On the day of my confirmation I told my mother I was going to become a pastor when I was older.  She had the dubious task of telling me that the church didn't ordain women.  It took the church about 15 years to come around to recognizing the validity of a woman's call into ordained ministry, and it took me an additional 20 years to be in a place to follow that call, but I was as sure at 40 as I was at 12.

It's another 'elevator story'.  I'm practicing writing out some of mine so I am prepared when I have a chance to tell someone about the Jesus in my life.

Have you started to write some of yours?