I have been going
to my Presbyterian church for my entire life. Whether it was the one back in
Midland or now in Austin at Westminster, I have always felt completely at home
in my comfort zone. Through those churches I’ve been sent to camps and other
offsite places for extended periods of time where they’ve all had the same line
of thinking as I have had for all my life through the Presbyterian belief. I’ve been accustomed to a general line of
thinking with little outside influence on my faith.
After our first
day of working Matt, the “Team Effort” leader for the Porcupine, South Dakota
branch gave us a sermon during our chapel time. Matt is originally from Atlanta
and he’s what I think you would call a typical southern Baptist. I’ve always
known that there are multiple denominations throughout the Protestants with
different beliefs on what worship should be like or how they interpret the
bible. However after hearing Matt speak I felt like he had struck a nerve with
me where he was saying things that were fundamentally different than what I had
grown up with and been around for my whole life. I felt almost offended that he
was just about discounting my faith and a lot of the rest of the youth’s as
well. His main message, however was about being the hand and feet of God and
that we were here to do his work which resonates with a lot of what I’ve been
taught and what I believe.
Throughout the
rest of the workweek I realized after spending more and more time with Matt was
that he cared the most out of all of us. At the end of the day whether we were
nailing on roofing or stacking firewood was that all of the work we were doing
was to god and through him as well. It didn’t matter that Matt was from a separate
background with different views than me. All that mattered was that we were
sharing the love of God by helping the community and letting the Lakota people
know of the good news.
-Sam, WPC
