Relationships

The struggle begins between OSU and WVU. Up to this point my focus has been on WVU and laying a positive foundation…and HUGSR classes. As I prepare to leave for OSU tomorrow I am plagued with a desire to begin my ministry there. Begin building relationships with the students, engaging them in emails and Facebook, developing curriculums and plans, etc. The problem I have is that I have so much on my plate here that I haven’t been able to do that. So mostly it’s the feeling that is getting to me.

As I read through “People Skills” by Robert Bolton for mentoring with Locke, relationships seems to be the key. Elements on reading body language, reflecting feelings & meanings combine with the speaker testing the water of the listener and struggling with a desire to share or not to share what is deep. All this I learned in Gray’s counseling class but reading it again is unlocking a key to ministry. In the last week as I focused on listening, I noticed my tendency to focus on myself in a story and “taking my book off the shelf” as Gray puts it. But when I focus on hearing the feelings and watching for them in their body language I reflect and engage in a deeper conversation. Just last night I uncovered some things one of our students was struggling with and we stopped to have a prayer right then for the situation. She was visibly uplifted afterwards where as before she was torn and hurting. Not that I fixed it but that I saw it, reflected it, and we took it before God which is where her hurting needed to go.