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| Jan Gingrich |
| Visitation Pastor |
Seeing people come to an understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - from salvation to spiritual growth to maturity in Jesus Christ through the Word of God.
The common idea of ministry has a professional connotation to it; however, that is not the definition of ministry in the scriptures. Ministry is an obligation of every child of God. For some, it is also a job for which they receive compensation. While the majority of believers in Jesus Christ carry out their ministry through the varying levels of service they give to Christ primarily through a church, I have been on both sides of that equation. I have functioned as Sunday School teacher, parent, Youth Pastor, church board, secular employee, church kitchen/janitorial helper, VBS and Bible teacher. Today, I minister as a church employee in the role of Pastor of Visitation, Retirement Home Pastor/Chaplin and Bible teacher. Ministry, or perhaps better, service to the Lord, has always been a major focus of my Christian life.
The majority of my ministry does not take place at the church, but in homes, hospitals, and retirement homes. Unlike the other CBC pastors, I maintain an office in my home and function out of my home. The uncertainty of my schedule limits my ability to maintain office hours, thus it is more convenient to operate from the home.
Shortly after we moved into our current residence, my wife had left the house for the evening. We had moved in October and that year we experienced an early fall, temperatures falling into the upper thirties. I was outside doing some yard work when my wife left, and she assumed that I had my keys with me. But I did not, and did not think about it because I had already developed the habit of letting the rear porch door unlocked so I could come and go in the house as I needed. My wife is very precise at securing the home when she leaves, so she had made sure all doors were locked. Getting the picture? Once it was dark, I closed things up outside and prepared to go inside and clean up. I found the rear porch door locked. I knew that all the widows were secured as well, but I checked each one anyway. I played with the idea of actually breaking into a window to get in the house. But the mess and damage it would cause prevented that action. As the darkness fell, so did the temperature. I was less than dressed for the fall. I decided to see what I could find in the garage to keep me warm.
Maybe I could stay in my car and put on the winter coat I stored in the trunk for emergencies, but oh, that is right - I locked it up and the keys were inside. The electric garage door opener was in my car locked in the garage. Well, in
the mean time I am getting colder. Finally I take the rugs laying on the back porch and curl up in them, which is where my wife found me when she came home at 10 PM.
"Why didn’t you go to the neighbors and ask if you could wait there or ask them to use the phone to call one of the children to come pick me up?" was her question. "Just didn't feel comfortable not knowing the neighbors yet", was the lame-duck excuse I used. The truth was that I did not want to show how stupid I had been not taking my keys with me. I resolved that issue for any future such situations by installing a new garage door opener that has an outside key pad and a house key hidden in the garage. No more lock outs.
My wife Beverly and I have been a supporter of several missionaries and mission agencies most of our married life. We have also been on several short-term mission trips.
My wife and I have three biological children, two boys and a girl. They have given us eight grandchildren. We have shared in the lives of thirteen foster children, some of whose lives we are involved in.
When it comes to food, I have eaten food all over the world and have not in the words of Heathclift “met a food I did not like” but one, chocolate-mint ice cream. Yuk! Mint only belongs in jelly or on lamb.
I came to know the Lord as my personal savior when I was five years old. It was at an evening evangelistic meeting in a then EUB denomination church. I remember understanding that if I wanted to go to heaven, I needed to get rid of something – sin. The evangelist said Jesus already took it when he died on the cross. He said all I had to do was accept that God did that for me and let Jesus come into my heart. I knew I wanted to go to heaven, so when the altar call was given, I went up. My father and grandfather joined me. While I have not always lived up to Scripture’s model of a Christian, I have never doubted that on that evening I became one of the members of God's family.
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