Last February I got REALLY excited while visiting a thrift store. An item that caught my eye made me immediately stop and grab it excitedly.

what was this priceless treasure?

A copy of “The Monster at the End of this Book.”

For those of you who are unaware of this classic piece of literature, it’s a book where Grover (The Sesame Street character) tries to keep you from getting to the end of the book because there is a monster there. At the end, we realize that monster is only Grover!

It is a funny book, but that’s not why I got so excited

I got excited because it was my FAVORITE book as a child!

Technically, it was probably a tie between this and “The Great Cookie Thief” (another piece of classic literature). But that book was one my mother read to me countless times.

And now I got to read it to Vincentian children!!

Though missions is mostly a spiritual endeavor, part of it is creating memories. Bringing joy into children’s lives (even if it is from a silly book) imagination, and a love of reading ministers to their minds while the Gospel reaches their hearts.

So sometimes ministry needs to be fun!

When reading the story to children in Barrouallie, I would act as if the pages where very hard to turn because Grover would try many things to stop us from finishing the book. His last attempt is a brick wall that is certain to hold the pages back. With all of my imaginary strength, I would be able to turn the page.

A girl who had heard the story more than once asked to read it one afternoon. Like me (and my mother before me) she acted as if the pages were incredibly hard to turn. While turning the page with the brick wall she got carried away, and accidentally ripped most of the page off. She looked at me apologetically but I just smiled and told her it was okay.

That page now missing is a reminder of the countless times my mother read that story to me.

And that its okay for ministry to be fun.