Sure Foundation, Woodside, N.Y., invited one of its former pastors, Aaron Robinson, to preach at its 10th anniversary service on Oct. 3. Here Robinson shares a ministry memory as well as a story that shows how God uses us—even when we don't know it.

The year was 2000. I was one of two men who had just received a call to start an exploratory outreach mission in New York City. Although it was hard at times, it felt great to be doing what God had called us to do. One of the more frustrating moments came that first Christmas. Members had put a good deal of time into an invitation to our Christmas services that we mailed to the community. Then the snow came. That didn't deter us. We were still going to have a service through which we could talk about the baby Jesus. The time for the service came, and we had one visitor—Olga, a lady from the neighborhood who had received our invitation but had come only because her church had decided not to have a service that day. As a young mission pastor, it was possibly my toughest moment. I was disappointed at the lack of response. I was mad at myself for not doing more or not doing it better.

Fast forward ten years. I was invited to preach for the ten-year anniversary service of the church that we started. It would be my first time back since I left seven years ago. The theme for the sermon was that God created something out of nothing: He makes the way, he is the truth, and he gives life. I had no idea how true that was in this case until I arrived and saw how the church had gone from the meager second floor storefront office/worship space to what it is now. I was in awe at God's work at Sure Foundation.
Sunday morning came, and I started greeting people. Then an older woman approached me and asked if I remembered her. I didn't. She proceeded to tell me the story of Sure Foundation's first Christmas service from her perspective. I realized it was Olga. She ended up coming to Sure Foundation because her church no longer held to the Bible as God's Word. She told Sure Foundation's current pastor, Dan Olson, that she had gotten the church's invitation. He was shocked because Sure Foundation hadn't done mass mailings for quite a while. But she still had the invitation from that Christmas service ten years ago. She has been a member for two years now. Praise be to God.

Aaron Robinson