Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: PUZZLE (11/24/16)
-
TITLE: Putting it all together | Previous Challenge Entry
By Robyn Harbour
11/26/16 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Anne and Frank had struggled in their area of service during the year and were seriously considering resigning. Six months ago two teachers had moved away and had not been replaced. As a result both were teaching a large combined class and they had come to dread each Sunday.
‘Welcome to our Christmas party for our volunteers,’ said Tony, the senior pastor. ‘Our leadership want to honor and say thank you to all those who serve so faithfully in our church week after week. When you came in tonight you were given a piece from a jigsaw. I would like you to write on the back one area of service you are involved in, then we will all get to work to solve the puzzle.’ There were over sixty people in the hall that night.
‘My piece looks like a part of a furry animal,’ Anne said to Frank.
‘Mine could be the wing of a bird, but I am not sure,’ replied Frank.
On the floor was a large piece of cardboard the size of the finished jigsaw. Everyone was trying to work out where their piece would go. A couple of people got down on the floor and as others joined them the puzzle slowly came together. There was plenty of laughter as they each waited for their turn to get down on the floor.
‘I have written Sunday School teacher on mine,’ Anne said to Betty.
‘I am not as important as you,’ replied Betty, ‘my role is to clean the church each week.’
‘I do the flowers,’ butted in Jane, ‘I don’t think people realize how hard it is to get flowers during winter.’
‘I lead the music team, musicians are a temperamental bunch. I could do without the stress some weeks.’
A short time later Frank exclaimed, ‘Oh no! we’re missing a piece right in the middle. I hate it when I do so much work on a jigsaw and there is a piece missing, it seems like all that work for nothing.’
Tony walked over to the puzzle with the missing piece and placed it in the gap. The completed picture showed lots of animals and birds superimposed over a map of the world.
‘Now let’s turn over the puzzle,’ said Tony. Placing another sheet of cardboard firmly over the puzzle he flipped it over.
Now each piece had a word on it: cleaner, office staff, morning tea, welcome team, usher, musician, bible study leader, men’s ministry, grounds maintenance, board member, Sunday school teacher and so on. The middle piece that had been missing had the word JESUS written in red.
‘Tonight we have learned what can happen when we all work together. Each part is important to the whole picture. The puzzle was not complete until I placed the piece with JESUS written on it in the gap. If Jesus is in the center of our lives and ministry then our work together will be fruitful.
‘Anne and I came tonight with the purpose of resigning,’ said Frank. ‘From this exercise I realize that we do have an important role to play in our church and have been encouraged by the jigsaw we completed.’
‘I now know that cleaning the church each Friday to ready it for the Sunday Service is honoring God. I have been grumbling a lot lately, especially about the scraps of paper on the floor where the youth sit. I will no longer grumble, I now will clean the church with a joyful heart.’
The night progressed as people shared how the jigsaw exercise had released them and given them insight into how the body of Christ worked together.
Pastor Tony was happiest of all. It had been a difficult year, some factions of the church had been grumbling and unity had been low.
‘Thank you God for the puzzle idea,’ he prayed as he put his son’s giant jigsaw back in the games cupboard. If what he heard tonight was anything to go by, 2017 would be a good year for the leadership in his church.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
A few red ink issues: 1) Your dialogue feels a little unnatural in places, especially the remarks that people made after the puzzle was completed. 2) Only use a semi-colon between two complete sentences.
Thank you for your story!
Well done.
God bless~
Either in the building or in the community, we are to be salt and light.
Nice exercise in writing.