A Faithful Vessel

By CBM National Intern – Sarah Pafford

Here I am, doing my first CBM Internship rotation in Alabama, spending my summer serving at Ponderosa Bible Camp. The past 4 months I’ve spent training at CBM National have been an amazing whirlwind! There are so many things that I’ve learned over the past few months. At the beginning of our training, Jamie Simmons took us through a Spiritual Gifts, Personality, and Love Language class. It was so helpful to see where my strengths and weaknesses were.

As the months passed and we were getting ready to head out to our first camp rotation, Jamie asked for my results to send to Camp Directors. I searched all over and couldn’t find them anywhere. (Obviously organization is NOT one of my stronger gifts.) Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy about having to retake the tests, but knew how valuable it was to have the detailed information. I sat down to retake the tests and realized that many of the questions came across differently to me than they had only a few months ago. I vaguely remember what my results were the first time I had answered these questions, and most of them were the same as before. But one of them was a lot higher than it had been the first time around: faith! I was so blessed to see that my faith had grown so much!

With all I have experienced through this internship already, my answers to the faith questions have changed. Through serving with CBM in this program, I am constantly seeing signs of God’s guidance, even in difficult or unknown circumstances. It amazes me to see that in only a few months God changed me in what felt like a drastic way. And what amazes me even more is that He is constantly re-shaping and growing me as I serve Him through CBM.

I can’t wait to see what God does this summer here at Ponderosa Bible Camp! He’s already grown me in the few short weeks I have been here. Then, when I see growth in one area, I realize I’m still lacking in another, but my Heavenly Father is continually re-shaping and growing me into a vessel to be used by Him.
I think back to God revealing a message to Jeremiah about the house of Israel in Jeremiah 18:1-4.

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”

Sarah and Capree at benefit concert.

We may have imperfections in our lives, but that doesn’t mean God won’t mold and shape us into a vessel that can be used to glorify Him. The first step is admitting that no matter where we are in our walk with the Lord, we are never finished. He is constantly growing us!

How has God been re-shaping you lately?

Sarah, Ruth, and David D at Festival.

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