Meet Mona Aubry

Faith in God and Depending Upon Her Church Family Revitalized Me

As told to Jerilyn Taylor

I have served as Team Lead for the Greeters Helps Ministry since the beginning, about six years now. When we began, our ministry was small and somewhat informal, but as the church grew and we needed to better organize, the First Lady asked me to take over as the official Team Lead. I said yes to reassure both the First Lady and myself that I could do it.

Things started off fairly manageable; I made the greeter’s schedule, communicated with the team members, and held regular meetings. But as time progressed and our team grew even larger, and as I became more aware of the duties and things that needed to be done, details began to fall through the cracks. It was a difficult process, but I felt things were going to get better. Unfortunately I just had no idea of what I was getting myself into.

Pressure Builds
When I joined Berith and began serving in Helps Ministry my eldest child, Alex, was two years old. My husband Tyrone wasn’t yet in church, so I was attending alone. My husband later joined church and became active in a ministry himself. Then my son Nathan was born with challenges and had to undergo heart surgery when he was only eight months old. During this time there were events at church that required greeters to serve. I was trying to organize the team from home and even though I wasn’t always present at the events, I worked hard and tried to lead. I never had an assistant and wanted to delegate some of the responsibility, but I didn’t know how. I was exhausted, and like he usually does when your faith is shaken, the enemy got busy.

I now had two children, a husband, and the responsibilities began to wear on me. I wanted the Greeters ministry to go to a certain place, but I didn’t know how to take it there. The final straw was when someone made an off-hand comment to me that I took offense to. I said, “that’s it,” and told my husband I planned to quit the ministry.

Reaching Out
I spoke with Pastor Rick about my plans to quit the Greeters. Voicing my concerns with Pastor was comforting. He mentioned that sometimes people don’t think they’re doing a great job when they are.

About this same time, Pastor taught on being tired. While I don’t believe he taught the message because of me, it sure hit home! I was working everything out all by myself. I had to pause to ask if I was relying on myself to come up with all the answers or allowing God to give me the strength to continue?I knew I needed help so I reached out and asked a team member to co-lead with me.

The Change Was Awesome!
She helped get me organized and rolling again. More importantly I accepted her help and the team is more cohesive because of it. We’re communicating and things are going well. Currently there are 15 greeters including myself, and we are operating on a much tighter level.

I Am Not Alone
You know, when I quit the Greeters my conscience wouldn’t leave me alone. It was an unction – I knew I wasn’t quitting for the right reason, but I also knew I couldn’t continue to juggle everything by myself.

God told me to stay the course and see it through. I’m glad I reached out. I’m glad I stayed connected. I believe the skills I learn as a Lead of a Helps Ministry carry over into other areas of my life. These are practical tools! Knowing that I serve an awesome God I can rely upon, and that I don’t have work out everything alone, is a very good thing.

Mona Aubry is currently an employee at Berith, Team Lead for the Greeters and serves as a Teachers Assistant with the Kingdom Kids Helps Ministry Team.