Sometimes ministry is overwhelming. I am not just talking about pastoral ministry here, but about the ministry that all Christians do.

Let me give you an example.

A group of us just got back from a trip to Ocean Springs, Miss. It is near Biloxi and is part of the area that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Let's just say pictures in magazines, books and TV do not begin to do the devastation justice. Whole towns have been wiped off the face of the earth. Over 130,000 people are living down there without jobs, because their businesses and places of employment have been destroyed.

The list goes on and on as far as the problems that continue for the people down in Mississippi.

I will remember, for as long as I live, one of the first scenes I saw as we arrived. Our group stayed in an old textile mill that had been renovated and fixed up to house volunteers and to act as a distribution center for food and other supplies. This will be in place for the next eight years.

Anyway, as we were entering the facility the cars were lined up four deep to pick up supplies. In the front was an old, beat up station wagon with a mother and her four kids. The kids were dirty, the youngest was crying, the mother stepped out of the car, picked up her groceries and simply smiled and said thank you.

This was no big deal, I thought, this happens every day even in Warrenton. Later I came to find out that, for the last nine months, that mother and her four children had been living in a tent in the local campground, because her home had been destroyed, she had lost her job and had nowhere to go.

That was it for me. I broke down and went away to my nice, cozy, air conditioned room and wept for a while.

Sometimes the sheer pain and suffering in this world is more than we can bear. We feel the weight of all that can happen to us in an instant. That first night we went down to the beach and saw what the storm had really done.

There is a bridge that connects Biloxi and Ocean Springs, or at least it used to. This bridge made of millions of pounds of concrete, steel and iron was simply picked up and broken to pieces by the force of nature. Houses that had been standing in the same place since the early 1800's were blown away in an instant.

It is in the midst of all this devastation and hopelessness that we can't help but turn to God. Christus Victor Lutheran Church operated the place in which we stayed. Christus Victor is now known as the place to go for help, along with all of the other churches in the area.

As we walked along the beach we encountered one church group after another. On our way back, we stopped in Memphis and just happened to meet up with two groups who had been working down in the same area.

My point is that it is the churches, not the government or special secular assistance, that is providing the bulk of the help for those who are struggling just to live. It is God who is providing the help through people like you and me. It is God who is doing the work in us so that we can, in turn, go and do the work where it needs to be done.

As I said in the beginning, ministry can be overwhelming at times, but only when you think of it as your ministry and not God's ministry. I am only one person. God is infinite.

My group was only able to minimally help one family. God is able to help all people forever. If we think that it is by our power or might that things will get done, then we are just plain stupid. It is only by God's will and power. As the Scriptures say, "Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord."

My friends, if you think that you aren't making a difference, think again. If you speak words of love to someone, if you help someone who needs help, if you act as a Christian should, then you are making a difference.

Everyone knows the story of the boy on the shore with the starfish. The boy saw all these starfish on the beach and wanted to save them, so he started to pick them up and throw them back into the sea. An adult came along and chastised him. "What are you doing?" He asked. "You realize that there are millions of starfish on this beach. You can't possibly make a difference here. Picking up another starfish and tossing it into the sea, the boy replied, "I made a difference to that one."

As I sit here at my desk writing this article, I know I am only one man. But my hope and joy is that I can make a difference one person at a time.

St. Paul put it best when he said, "I have become all things to all me so that, by all possible means, I might save some." Our group made a difference to one family down in Mississippi. You can make difference with your children, with your spouse, with your neighbors and with everyone else you know.

God go with you and give you strength as God makes a difference through you.