Jesus said "whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant."

The disciples would often argue about who was the greatest among them. The mother of James and John even came to Jesus and asked that he would let one them sit on his right hand and the other on the left. He answered her with a question of his own: Can they drink from the cup that I will drink from? They answered yes, not knowing what kind of suffering it would bring. James was beheaded and John was boiled in oil for the sake of Christ.

The believer is called to be a servant of God. The highest rank in the kingdom is given to the greatest servant. In the Mosaic Law if a servant had completed his service to pay off a debt, but he says "I love my master and do not want to go free" they would pierce his ear and he would become a servant for life by his own choice. As believers, we are God’s servants and we are called to a lifetime commitment to serve the Lord’s people.

Over the past 25 years, it has been my greatest pleasure to serve Liberty County. When the current YMCA building was built, there was a need for a youth outreach program. At that time, I asked if I could volunteer as youth coordinator on Saturday evenings, and formed a program called Kingdom Builders. For the next seven years on Saturday evenings we would take the YMCA bus and pick up youth in low-income areas and bring them back to have Bible devotions, to swim and play basketball. Most of those youths are now parents themselves and when they see me in the community they talk about how much they enjoyed those Saturday evenings. The YMCA youth program was good training ground for the missionary work that I have been doing as director of The Liberty County Manna House for the last 16 years.

It is true, people really don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. One of the reasons I answered the call to ministry was because I wanted to make a difference in the world.

I am grateful for the opportunity to minister to this community, to my church, and to the listeners of Gospel 94.9 FM. As God’s handmaiden, I enjoy changing the world one person at a time.

Katrina E. Deason is pastor of Liberty Prayer Chapel and a member of the United Ministerial Alliance.