Factory Work as a form of Ministry

My practicum this summer was part of Mennonite Church Canada's Ministry Inquiry Program. Basically, MC Canada finds the student a church to do an internship in, and the Church helps them look for a part time Job to so the student earns some money for the summer. I ended up working in a Brass Foundry as a Plaque Finisher.

As a Plaque finisher, I take the plaques after they've been molded, remove excess metal via various sanders, grinders, buffers, etc. and clean them up so they can be painted.

Now this isn't the type of job I would look for, (I'm not very technically inclined), and at one point I was near quitting. But I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did.

While we make a lot of plaques for companies which are okay, I've also had the ability to do work on very worthwhile projects. Projects which in my mind are a form of ministry. I worked on the name plaque for the Jesus The Homeless statue. Which I think has a very important message about how we as Christians view the homeless.

Secondly we do A LOT of memorial plaques for cemeteries like this one I pulled off of the internet:



I put a lot of care into these when I make them because these are part of the grieving process. Every single one of these represents someone's loved one (or ones, often they have a both members of a couple on them). They want to know that there will be something that will last a long time. They want to know that their loved one will be remembered in the future. These plaques are symbols of love and I want to honour them.

But this week I also got to work on an order for plaques which will be put on an Indian Residential School in Kenora, along with a plaque with it's name, was a second plaque that said "In Honour of All the Children," again something that we need to remember. We tore children from their families, deprived them from their language and culture, and all in the name of Christianity (they were mostly ran by Catholic and Anglican organizations).

The work I'm doing is a form of ministry. I am involved in remembering the past, and sharing a message for the future. Hopefully in some part I am a part of people's grieving and healing processes. Even if I'm just a worker in a factory.