We are excited to announce the fifth installment of our Meet The Team campaign. Each month we will be introducing you to one of our amazing CEF Chicago staff members along with how you can specifically be praying for them. This month is our team member Zebediah Potter.
Zeb currently lives at the HUB (Housing Urban development Building) in Maywood, Illinois. We asked him a few questions telling us a little bit about him, how God led him to CEF of Chicago, what his role is here and the ministry he is passionate about, and what God is teaching him, and also about his newborn baby Ember! Read below to see what he wrote and how exciting his story is and hear about his adorable baby!
I was first introduced to CEF my freshman year of college when I volunteered to help teach at an after-school Good News Club in order to fulfill a requirement for school. It was through that opportunity that God began to give me a passion for the work he is doing in this ministry. I remember a moment when one of the kindergarteners in my club asked me “Did Jesus really come back to life after three days?”. We had been talking about the life death and resurrection of Jesus every week for about a month at this point. But it finally clicked for this kid. I watched as he thought for a moment and then as his eyes lit up as he said “Wooow!” It wasn’t a clear conversion moment but it was the point where he began to get interested in what we had been talking about. His excitement started my excitement for what God can do through this ministry.
Fast forward a few years and now I will have been working with CEF Chicago full time for nine years this May. I wear many hats in the ministry from helping run Good News Clubs; to teacher training; to helping with the summer training to administrative and organizational work at the office. One of the parts of ministry I have loved doing to most is training, especially when I can help equip the Sunday-school teachers from partnering churches in the process.
While working with the ministry God has given me a wonderful and supportive wife. Ariana and I have been married for about 2 ½ years. Ariana had been working as a librarian until shortly before Covid hit. She is currently in the process of trying to find another full-time position while working as a tutor. One huge and exciting recent change in my life happened at the end of January with the birth of our precious baby Ember. I am loving life as a dad, it is something I had been looking forward to ever since I was a kid myself. Ember is an adorable bundle of joy, except for when she is crying… who am I kidding she is still cute even then. Ariana is doing well and we are both adjusting to our new normal as parents. We are looking forward to what God has in store for us.
Prayer requests
- Pray for me as I adjust to the balance of ministry and family life.
- Pray for me and the ministry as we are constantly adjusting to the ever-changing Covid guidelines.
- Pray for my wife as she seeks to find a full-time librarian position
- Pray for little Ember, that she will continue to be healthy as she grows.
