THE MISSION-UPDATE MARCH

The house church is going very well. In fact, it's so amazing that I
can't believe it.

Last week's meeting was just a jaw-dropping, eye-opening experience for me.

As usual we started at 6pm by welcoming all our friends, new and old, to the house. One new girl visited for the first time, another new visitor for only the second time returned and brought his guitar to lead us in some worship time later on.

We began by holding hands in the kitchen and praying over the meal, asking the Holy Spirit to come and join us and be part of our meal and fellowsip together.

During the meal I stood up and read from 1 Corinthians (about the Lord's Supper) while people tore off bits of bread from the loaf in front of them and dipped it in the juice cup at the center of their table. After the scripture reading I prayed again for God to join us in our "communion" with each other, and with Him.

Then we at desert (strawberries, ice cream and cake..yum!) and worship soon followed.

THE BEST PART: "SHARE TIME"
We all sat around and shared after our worship time together and slowly we started to realize that someone was stringing together our shared scriptures, dreams, impressions, thoughts, responses and experiences during the week into a cohesive, singular sermon. It wasn't me. It wasn't any of us. It was the Holy Spirit.

It takes my breath away to sit back and watch the Holy Spirit teach a lesson
to us, through us, and yet without our realizing it. I'm not sure I can even
describe it, but it's a thing of beauty.

My son David started us off sharing a dream that God had given him during
the week about the end of the world. Dylan, my other son, then shared about a dream he had also had about the end of the world. (Which is significant since we've not been talking about this in our family, or discussing this sort of thing...nor have we been watching any movies like this. The dreams were just "out of the blue" and yet connected in theme). That lead to a dream that an adult had also that was connected thematically. Then another elementary-age girl shared a scripture with us that had spoken to her this week (John Chapter 1), and then my wife shared what God has been saying to her about maturity.

This lead to some discussion, and then another woman shared about what God has been saying to her, I read a scripture verse, a person came in late to the meeting and started sharing her thoughts on this discussion. Then another woman shared an excerpt from a book she's been reading. That lead to more discussion, more shared experience, and then I read from 2 Peter a verse in chapter three that tied all of this seemingly random thought and experience and discussion together in a neat little bow.

God did that.

Wow.

We spent time afterwards praying over each other, asking the Holy Spirit to
confirm in our lives the lesson He had just taught us through the evening
together. We dismissed but several women ended up in the kitchen laying
hands on my sister-in-law and praying a blessing over her as she wept.
Others gathered and shared what God has been doing in our lives together.

One woman stayed until 11pm and we had an extended, intensive prayer time
together for a dear friend and his family.

For me, this is the best thing I have ever done with the word "Church" on
it.

I can't wait for our next meeting!

Peace,
Kg