WHAT GOD IS DOING

Yesterday our house church group met in a local park. It’s not one we’ve ever gathered in before, but since it was near to one of the families in our church we decided to meet there to worship and fellowship.

As we were worshipping under the shade of the trees a man on a bicycle rode up and got off his bike and walked over to one of the picnic tables and sat down to join us. A few of us noticed this but we continued to worship and after we shared communion together and began sharing with one another the man spoke up. “I was very blessed to find you guys in the park today,” he said.”It’s been a blessing to be with you here this morning.”

We affirmed that it was a blessing to have him join us and we even took some time to pray for him during our prayer time that followed.

Afterwards my wife went over to talk with him and she discovered that he only takes this bike ride once a year. That particular day was the only time he happens to get on his bike and ride 14 miles from his home in Newport Beach to this park in Tustin and back again. So, we were very blessed that he happened to be in the park the same day we also happened to be in the same park.

Then he asked about our house church and where we meet. My wife told him we live in Orange. He asked where since his ex-girlfriend just recently moved to Orange. “We live near the Orange Circle,” Wendy said. “Oh,” said Eric, “my ex-girlfriend lives about two miles from there. What are the cross streets?” My wife told him that we lived off of Main and Almond. He asked if we knew where Glenview street was and when we told him that this is where we lived he said, “Really? My friend lives on that same street.”

So, if you’ve doubted that God is building His church just remember this story.

As I marvel at this great work that God has done to bring Eric and his friend Tracey to our group, I am reminded that only one other family in our house church was known to us before we started out. In fact, other than this family and my sister-in-law and one other sister in Christ, every single other person in our house church was brought to us by the Lord. I didn’t recruit anyone or advertise our fellowship or hang out a sign. Everyone who is part of the Mission House Church now has come to us by the Grace of God. They found us and they came and felt at home and this is how God has been building this Church.

Over the weekend I found out about two other men who want to start coming to our house church, and another brother in Christ from a sister church wants to join us also. This is in addition to a family of eight from Bellflower who e-mailed me over the weekend about visiting and another man who contacted me via e-mail about two weeks ago.

That makes fourteen new people who want to join our house church in the next week alone. We’re already bursting at the seams. There are about 30 people who call “The Mission” their church home currently. What will we do if even more people want to join us? How will we respond?

Is it time for us to start taking the idea of a second house church more seriously? If so, where will our second group meet? Who will stay to become part of the new group in our home? Who will launch out with the families we already know and love?

These are questions we need to answer in the next few weeks. I’m praying that God would continue to build His Church and lead us in these next steps.


I appreciate your prayers for us as well.


Peace,

Keith