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Thursday, February 17, 2011

blessed pandemonium

Every Wednesday evening at 6:15, we gather in a circle for prayer before the potluck dinner... 

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I remember 4-5 years back: a group of 20 faithful gathered - that core group of (mostly) adults that dutifully (though also enthusiastically) shows up for just about anything.  We'd pray, eat, enjoy the fellowship, and have our Bible study.  It never got too big, but never too small.  Kind of like Goldilocks and the three bears - it was "just right."
~
I was running late last night - they had to send someone back to get me.  The kids were ready to eat and wanted Pastor Robert to pray.  It had not been a stressful day, but it had been a long day, and I had crammed a lot in that last hour or two before dinner.  I closed my office door behind me and came out into... pandemonium.

There must have been 40 kids - and I'm pretty sure I saw one of them pass a football through the fanciest part of the vestibule... the group home guys were running late... the kids we tutor before dinner were staying for the evening and their parents had come... the neighbors across the street had sent their kids, but then I was so thrilled when they came too... our missionary friends were home between trips to Florida, Budapest, and Greece... she was talking to me about an album she wants to record before they get back to the field... I saw at least five different people I had cried with the previous week and thought, "I know they are really struggling; how glad I am that they are willing to live out their struggles with the church family."


Noise, newness, babies, children, youth, limping, laughing, crying.... blessed pandemonium.

God is good!

And that was all before we left the building....   :)


I AM the light of the world;
You are the light of the world... 
So let your light shine that all people might see me.
 

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