Ours was at Willy's place this year round and being able to enjoy God's creation and at the same time sit still to listen to His voice was just amazing!!!
Lots of brainstorming were done within those few days and I believe coming up with the theme was one of the toughest. The funny thing was, each of us had ideas that were running along similar lines - on faith, confidence in Christ and equipping ourselves with the amour of God and reaching out. We had a few doubts on how faith can be a difficult topic to tackle and basically we had all these ideas but it was all a blur - this was Saturday night.
We were all pretty tired that night but prayer before that was just so enjoyable. One of our prayer was that God will refresh us by Sunday service the next day and lead us wherever He wants to lead us as we were pretty tired already then. Guess what? God did so alright, more than we could ever ask for.
My Sunday service experience started quite wierd for me in a way. We have never been to Every Nation Church before (except Willy) and we were already sweeping and cleaning up the hall in a primary school preparing it for service beforehand. I would say it really gave a feeling that we're part of the family in Christ even if it means we never met before.
They were a small congregation made up of probably 5 families mainly from Philipines and South Africa. I instantaneously fell in love with this kid whose around 4 or 5 from the Philipines, he was just simply adorable!!!!! Half the congregation were about the knee height and the other half were adults. One family even drive a nearly 3 hour drive from Bunbury just to come to church, leaving at 7am when the service starts at 10.This routine happens week after week :)
The service started with someone volunteering to start the service with an opening prayer and the pastor going up and reading the 3 titles of songs they were going to sing for that day. I was kinda confused at first to admit. They never had a worship leader in front nor did they have any musicians on stage. How and where would the worship songs come from???
The answer? A CD playing on the Cd player and an OHP projector to project the words for us to sing from. However sequence the Cd played, thats how many times they sang the verse and chorus and bridge. The funny thing was, worshipping God never felt so real.
It was now sermon time and Pastor Francco went up. Even with the title of his sermon, all of our jaws drop wide open.
Living the Life of Faith
Exactly what we have discussed! Even the key verses that we were looking at was exactly the same ones pastor used! Coincidence? I would believe it was God working. Pastor Francco actually only decided what he wanted to speak on that very Thursday before. Pastor spoke to us after the service and with the expressions we had during his sermon, he actually thought we were disagreeing with him or something. All 4 of us LC just had the shocked look as each of us were in awe. I believe boths side were super touched when we shared about it as pastor Francco himself had no clue what we were planning on and we on the other side had no clue what message he was going to speak on. It left most of our side with tears in our eyes as God really felt so real. It was as if He was standing right in front of us and leading our steps, assuring each step we take.
However small that the congregation was, I find it was a meaningful one. It was one where you can see the genuinity of the Pastor and his burning passion to live for God according to God's rules and not his.
Btw, I fell in love with this fellow too. Her name's Salty, a fat cuddly cat who kinda sounds lik she has a sore throat when she tries to meow but that doesnt make her any less adorable!! :) She was sleeping with me on the bed one night :P
These are the four of us and hope that you can continue praying for us that we will continue reflecting the fact that its not about us but about God!! :)
I loved the way Max Lucado put it.
When God looks us and heaven's stagehands direct the spotlight towards the star of the show, I need no sunglasses as no light will fall on me.
Signin off: It's not about me
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