Sunday, October 01, 2006
Keeper of the Divine Secret published at nazarene.org
This recent post was recently published on the front page of the Church of the Nazarene official website at www.nazarene.org. To go directly to the article at nazarene.org, click here.
Encouragement from a Local Church in California
We have our own share of disappointments, though we try to encourage who we can when we can through the stories we send from West Africa. Then, we get E-mails like this one, and it comes back around to encourage us:
“Dear Bro. Matt: Greetings and thanks from the Hallwood Church. I have been receiving your e-mails, regularly, and save them to use as part of our lesson studies in our monthly NMI meetings. This last week, after a sumptuous dinner, I had three or four men read portions of your e-mails, taking the parts of you, the young pastor in Benin (whose host had his house ravaged), Moise, and any others you might have mentioned in your letters. I had the parts organized by date as you had sent the material to me. It was almost as if we were hearing the stories first hand as they happened. Our small group then gave generously for the general budget [for World Evangelization], and we prayed for you, Moise, and all those we had heard about. Then we gave the great news about the birth of the new baby girl to Moise and his wife, and the group, especially the ladies, was excited to hear the good news. Our group has been very interested in the on-going trials of Moise and so happy to hear that things are better with his health and now the delivery of the baby. Please continue to keep us updated. We feel as though we have had a part in all of this, and we continue to keep you, your wife, boys and all of the workers there with you in our prayers.
“May God continue to bless your work and keep you all in the hollow of his Hand.
“Thanks again, Ruby [from Marysville, California]”
I hope you were encouraged as much as I was when I read this E-mail from Ruby, especially the part where she wrote: “We feel as though we have had a part in all of this.”
That’s the whole point, and it made my weekend.
“Dear Bro. Matt: Greetings and thanks from the Hallwood Church. I have been receiving your e-mails, regularly, and save them to use as part of our lesson studies in our monthly NMI meetings. This last week, after a sumptuous dinner, I had three or four men read portions of your e-mails, taking the parts of you, the young pastor in Benin (whose host had his house ravaged), Moise, and any others you might have mentioned in your letters. I had the parts organized by date as you had sent the material to me. It was almost as if we were hearing the stories first hand as they happened. Our small group then gave generously for the general budget [for World Evangelization], and we prayed for you, Moise, and all those we had heard about. Then we gave the great news about the birth of the new baby girl to Moise and his wife, and the group, especially the ladies, was excited to hear the good news. Our group has been very interested in the on-going trials of Moise and so happy to hear that things are better with his health and now the delivery of the baby. Please continue to keep us updated. We feel as though we have had a part in all of this, and we continue to keep you, your wife, boys and all of the workers there with you in our prayers.
“May God continue to bless your work and keep you all in the hollow of his Hand.
“Thanks again, Ruby [from Marysville, California]”
I hope you were encouraged as much as I was when I read this E-mail from Ruby, especially the part where she wrote: “We feel as though we have had a part in all of this.”
That’s the whole point, and it made my weekend.
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