What’s Up With Us…

Well sweet friends this morning was great!! I definitely missed a few notes but didn’t feel like I distracted from those worshiping which in my book is a success. Josh did a great job working with everyone. I believe God really moved! The congregation was standing by the end of the choir special!!

God did a work in my heart during the invitation.

Let me share a bit of history:

When we first moved here we were really outgoing with our neighbors. However after several of them moved, Monica Grace was born. When the new people moved in we never extended ourselves. I think I was using the excuse of having a newborn and that we already do so much at church I just want to be “home” when we’re at our house. I know — so selfish!!!

Well about 2 -3 weeks ago some policemen showed up at the house across the street. We knew an elderly lady lived there but the extent of our relationship consisted of hand waves and shouted hellos across the way. When we inquired from the officers if everything was okay he assured us it was but didn’t go into any details. Later that night the coroner car showed up… I cannot express to you how deeply that grieved our hearts. We had lived next to this woman little over a year and had no idea of her spiritual condition. We have really been muling over the shame of that incident. Needless to say we have grieved over our negligence and are continuing to pray about steps we can take on our street to redeem some time.

The first step Steven took was to invite our next door neighbors to “Friend Day” today at our church. We have our suspicions that they are buhdists due to statues and such that we’ve seen. When he came back from his visit with them, I sarcastically made the remark that I’m sure they would want to be apart of our church due to how “not” friendly we’ve been.

Well I looked up during the invitation and guess who was smiling in the audience?!?!?! You guessed it — both of them! They looked like they were enjoying it so MUCH!!! My eyes immediately filled with tears. God’s grace extended right before my eyes and mans’ forgiveness too! Needless to say we are filled with joy at the opportunity we feel we’ve been given not just once, but twice! My eyes brim with tears again just thinking of that reality… Do you guys have anyone that you’ve seen for forever but just haven’t shared God’s grace with? Apparently when you’re willing it’s never too late– at least that’s what I learned today. God is GREAT!

Oh I also learned that you can stop an offertory 4 pages short of being finished if you can find the right chord to end on. After the first two pages, I caught myself pondering our neighbors visit and then caught a glimpse of myself up on the big screen. My brain screamed there is NO WAY I’m gonna make it through 4 more pages– we otta just stop now. They had just finished taking up the offering anyway– it worked!!! ….. well sorta… =)