On Friday afternoon a man came into the church, travelling from Whyalla to Brisbane. He was a bit of a talker, had been a builder and is currently full time carer for his wife who has some medical problems. He said he felt that God had led him to call in on us- usually a sign that a person is either seriously following God or else a nutter!
Merv seemed genuine enough and we offered to let him stay in the church for the night. The next morning he offered to use his expertise to fix a roof leak in the church that has been very elusive ever since we bought the building. He talked to David Baxter about it, and they seemed to be on a common wavelength.
By Sunday it was apparent that there were some hurts, issues, attitudes and other assorted garbage in Merv's life which were stopping him from taking hold of the fullness of the ministry that God has for him. They aren't big issues, just the sort of things that many people carry and assume are normal. These issues often come from the barriers we put up to stop people getting too close and therefore potnetially hurting us.
After church, I went off for my Sunday afternoon nap, and went back to the church to find Margaret in full-flight counselling/ exhortation mode. She is very good at taking the words that people say, identifying the underlying issues and then explaining why those things are there and how to get rid of them- other people call it therapy and charge $200 an hour but she does it with God for free.
Merv thought he was coming to help us, but ended up with us helping him big time.
It was a good time and very fruitful although it did take up a big slice of the weekend.
Wednesday afternoon I will be going to take Susannah to Sydney to start her final year of college. I'll be back on Friday afternoon to get ready for the weekend of prayer next weekend. I suspect I will be trying to fit in a week's work tomorrow!
Today I took some photos of bugs. I was looking around the garden and saw a bee buzzing around our Sheena's Gold plant. I wasn't able to actually photograph the bee as it headed towards the top of the tree, but I did discover what a rich ecosystem one plant can be for a diversity of insect life.
Here are a couple of creepy-crawlies that stayed still long enough to focus on. The caterpillar is a particularly hairy type.
Great pictures, I'm always amazed to think that inside a little critter like this, God put a tiny heart, tiny lungs and other microscopic organs!"the sort of things that many people carry and assume are normal" This sounds like an amazing topic for a sermon! (hint, hint) :)
ReplyDeleteYou might have to wait a while Lois. This year I'm preaching almost entirely about grace. ALthough I'm sure that I'll have lots of opportunities to talk about "the sort of things that many people carry and assume are normal" :P
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess I'll just have to be patient!
ReplyDelete