Learning to Go With the Flow

This weekend was a big weekend for us, meeting in our newly rented building for church services for the first time. We’ve been preparing for it for several weeks. Making plans and thinking things through and trying to have everything ready to go.

I am an organizer, list-maker, and scheduler. But I am learning that things don’t always follow my schedule, and sometimes things happen that aren’t on my list. Can you believe that?! 

On Saturday evening we had planned a prayer meeting and time of fellowship at the new building with our faithful group of people, to introduce them to the new facilities and have a time of prayer together there. Then we had services on Sunday morning and Sunday evening there also. We had passed out hundreds of invitations and were looking forward to this big day.

About 45 minutes before we were going to leave on Saturday evening someone knocked on our gate. It was some Brazilian friends from a few hours away. They wanted to know if they could stay the night with us and be part of our big day.  We were glad to have them, of course, but for someone like me who likes to plan and prepare ahead, it can be hard to handle.  They went to pick up their kids from a relative’s house, so I jumped into gear cleaning up the boys’ room and getting it turned into a guest room before we left for the evening.

I also started thinking about Sunday dinner for the next day. What I had planned to make wasn’t going to stretch out for four more, so I made some alternate plans and a stop at the grocery store on the way home from church.

After that hurdle, I began thinking about the next meal. We don’t usually eat too much on Sunday evenings, but when you have guests you can’t just put out some crackers! Most Brazilians are accustomed to a meal in the evening. I just didn’t have time for much preparation, so Jeremy ran to the grocery store to pick up some ready-made pizzas.

About a half an hour before we were planning to leave for church, we had more unexpected guests show up at our house to come to church with us. The more the merrier, right?! We had six extra people showering and getting ready for church. About that time the power went off, and I thought that I might just cry. (No lights, no hot water, no air conditioning, no hair dryer…) But thankfully, as soon we got flashlights out and candles lit, it came back on.

Did I mention these guests brought our "boys in the house" total to six...age 5-11?!

Somehow, we made it out the door on time, and the Lord gave us a great service for our first evening service. We were thrilled to see many of the people we had visited and invited come and participate. We heard many positive comments, and we are praying that the work would continue to grow.

Jeremy wrote a blog post about the day with pictures that you can see HERE. Thank you for all your prayers for us and for the ministry here. Please don't stop! We've only just begun!