Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Love thy neighbor part II

A few nights ago, I came home at about 11 p.m. from my soccer game where our team had gotten smacked down again by a score of about 8-1. My neighbor was sitting on her porch. She is a nice lady who is a single mother of 3. I sat on her porch and talked to her for a while. She was not doing well. She seemed down. I told her that I thought she seemed depressed lately. She told me that she struggles because about 8 months ago, she lost her 10 year old daughter to some sort of illness.


Losing a child has to be the worst pain imaginable. I felt so sorry for her and totally understand her reasons for her depression. We had a great talk on the porch. I asked her at the end if I could pray for her. She said yes, so I put a hand on her shoulder and prayed for her on the spot. I prayed for God to take care of her daughter in heaven and for comfort for them here on Earth.


After the prayer I told my neighbor that I was a minister. She had no idea! (It must be because of all the wild parties we've been throwing at our house!) She was thrilled that I was a minister. I told her I would be planting a church in the city next year. She said “well my family and I are going to come to it!”


So I guess my new church that doesn't exist yet (except in my head and heart!) just grew by 4 people. That's pretty cool. I had no intention of her being a part of our church. I didn't try to love her with any ulterior motives. I was just trying to be neighborly and loving her like God would want me to. I hope that our church one day grows by repeating these kinds of stories over and over. That's the kind of church I want to be a part of.

1 comment:

kate said...

Chris and Abby,
I finally found your blog! I've been meaning to do that for a pretty long time. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm one of the girls that you opened your home to for a weekend of visiting in Virginia. We wrote you guys a thank you card, and I don't know if it ever made it to the post office, but we loved spending the weekend with you guys so much! This post sounds like exactly the kind of thing you guys would take the time to do. I'm excited for your church and I hope you guys are doing well!!