Previous Post – Weekend Linkage #4

This week’s gathering of Little Flowers Community, our inner city church plant, was a real reflection of the unique life of our group.  First, our wandering homeless friend Chris was back in town.  It was his birthday on Friday, so I told him that I would get him a big cake with candles.  He was so excited he invited a group of his buddies to join us (convincing them that we weren’t some creepy cult).  When several of his friends agreed to come, he ran out to buy groceries to make his famous “Poor Man’s Soup”, as I wanted to contribute to the potluck.  Amazing guy.

With these fun loving guys added to the potluck, the language was a lot more colourful, which we are hardly notice, but our other guests had to adjust to.  It was really neat to see such different people enjoying a meal and each others company.  After the meal, we sang Happy Birthday to Chris.  He & his buddies decided to take off before worship, but they said they might join us again.  I guess we weren’t too cultish after all!

I put aside this week’s planned sermon/discussion and had a time of community sharing.  We centered it around James 5.  Are any of you happy?  Sing songs of praise!  And so we celebrated and prayed blessings on Andrew & Rachel, newlyweds in the church who have been part of Little Flowers since before we officially started.  It was good to commit to them as a couple to stand with them as a community, even in the face of many challenges.

Are any of you sick?  Lay hands and prayer for them.  The evening became a little more somber as Delia (who with her husband have been a huge support to Kim & I as leaders) shared that she had been diagnosed with the early stages of cancer.  While the prognosis is very good, it is nonetheless scary for them and all of us.  Delia shared this with the group:

________________________

For the past several months—more specifically weeks, I’ve been walking under a somewhat overcast sky. Not that there hasn’t been bright sunshine. Sometimes conditions have been so beautiful I could almost convince myself there were no clouds overhead, ever. But the clouds were never far away.

At this point my main prayer request is that I will be ruled by God’s peace and not by fear, and that this thing won’t become too all consuming. There is still a lot of other stuff to attend to and living to enjoy.

________________________

While not nearly as devastating, Kim & I also learned some disappointing news this week: the adoption process is slowing down, making the likely time that we will bring our child home from Ethiopia closer to October 2010.  It was comforting to sit together with John & Delia last night sharing our mutual struggles, encouraging and praying for each other.

Last week also saw the closing of The Dusty Cover.  For those who missed the Winnipeg Free Press story, it was online in Fredericton (no idea), found here.  While we are sad to see it close, we also know it will be reborn into something new in the year to come.

As a community we continue to share life together, both the joys and the suffering.  I love our community, even though there are times of heaviness and frustration.  Keep us in your prayers!