Church=Family

Tuesday night, Hope Bible Church had it's first prayer meeting.  Slowly, Hope Bible has grown from a group of 3 families meeting in a living room to a group of 2 families meeting in a different living room, to a group of varying numbers meeting in the heart of downtown Middleton.  And when I say the heart, I mean, right there on main street, people yelling and sirens going off right under our window every Sunday.  We now have a projector so we can play and sing songs not included in the hymnal.  We're getting cabinetry, pretty things to put on the walls, and even have a vase of flowers sitting on the table with the bagels and coffee.  It's all very exciting.

But back to this Tuesday, all attended who could, those who had to work leaving messages and prayer requests for the rest.  It was nice.  No one was dressed up, I wore an anime tee shirt, and everything was so casual.  Anyone could pray, anyone could talk, and we could sing with or without the piano, pulling up lyrics on our phones at times.  More than one person thanked God, calling us a family.  And it was so surprising.  True, I know that fellow Christians are family because we all share one Father, I knew, but never felt.  Knowing and feeling these Christians surrounding me, considered not just my parents, but me, to be apart of them.....I don't know, it made me feel, maybe the word is "secure".  Not secure like nothing bad is ever going to happen, but the secure that even if bad things do happen, it won't really matter much.

I will admit, prayer has never been my strong point, so I was hoping maybe doing it in a group setting would be better, and I was right.  I learned a lot of things, took a lot of notes, and was truly edified by others, I hope that I didn't just take, but also added to that edification in some way.  One thing I do know is that I will going to Tuesday night prayer meeting as often as possible from now on.