On Sunday evening February 28, we had the privilege of praying with our mission partner in Mexico, Chris Armstrong, and church member Mary Catherine Satterwhite as part of our monthly Community Prayer Gathering. I think everyone who participated in that gathering was encouraged by getting to see and pray with Chris and Mary Catherine.
These intensely focused gatherings may be the most important meeting we have each month at Bethany Place. I am not discounting other praying that we do, but this is the only meeting at which we meet solely for prayer. Our next opportunity for this Gathering is Sunday, March 28 at 9:30 A.M. It’s our intent to meet monthly on the last Sunday of the month, but once per quarter, we want to do that during the 9:30 hour before worship. I urge you to mark your calendar now to plan to be a part of that, either in person or virtually. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be reaching out to another set of folks within the church body asking them to pray out loud as a part of that meeting.
One of the features of the meeting that I didn’t anticipate is that it addresses our need to know that other believers have the same kinds of struggles that we have ourselves. I sensed that it created a greater sense of unity among us as we pour our hearts to the Lord. This showed what we knew, but had a little opportunity to experience, that fellow church members love God, want to know God, and see His work accomplished. We could sense the longing in one another’s voices as we prayed. You don’t have to take my word for this. You can check out the service and see for yourself the kind of praying that is taking place in these meetings.
I look forward to sharing with you Sunday morning the final sermon in the “Whom Will You Trust” series. The series began at the end of August last year and lasted for 19 messages. Sunday, I will preach from Exodus 15:1-21 a message titled How Worship Builds Enduring Faith. I have had the privilege of preparing this message while Kat, Noelle, and I visited with my parents and celebrated my dad’s 85th birthday. We start back home Friday and look forward to worshiping with you on Sunday.
In Christ,
Gene