I love it when I am surrounded by activity. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy quiet times too. There’s nothing like that time late in the evening, after a day of satisfying work, after supper, after the kids have been tucked into bed for the night, when I can sit on our bed with my back propped up with a pillow, let out a deep breathe, and delve into a good book. But when I am at the church, I like action! At the church, “The more the merrier” becomes my mantra. There is something about the buzz of happy voices and the patter of dozens of feet that thrills me.
Yesterday, I led my small group meeting for young married couples. We had a great time of discussion, and had the privilege of welcoming a new couple to our group. It was one of those meetings where we were all “on a roll”, and we didn’t stop till around 9:00 p.m. When we finally said our last prayer and started pulling on our winter gear to leave, I was so blessed to see that our little church building at 9:00 p.m. was abuzz with activity. As I exited the room my group met in, I brushed past two staff members and stepped out into our new addition, where a gaggle of voices were raised in excited discourse. The voices belonged to a group of students studying English in a new English language program we recently started in the church. I poked my head into the room and said “Hi, how are you guys?” in simple English, just for fun. I was rewarded with several responses from the students ranging from, “I am fine, thank you!” to “I am pleased to meet you.” Of all the students, I was most glad to see Pastor Vitaliy from our daughter church in Rakeetnoye. I think that his interest in learning English will pay off big for him in the future.
When I finally cut loose and headed for our mini-van in the parking lot, I couldn’t help but contemplate on how proud I am to be the pastor of a church whose people are so tightly knit together in their mutual love for Jesus and each other, that even at 9:00 p.m. on a Tuesday night the church was bursting at the seams due to all their activity!
