My friend Lou is not a christian. But God is on her case - she is surrounded by christians on all sides and has just started working for Via Wings, the christian charity which put on the conference. So she had to be there yesterday and it was the first time she had ever experienced anything like it.
I was up on the platform leading worship so I could see during the singing that Lou was a bit bewildered. She didnt know any of the songs for a start - but over lunch she told me that she had spent the whole day wanting to burst into tears. What was that about? Then during the afternoon session the speaker had words of knowledge for people in the meeting. Lou was sitting beside her very good ( christian) friend. And the speaker had a word of knowledge for her friend. Lou turned to said friend and asked her when she had been chatting to the speaker - assuming that they must have met. Friend said she had never met or spoken to her, it was God. Lou was more and more perplexed and amazed. How could that woman have known those things? What was going on?Don't you love seeing God in action?
So that was one fun thing that was going on yesterday.
Another thing that happened was in direct response to my blog post yesterday........ the one about perfectionism and attention to detail. Sitting at lunch a young woman came to sit down next to me with her friend and they were chatting. I overheard her saying to her friend how lovely it was that everything about the day was so nicely done and that there was such great attention to detail. I smiled. It was just God having a laugh at me. See Caz, the details do matter and people do notice and are blessed. Yeah yeah Lord, I get it. Very funny.
The serious part of the day yesterday was the testimony given by two young women that the charity has helped in the past year. One is a young mother of four children whose husband was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour a year ago. Their wedding had been planned for summer 2018, but his diagnosis meant that if they were going to get married it needed to be sooner rather than later. So at last year's ladies day an offering was taken and the word went out that everything would be needed in order to put on a wedding in 12 weeks. The women attending ladies day rose to the challenge. Cars and flowers and a cake and a dress - the whole works were provided by a community , many of whom who had never met this couple but had heard the story and wanted to help. Via Wings team put on the reception and yesterday we heard about the wonderful wedding day they had had last summer and how grateful and glad the couple were that they had wedding pictures and memories of a happy day before illness really started to take hold and things became a lot more difficult.The second story was of a young life ravaged by alcoholic parenting, neglect, abuse and tragedy. The upshot was a 26 year old woman who found herself pregnant and homeless with nobody in the world to help or care for her. She was eventually offered a house but was so fearful and depressed that she slept on the sofa and was pretty much living in squalor when she came across the door of Via Wings. A bit of tough love and a lot of tins of paint, furniture, washing machine, organising and tidying later and she has turned her life around. Her baby is healthy and safe and adorable. She is motivated to keep her lovely home clean and tidy and is now proud to invite people round. She has made new friends and even better has discovered the confidence to stand in front of a room full of strangers and tell her story in a powerful and self assured manner which was completely impressive. It is shocking to know that in the UK in this day and age children can still be having the experiences that this young woman had had. But it is also massively heartening to see that with love and practical help and trusting relationships a life like that can be totally redeemed and restored. She has seen God's care in what has been done for her and is now telling other people that the God she thought had abandoned her was in fact just waiting for her to turn to Him. Inspiring stuff
So the moral of the story today is that it is possible to make a difference. If you give money to a good cause you are making a difference. If you listen to God and give a word of knowledge to someone you are making a difference. If you line up the knives and forks with the napkins on the table you are making a difference. If you pray for people who are having a horrible time you are making a difference. And if you roll up your sleeves to paint or wallpaper or shift furniture for someone you are making a difference too. Sometimes it is hard to believe that the little bit we do really matters - but it does. Your piece of the puzzle might only be a small piece but it is needed to complete the picture God is painting in someone else's life. So go for it. Make a difference.
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