The Banquet

God works in wonderful and incredible ways sometimes putting things together years ago that would come full circle at a later date.  This is one of those stories. 

The young college age woman walked into the middle school in the center of town accompanied by two men.  The meeting had been set up by one of the teachers to introduce a very special program to the principal.   As the teacher approached the trio, her eye immediately traveled to the young college student.  She knew that face.   As if in a time warp, her memories searched back to find this student, and now the circle was completed. 

Just a week earlier, it was a warm Saturday morning in Yuma, and a group of people were getting ready to paint the house of someone in need.  As two women chatted, the subject came up about the next days banquet that the small group had been invited to attend the previous week.   Feeling like the banquet was on a Sunday night, and they had a lot to get ready for on Monday including small group, the first women told her friend, that they had decided and to stay home and not go to the banquet.  The second woman would not let her out of the commitment.  “We want you there!”, encouraging her to go as if this was bigger than a commitment, it was a small group commitment!  Not excited about the event, the woman agreed they would go. 

At the banquet, the woman and her husband had a marvelous time.  But sometime during the festivities, this woman was struck by the Holy Spirit that she needed to bring this organization into her middle school.  So she spoke with the Area Director and they scheduled a time to meet the principal.  This was now that meeting time, and as she was approaching the young woman and two men.  Her memories shot back to eight year prior.  The girl that stood before her now, was the young girl that she had taught so many years ago.  Not only had the woman been her teacher, but the young girl had been the woman’s student in home room and was on the same soccer team that this teacher had also coached.  This was one of those most special students you hope you never loose contact with, but she had.  Now she stood in front of her, eight years later, and the relationship had been reconnected.  

Had it not been for the encouragement of one of this ladies small group members, she would have never gone to the banquet, felt the Holy Spirit move inside of her, scheduled a meeting with the area director, and became reacquainted with with the young woman she adored.  

The banquet?   Young Life of Yuma, a christian based national organization that works to reach middle and high school kids for Christ.  Certainly a divine appointment!

In the Hot Seat 1

When it comes to prayer time in a small group, you never know what kinds of requests will come. Sometimes the group just senses the intense emotion of the request -- this is not just another ordinary request, it is one of concern, pain, stress, worry. In other words, a burden only Jesus can carry. It is at one of these moments that a leader might decide to put that person(s) in the hot seat. I’ve seen it take place many times. Here is just one: 

An ordinary night as the small group was finishing up, it was time for prayer requests.  As it came time for this one man to speak, his burden was heavy and his stress level was high as he shared his need. This man is a business owner.  He is very laid back and takes much of life in stride, so people rarely know what is really going on. Tonight was not one of those nights.  

 This man’s business was struggling so the group had prayed that God would expand his territory. God did. What a blessing! The expansion was taking place, but no income yet been seen.  Now his bills were due: business vendors were seeking their money as well as creditors in his personal life. All he could say was, “We don’t have any money.”  This was a cause for pain and strife which came out in his prayer request. His wife shared the same burden.  

“Can we put you in the hot seat?”, the leader asked. With a little hesitation they agreed.  Two chairs were set up; the husband and wife sat down. The rest of the group gathered around them, gently placing their hands on the couples’ shoulders and knees. Prayer for this couple began -- each person speaking as the Spirit led them. 

“The sermon the week before had been “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread” so we asked God for just that: Peace for today; enough bread to get him through today; enough trust in the Almighty . . . for today.  Amen.”

The next day the group received this text: “Just thought I would share this with you all . . . after our prayer last night, my stress level went way down. Thank you. Today we  only got one thing in the mail -- a check for the balance of a job that’s not even finished yet. God is faithful. I am weak, but He is strong. . . .”  The check wasn’t enormous, but was enough to get them into a place where they could breathe a little and keep moving forward. The mail carrier rarely comes into this man’s office to deliver the mail.  This day -- as if he knew it held a blessing -- he did, saying, “I just thought I would shake things up a little bit”.  A prayer answered. 

Lord, give us this day our daily bread.