I love the willingness of Pastor Rose to be completely present with one who is hurting. Last week I was the recipient...this week it was Christine. What a privilege to watch God at work!
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| Susan praying before sharing a word of encouragement |
Susan shared from Ps 112 reminding us that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. As we fear Him, and follow in His ways we will be blessed...and our generations (offspring) will be blessed.
That word really encouraged me!
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| Christine loves to study! |
As Susan reads from God's word our hearts are prepared for a time of sweet worship...
Leona is a natural worshiper...
Susan invited the two youngest (Christine and Leona) to lead us in worship and to pray for our time together.
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| Leona praying before starting our study |
I love that Christine grabs the camera - then I get to be in my blog entries!
Okay - so she caught me texting while Rose was teaching...
Rose did a great job reviewing our lesson from last week, with an emphasis on the idea of contentment.
There were several comments and insights shared on contentment, even before we launched into today's lesson!
Rose made a great illustration with her fingers to show how destructive envy is...if our pinky thinks it doesn't matter because it is small and the other fingers decide to cast it away, we end up crippled!
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| Susan was enjoying Rose's object lesson! |
As Rose spent some time touching on each main point of today's lesson we all made notes and began to think of how the lesson impacted us...
Story in our lesson: two boys fishing, boats spring a leak; one boy spent several days fixing the leak, while the other boy kept fishing and bailing water. The result is that long term the boy who took time to repair the leak was able to, ultimately, enjoy the benefits of a sturdy boat; whereas the other boy grew tired of bailing water and ended up losing his whole boat.
Susan linked the idea of spending time repairing the boat to taking time to repair 'leaks' in our relationships. If we address issues when they are small, then the relationship can stay strong and grow.
Emily arrived with Emmanuel, who is growing so big!
Susan's insight caused Josephine to share a story about a rift in her relationship with her daughter-in-law. She became so angry the morning of our study that she spent time arguing and ended up being late to class...she could see how her anger actually caused her to waste time...
Emmanuel is now walking and exploring! Reminds me of when Elijah was this small!
We then began to explore ways that each of us manages to waste money - what are our 'money-wasters'? Each lady had lots to share about that!
Christine confessed that she loves chips and cannot pass a vendor without buying some!
Josephine entertained us with stories of clothes at the market catching her eye...even if she has no cash, she bargains with the vendor until she lands on an acceptable price...
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| Salome and Emily listening to Josephine |
...then she looks around, finds someone and says "give me 250/= (about $3)" and she gets it! She confessed she has spent much money that way that was not in her budget to spend!
Rose's weakness is hunger...she does not cook so can get very hungry at home. When she goes out to get food, she always buys more than her budget will allow...
Salome arrived late, but it was good to have her with us!
Leona shared that sometimes what she can give is a listening ear...she finds that sometimes people just need someone who will listen...
I was so moved by her humble spirit...and her willingness to use a gift God has given her to bless others!
One of the points of our lesson is to Understand Your Resource Position. I loved the way Christine applied that lesson; her best resource is her customers. She sells water and also cleans the public restrooms...when she is not there (because of coming to class), her replacement does not keep the toilets clean and she noticed her regular customers were going elsewhere. She decided to wake up earlier and stop to clean the toilets before coming to class to better serve her customers.
Here I am laughing at one of Josephine's stories...this time about raising chickens and how much she does not know and is learning!
After Susan shared that when she sees a need, she cannot help but give to help meet the need, Rose talked of seeing a need and serving that need...emphasizing the value of giving that which is truly needed rather than just giving to give or serving to serve. That is one way we can build relationships.
We were all blessed by the open sharing and expressed our gratitude to God as we spent time in worship...
...and prayer...
Rose was humbled by acts of violence taking place in Kenya...
Josephine closed our session with a powerful prayer...
Then she got her certificate from the Holy Spirit study! She had missed our day of celebration...
Maybe next week I will remember to take photos of our debrief session...
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