Feliz Aniversário...

Sunday was a special day in our house church meeting. We celebrated four birthdays (l-r): Clarice, Renato, Vinicius and Carlos. Clarice and Renato both have their birthday on July 16th, while Vinicius and Carlos, who are grandfather & grandson, share July 5th as their birthday.

Our meeting was another demonstration of the Holy Spirit's work among us. We started by having the guys share reflections from our men's retreat experience last weekend (which I will describe in my next post). Then we had a time of praise, where anyone could suggest the songs they wanted to sing. During this time, our brother John Spencer, Clarice's husband, shares a song on a CD that he had heard and that he wanted us to learn to sing together, so we listened attentively and agreed to learn it. As we sang, the songs prompted several members of the group to read a passage of Scripture and comment on the meaning of their faith (everything from Psalm 89 to Acts 2 to Isaiah 64). We shared the Lord's Supper together reflecting on 2 Timothy 4 and the apostle Paul's declaration of "keeping the faith." We took up a collection and since there was no immediate need, we set the money aside for future use. The previous two weeks, we had taken up over $500 to help a widow and her four children (her recently deceased husband was a minister in a Church of Christ in a town three hours south of ours). It was as if everything flowed together, one piece of a seamless garment knit by the Holy Spirit amongst us.

The best part for me was at the end. I wanted to pray specifically for Clarice and Renato, since their birthdays would be tomorrow, asking God's blessing on them and thanking God for their place in all our lives. One of our members reminded me that Vinicius and Carlos had commemorated their birthdays earlier in the month. So we had the four of them gather in the middle, and we laid hands on them and prayed blessings & thanksgiving for their lives, and also prayed for specific requests shared by some in the group. It was a very meaningful moment, as was evidenced by the smiles and tears I saw afterwards!

Well, maybe the best part was...the food! We had a lasagna extraveganza for lunch; let me tell you - it was dynamite. Waleska made the birthday cake (white with chocolate layered filling) and did a fabulous job. Before and after the meal, the group sang some traditional gaúcho pop songs to liven things up. All in all, a great day to be in house church. We are thankful for what God is doing among us!