Church at the Lake and Spontaneously Meeting with Another Church
A few weeks ago, one of the families we meet with each Sunday as the church asked if we could all meet together at the lake. It sounded like a great idea to everyone, so we planned to get together yesterday morning and afternoon at a nearby park on the lake.
As people started arriving, we noticed a large group of people gathered at one corner of the beach area while the rest of the beach was completely empty. We wandered closer and realized that another church was meeting at the lake and were baptizing that morning.
More of our church continued to arrive, and we all gathered around the other church and witnessed their baptism. It was an exciting time.
We were two very different groups of people. 1) They were from Durham; we were from the Wake Forest / Youngsville area. 2) They were primarily Hispanic; we were primarily Caucasian. 3) They were from a Pentecostal background; we were from a Baptist background.
But, we had so much in common. While most of us do not understand much Spanish, we could definitely understand what was being said as each person was being baptized: “En el nombre del Padre y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo.”
During the baptism, at one point, a brother walked up and introduced himself to us. He told us the story of one of the ladies who was being baptized. It was a beautiful story of healing and grace.
After the baptism, as we were gathering around the different picnic tables, playing in the water, and such, we invited them to play volleyball with us, and they invited us to play soccer with them.
While we were expecting to have a great time fellowshiping with the church at the lake Sunday morning and afternoon, we did not expect the additional fellowship with these other brothers and sisters.
That made my day and I was not even there.
I love when the “walls” are taken down.
Awesome!
Swanny,
I’m glad this was encouraging to you!
-Alan
Swanny channeling John Cougar Mellencamp…
Arthur,
No… there were no pink houses anywhere around the lake.
-Alan
Alan,
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us.
Aussie John,
It seemed good to us too. 🙂
-Alan
Josh,
Sorry I missed your comment earlier. It got caught in my spam filter for some reason.
Thanks!
-Alan
I am sure Jack and Diane were there somewhere…