In October, we hosted a neighborhood front yard gathering of cider and donuts this past weekend. Our goal is to continue to strengthen relationships with our neighbors and ultimately display and share God’s love. We distributed flyers inviting them and also incorporated the church’s “Socktober” sock collection effort. We had over a dozen people come out with others bringing socks but not able to attend. It was great to connect with these people and many expressed their appreciation for the gathering as well as the opportunity to participate in the sock collection for Haven of Rest. On Thanksgiving day my wife and I were eating lunch at Cracker Barrel, when I notice a young man at a table across from us and telling the waitress someone was coming in with a walker. After a few minutes he was kind of antsy until the rest of his party showed up; his grandmother (elderly and with the walker), parents and brother. They seemed very pleasant. As we were eating our meal, I noticed the young man had a caring way about himself and wanted to make sure everyone was doing well. It was at that point that God spoke to me and said to pray for them. I told my wife that God wants me to pray for that family, so I asked if she could take care of the bill. I approached the table and said Happy Thanksgiving and shared that God told me to pray for them. I asked if it was ok to pray for them and they said yes. I then asked who they were and if it was ok to lay my hands on them to pray and they said yes. As I prayed, I felt the presence of God. After praying, I thanked them for letting me pray and shook all of their hands and blessed them. The family was very grateful. Thank you for letting me share, to God be all the glory!
