Rejoice with us!

I hate changes. It means I have to stop & think. It means I can't operate on automatic pilot. It means I have to hoe a new groove in my schedule. Change upsets me so changing churches has really thrown me off balance. I struggle to be organised & make boats. I feel angry because I've been forced to make the change. I resent all the extra effort it is requiring to get us to church each week & when the weather is bad I just won't make the effort. I can't cope with being wet as well as cold. I have a bad attitude but the change was necessary & I am adjusting slowly.


All that being said my soul is singing within me this morning. Liddy & I had agreed to try the youth service this week, as much because her work schedule looks like the morning service is out for her. As we prepared to leave the island I wanted nothing more than to say we'd go another week. I was tired & crotchety. My day should have been winding down not gearing up for trips to the mainland. My temper was fraying & an over tired Ditz was being difficult. We left Ditz at home.

Liddy had asked one of her friends along & if we'd had another spare seat Ditz had two she wanted to bring. As it was it was just the three of us. Now bluntly I am struggling in this church. It is too big, too loud, too many distractions ( thank heavens for Meeting once a month!) but the preaching is excellent & we are being fed. I will put up with a lot if the preaching is good. So I was expecting worse from the youth service.

This is something I've never actually experienced before. Youth services were a fairly new innovation when I was Liddy's age so seeing 50 ~ 60 young adults on fire for the Lord, singing their hearts out, waving their hands, dancing on the spot was a wow! moment.

When Liddy is happy she lights up from within. Quakers talk about the inner light & letting your inner light shine. You really see that in Liddy when she is spiritualy fed & I watched her light up last night. She was absolutely glowing. There were a whole bunch of kids just returning from a mission trip. There were Christian concerts & events being advertised where she could fellowship with even more youth. And the preaching was absolutely fantastic!!! Liddy soaked it up like a dry sponge. They were still going when we left for the boat.

That alone would have made it all worthwhile but the best was yet to come. Liddy's friend is a little shy about spiritual matters & Lid & I can rattle on happily for hours, which can be intimidating. She comes from a non~Christian background though she used to attend the island Sunday school. Last time we took her to the morning service & it pretty much went over the top of her head. Last night she shyly confessed she likes this church. Praise the Lord! She understood the sermon. She has been encouraged in her fairly new walk with the Lord. She's been strengthened ~ everything you want when you bring someone new to church! O.K, like Lid she prefers the evening service but that it fine. I would go to greater lengths than this to grow on the next generation of Christians.

Now this is a church that likes to put all its members into *life groups* for prayer, bible study, encouragement & accountability & I have been fretting because I really, really don't want to have to travel yet again, not for any reason. Brainwave! I will run it past Dearest & Liddy, but we have enough between us to start our own small *life group*. It has the feel of the Lord's thumbprints on it. I am excited. I feel blessed. Knowing the move is right makes all the hassle worthwhile.