All in Due Time

Let me start by saying that Sunday School to Russ and I has always been a pretty tight peer group. Other couples in our same age range, in a similar life stage, studying the word of God together, praying with one another and ministering to one another. Moving is difficult and we have always felt like our Sunday School class was more like our extended family than just a place to go study the bible, though that aspect was very important.

Upon our move to Charleston, we felt it increasingly necessary to not only be in the Word, but to connect with a group of like minded individuals that we could "do life with". We believe that Christ has to be the center of our life, our family and our relationships. We find it necessary to be with others equally yoked people who can lift us up in our struggles, pray for us, cry with us in our despair, and laugh with us in our joys... this past Sunday was our first experience with trying to find our group. Our church has two types of classes...those that are "peer groups" (ex. Newlywed, Married with School age children, and Empty Nesters) and electives classes (open to all couples, singles of all ages). We thought we would try our peer group for the above mentioned reason. So we went to an amazing worship service and then headed to our "class". Well, to say that we were the youngest in the class would have been an understatement. I realize that I am in denial about my "real age", but the class consisted of "Parents of Parents, a.k.a. Grandparents NOT Parents of School Aged Children. I digress!

So, we ventured down the hall looking for some others that looked similar to us... convinced that the Newlywed class was our closest fit... I told you that I was in denial... and Russ said NO! We decided to go to the class we were "supposed" to go to. Right before class started another guy walked in...one that had on "child pickup tags". He was very nice and said it was his first time in class as well. He said his wife was out of town, but he thought he would try the class. He introduced himself and Seung and we were pleased to see that we found one other person in the class with children in our kids age group. When class ended, we quickly departed, after doing a brief study on Luke...

Well, Sunday night was being promoted as Link'd Up. This was where the church was connecting people with Community Groups. We had been planning to attend for over a month and we guessed that maybe this was were the "doing life with" people would come from. Once we arrived, we immediately saw Seung. He smiled, instantly remembered us and we saw that he was a Community Group leader. Hmmm, interesting. So, he showed us where to take the kids and said to enjoy our evening.

We dropped off the kids, and got in the buffet line, along with hundreds of other people or all ages and marital status. The tables were set up in rows all the way from the back of the room to the front and the announcer stated that their was some seating up front. We decided to walk blindly toward the front until we found 2 open seats together. We heard our names called out, and Seung asked if we were looking for a place to sit...2 open seats right across the table from him. So, we took a seat. We enjoyed conversing with him and met another of the husbands from the group whose wife was also out of town. We talked about our kids...and discovered that Gavin was in the same class as his son Micah. (Miss Donna Carole Kitchens) Micah was the first friend that Gavin made when he started school. We discovered that our older kids went to Belle Hall and though they were not in the same classes, Landon's teacher was the mother-in-law of the other husband that we met. We laughed at what a "small world" it was and I silently thanked God for his perfect plan and for leading us so obviously to a community group that we are really looking forward to joining.

We finished the evening and went to pick up the boys, who were not too happy to be going back to church for the second time in a day...they could not stop talking about how AWESOME the time was that evening. They were excited about the memory verse that they had to learn for next week and the joy that had seemed a long way away flooded back into our family. As Pastor Buster Brown said yesterday morning...if Christ is in the center...it will stick! I finally feel like we might be breaking free, free from the loneliness, the isolation, and the sadness. Thank you Jesus for your Mercy and Grace~