The Week that Was

As we approach the last week of 2021 I want to reflect on what happened in the past week. In Greek you have the saying "kai egeneto" (and it happened). As believers who love the Lord and live in fellowship with Him, many things could happen as if per chance but it is God-arranged in fact. Two mornings ago I drove to town at 5.40am when dawn was breaking. The moon shone brightly as it was a full moon just a few days ago. It was as if the moon guided me throughout the 12kms drive to the city centre. I am obviously alluding to the Star that guided the wise men to come to Jesus from a faraway land. I took a copy of Departure Points with me and I said to myself that if I met someone I know I would give the book away for free. Lo and behold for more than 40 mins I saw no one familiar. Then I stood up to leave and while near the exit someone called out "pastor!".

It was a young lady I knew from her Primary School years, a friend of my son in Taginambur where I started my ministry 27 years ago. We chatted and rarely someone showed interest why I was unvaccinated. She listened with interest and genuine concern instead of being judgemental or indifferent to my plight. Obviously the conversation started when she asked me about the church I was pastoring and I thought I had to be frank and told her I had resigned. We stood there chatting for 7 or 8 mins and I gave her my book. In this past week I had also befriended the contractor who helped me fix the tiles in my dining room. The work including sealing the roof, painting interior walls plus retiling took 11 days over 3 weeks with 2 or 3 workers on site. Yesterday 3 people came just to paint the door, skirting and ceiling and it finished just before 4pm. I also met up with an Anglican friend, a retired priest and we spent time with morning tea, then lunch before I took him back to his apartment. He bought my three books as he reads Malay too (he used to serve in the interior for about 12 years) before ending his ministry in KK. I felt I was pastor to him as he did 90 percent of the talking and I gave a listening ear. Then today I met my friend for lunch and I shared with him the verse in Jeremiah that the prophet lamented that he neither lent nor borrowed but yet everyone cursed him.  I did not elaborate as I could give only what my hearer could receive. I reflected on my last few months of sermons in church and realized how little people took in what I said in God's Name. Like Samuel, God spoke to me and said, "they did not reject you but Me".