This last Wednesday evening, we hosted our first Women's event- and I have to say that we were incredibly blessed by the success that it turned out to be!
In planning the evening, our goal was to host a casual event where we could get to know the women in Pharos, relax and have fun together, and build each other up as sisters in the Lord.
The theme was "Desserts and Drinks" and the plan was to have the girls over to our house for desserts and then all go to a cafe together afterwards.
I have to say that we didn't know what to expect or who would even show up, but we extended an invitation to as many women as we could. And I guess that the Lord took our openness to welcoming whomever and used it to encourage the hearts of many women to attend because, without His help, we would never have had as many women attend or as successful of an evening.
The evening was supposed to start at 8pm. However, no one was arriving. Naturally, we panicked a little, but decided to turn to the Lord and put the evening in His hands. Not five minutes later, the doorbell rang and eight women showed up together. From that time on, it was clear that the Lord was directing the evening.
At one point, as I was helping to serve drinks and dessert, I had a chance to stop and look around. Our little tiny living room and dining room were filled with women talking and laughing together. It was beautiful to see so many women from all different backgrounds coming together and sharing life, telling stories and building friendships.
There are one story in particular that I want to share with you. It is about Anna, a Belgian girl that Kate and I had met that afternoon during coffee stall. Coffee stall is the name that we give to our street evangelism efforts. Every Wednesday afternoon, we stand outside of the university building and offer free coffee and waffles to students passing by. Often we are ignored or completely rejected, but sometimes we are able to get into a great conversation and share what we are doing and how we have experienced the Lord with these people. Meeting Anna on Wednesday afternoon was one of those success stories. She was passing by, looking for something to do before her next class, when I approached her and offered a cup of coffee. She ended up staying and talking to Kate and I for two hours and then agreed to come to the our house for dessert and drinks that evening. It turns out that she doesn't have many friends in the area and has been looking for people hang out with and something to get involved in. Though she is not particularly interested in her faith, she really enjoyed hanging out with all of the women at our house on Wednesday evening and we have already planned a time to hang out again this next week. Though it is impossible to know where this relationship will lead, it is encouraging to see Anna's openness and to know that the Lord is in control.
The evening provided many opportunities to build friendships with the women there. As I was later reflecting on the event, I realized that through all of my conversations, some about conversion and finding Christ and some about Harry Potter and eating chocolate, I gained many new sisters in Christ and in many different way we were able to encourage one another in our journey towards the Cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment