Thursday 20 April 2017

Sunday.

Those who know me know I don't do people ~ not unless I know you, & know you well.  Strangers leave me tongue~tied.  The inanities of casual conversation make my eyes glaze over & while I am insatiably curious about all sorts of things they tend to be the sort of things that don't interest most people while those things that do interest them I know nothing about: fashion; current music; most politics...sport...

Most evangelism entails people contact. No surprise that I am very bad at it. So was my co~preacher. As a church, people were not our strength.  Obviously this is not good news when you want to reach people with the gospel. However the Holy Spirit, being the cluey person He is, gave us a way round our inadequacies.  He gave us Church in the Park & for the best part of 4 years we turned up with music & a message, prepared to pray for anyone unfortunate enough to stray our way. In all that time we missed just one Sunday when we should have been there.  It was just too cold & wet & as a church body we mutinied.

Then suddenly a whole heap of events conspired against us.  We started getting badly harassed;our co~preacher disappeared, whisked away to family; Cyclone Debbie bucketed Queensland in flooding rain; the park power inexplicably disappeared & despite repeated phone calls to council did not reappear.

At first all I felt was relief.  The MOTH & most everyone else enjoys the park outreach.  I do not.  Despite the presence of the Holy Spirit & the knowledge God definitely wants this to happen it has always been an act of obedience for me, not one of enjoyment. Having a legitimate excuse to abstain was wonderful! I didn't feel guilty.  No power & wet enough to drown a duck. Sadly it did not last.  Guilt arrived with a vengeance!

The MOTH continued to ring council.  I grew guiltier by the week ~ & just for good measure, to ensure I understood how Contrary Mary I could be, one of the other churches announced they would be using the park early on Resurrection Sunday.  I was appalled.  Their teaching walks a fine line to heresy.  Besides, the park was ours.  God gave us that ministry & having someone try & ride on our coat~tails got my dander up.  Not Pauline in my outlook~  No indeedy. After all the trouble we'd had, having someone else stir the pot infuriated me. However, as there was still no power it looked like neither of us would be able to use it.

One of my problems with the park is simply, despite being a garrulous sort of a person, I am introverted & quite reserved & I don't like feeling I am getting in people's faces because I don't like it when it is done to me. So I was caught between a rock & a hard place when the MOTH returned from a foray into the park on Friday & announced we had power!

The moral of this story is that often things are never as they first appear.  We had a rocky ride for a few weeks with a small minority working overtime to try & get us shut down.  They harassed the council.  They harassed other islanders.  They harassed the police. They got in our faces & abused us.  A lot of my energy got expended dealing with it. *sigh*

Then for 6 weeks straight we had no power & that was that. No~one had to be upset about us being in the park preaching Christ & Him crucified.  No~one had to put up with Christian music. No~one had those crazy Christians in their faces. Everyone should have been happy, right?  Not so.  As the MOTH wended his way back to the car after a power check he was confronted with: They haven't chased you away, have they?  Why aren't you in the park?  You will be back, won't you?

Yes, we are back. And round the perimeters where our second church has always hidden itself, the people gathered.  What's more, there seems to be a second lot of teaching going on with regulars instructing the curious about who we are, what we do & what we teach.

And because it was Resurrection Sunday & not about Easter eggs we did Communion in the park ~ & that was a show stopper! As for the other church, I have no idea. Their track record indicates they haven't the stamina to go long distance so it was probably a one~off. It shouldn't matter & the silly thing is I am perfectly happy to preach.  I'd just be happier if it didn't involve people.

2 comments:

  1. So you were missed and that surprised you? I know it is work to get you there, but, Jeannie, I am now understanding better how it actually suits you. You are not pastoring as much as you are preaching there, which is what you like more. God does know what He is doing and that little break was just that, to give you a renewed perspective and see how you are missed when you are not there.

    Love you, girl! You are very special.

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  2. You know I am just a little odd... ☺ We had someone else start up last Sunday & in all honesty, whatever her issue, my gut instinct was to totally ignore her & just wait patiently for her to run out of steam so I could get on with preaching. Preaching is what I was there for & the sooner I got to do that the sooner I got to go home & she was actually perpetuating the very thing she wanted stopped.

    So yes, I was surprised to be missed.

    I am also getting suspicious about something 3 of us were shown which we all interpreted one way but which I am now suspecting means something else. I do so like things to be clear.

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