is this what a community is about?

you give you take away, my heart will choose to say BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD!

 

i woke up this morning very excited - arthur's back today!  wow, liz must be so thrilled (although she's in the plane with him ...)... i kept thinking that a new season has come and a good one i think!  arthur used to be our cell leader and when he left to england for his further studies as they call it, the cell 'split' with all of us seeking the lord in our own corners yet loving each other la!  i wonder if his return would be like the birth of something new ... perhaps like all the returnees seeking God together again ... whatever, i wait in expectancy!

 

then i received kp's sms that ellena's daughter has passed on ... i shivered when i read the text and when we prayed for her in aon, i couldnt stop crying.  i felt a little of the pain, grief, fear and whatever that perhaps ellena was and is going through....afterall, we were all in hop together for so long...  i felt sad also for kp's team cos i know that they must be affected since they spent so much time together in israel ... i wonder if questions like is this backlash, what happened, pain etc may cross their mind ... i think about all these things and i tear again ... Jesus help - what's happening ..

 

is this what a community is about?  i cry when i see my brother crying, i get all excited when i see a couple reunited after a year's seperation ... perhaps simply put, a community is a true body where we embrace each other in good and bad times.  when one suffers, the other suffers too.  yet when one is happy, we all get happy  ... surely this must be the Lord's way ... and i think the person who caught it best was Mary of Bethany who knew that what the Lord needed at the time before His greatest act of love on the cross was the extravagant love she chose to shower on Him... His blah disciples were still fighting over who was to be number one ... she caught something they never did ...she caught his heart! she probably knew that he was struggling and in pain ... and she knew what would bring him joy is simply to shower her all to Him.

 

Lord, my prayer for aon and myself is that we will be the ones that will know You intimately. that we will be the ones that will hurt when you hurt, laugh when you laugh and cry when you cry!  we will be the ones that may never do great things yet aon will be the place where You will delight in hanging out in cos we your favourite ones are here!