San Francisco

I went to this Church in San Francisco last Sunday. It was a smaller church than the one I go to and it was an Assembly of God. It was my first time there and I saw that the people were warm. In the lobby an older lady saw that I am new and gave me a welcome package and asked me to fill out something. She also gave me a purple mug with some hershey's kisses inside. I smiled, thanked her for that and walked into the Church. An usher promptly walked me through the center aisle, towards the front and sat me down in the fourth row. The service had started and there was beautiful music by the Choir dressed alike, in green.

A few minutes later, a very well spoken lady stood before the stage, only a few feet from the first row and made a few quick announcements. She pointed to a list that was handed out earlier that listed the prayer items for the week. And that each of us should pray regardless of how bad we think we are in praying. "If you cannot pray, you learn to pray. Each of us should know how to pray aloud", she stated with no condescension. I liked that. She reminded me of a teacher that I loved as a kid, who took no excuses if we failed to do our homework. She raised the standards right away. At the end she happily announced that the pastor was back and had everyone applaud her return. Everyone stood and clapped. She quickly returned then to her seat next to her smiling husband, while another woman walked to the stage. I began to pay close attention.

This woman in her late fifties, could be in her early sixties, walked toward the same spot and started speaking. Right away you could tell that she knew everyone in the Church and everyone knew her. She seemed to pick up where she left off before she went on the break. She said that she was glad that she finally took the break, because she and her husband had been planning to go to this place for a long time. She also joked about some things she saw and did during her break. From the way she spoke, I didn't realize that her husband passed away only a few weeks before, and that she went to this place without him. Her voice broke a little, but it didn't give away any regrets or sadness. She quickly changed the topic to the the sad incident in Kenya where the people taking refuge in a Church were attacked and about 40 of them were burnt alive on January 1st. It was shockingly gruesome and was all over the news. I later found out that this was in Eldoret, Kenya and a Pastor that I communicate with regularly, and who does good work -Peter Mwangi- was right there. Here's the news article.

She said she kept thinking about how the pastor must have felt when the attackers came into the Church and that we were very fortunate such things did not happen here in the US. She said that we should all pray for them and that none of us should underestimate the power of our individual and collective prayers.

While she spoke, I realized how recently she may have been widowed. She seemed to be going through spiritual attacks after that. Her face looked old.But for all I knew, she may have lost 5 years in just those last few weeks. She used short statements while speaking. No complex sentences but was extremely eloquent. She was terse and made her point well. She didn't seem to think while talking and didn't dwell on anything for too long.

She did describe some of her 'spiritual attacks' though. And her message revolved around how to fight these "assassins of joy" back. That's what she called them. The assassins. The assassins of joy. She then went on to point out how important it is to have the Joy. She pointed to several verses (almost 15 of them) in the Scriptures that talked about Joy. It's vital that we don't lose this Joy, while we continually face situations that threaten to eliminate that very Joy, by pointing out "the reality of life", she said. Her emphasis on it was very effective. She spoke with high clarity, despite her emotional condition. She ended it empasizing that our individual prayers ARE very powerful and that we should pray relentlessly submitting our petitions to the LORD.

The offertory was held right after, where we walked to the front in a line and dropped our offerings. As I walked back, the smiling husband of the lady who spoke earlier, sitting at the end of the first row smiled and shook my hand. At the end, I walked to the front to one of the elders who were praying for others. While he prayed for me, the smiling husband began to speak in tongues around me. Earlier during the opening prayer, the pastor also spoke in tongues for long and you could feel the presence of the Spirit. Well, you don't actually feel the presence of the Spirit but here I believed the Spirit was there.

I stepped out quickly into the Lobby after that. And I noticed there were some pamphlets with some pictures. It was the pastor and her husband. That's when I gathered, how much they meant to the Church and how active and strong they both were for the Church and the Lord. Earlier when the younger lady spoke about the daily prayer, I immediately wanted to either come down during the week or just pray at this hotel where I was staying. My decision was strong. At least I thought it was. I needed to be in San Mateo from 9 to 5 every day that week, but was free in the evenings.

Oswald Chambers in his 'Series of talks on the Ethical Principles of the Christian Life', talks about 'The Will in Discipleship'. In that he says and I quote "Whenever you stand in the presence of Jesus Christ as He is portrayed in the Scriptures and made real to you by the Holy Spirit, the instincts of your heart will always be inspired. Let them lead...Always let the instinct that rules you in the presence of Jesus lead... When you are at the altar, i.e., in the presence of God, and your heart answers to the conviction of the Spirit of God, you know exactly what you must do. First go." Act.

Today I realized that, I was able to go to that Church zero number of days that week. I was successfully and completely distracted with a hectic work week. It was a painful realization that I was easily distracted with the mundane things of life. I have another hectic week ahead. But I believe I have made enough preparation to follow through this week. Let's see how that goes..