Never underestimate the power of an invitation:

A miracle with candles for those familiar with Jewish history and culture:

Had a small version of an ancient miracle! In the days of the Maccabees, one day’s worth of oil burned 8 days to allow time to prepare more. I lit candles for Shavuot last night, knowing it was not kosher to light them for Shabbat, since there are two consecutive days that fire is not to be kindled. You can light a candle from an existing flame. I also lit two yartzheit candles in memory of my Dad, and Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife who were murdered in Mumbai last December. Yarzheit candles usually last no more than 4-6 hours. I have lit them at night and they have been out by morning every time. But this time, after 24 hours, they are still going, and I was able to light the Shabbat candles to sanctify the Shabbat from an existing flame! ברוך השם שנסיו עמנו בכל יום ובכל עת!!!! Praise GOD whose miracles are with us every day and at all times!!!!!

Shabbat Shalom!!

A story of generosity:

My wife and I finally gave away that envelope today here is what happened.

It started as a simple matter as finding out where we wanted to eat.  My wife asked me and I didn’t know where we wanted to go and then I asked her and she didn’t know where to go either.  Then I said “You know if God wants to lead us in everything why not this as well lets ask God where to eat.”  My wife laughed but I was serious and so I asked out loud “God where would you like us to eat”  A loud resonant COTTON PATCH came from nowhere.  My wife and I thought…COTTON PATCH?!  WE DON’T EAT THERE EVER!  IT IS SO UNHEALTHY ARE YOU SURE?  And sure enough God reaffirmed that Cotton Patch was the place to go and that we would know the purpose when we got there.  So we went into cotton patch and sat at our table.  Desaree was still saying “LETS EAT AS HEALTHY AS WE CAN HERE”

Then I asked God.  “Ok God we are here what do you want to do here?”

Then God said: “There is a woman to your left go and give her the envelope.”

I had to be doubly sure that it was God telling me this and when I got the same thing my wife looked at me and said.  “Old woman?  To our left?  Yeah I see her too and I think God wants us to give it to her.”

So I went over to her and said that the envelope was for her and that God said that she wanted her to have it after which she asked me where I would be and I pointed out our seat.

She then came over to us and told us her story about how God has always blessed her life and how God has always taken care of her and stressed the importance of PAYING IT FORWARD.  Saying that everything in this life is a blessing and that when God blesses us it is important to share these blessings with those around us and not squander those blessings to ourselves.

It was the most joyful time in my life since I was saved and my wife and I was nearly brought to tears about how happy this made us.  Our souls were literally alive.  It was like God was saying to us “Good Job I am proud of you”  It was just the best feeling anyone could ever feel in the world.

I see now how something as simple as asking God for a lunch idea could end up so joyful and blessed.

I hope God has more in store for us!

God speaking personally:

God impressed several fresh words to me during the bootcamp and revealed the importance of a “band of brothers” to walk through life with to hold each other up.  God is so good to communicate to me and He is all-sufficient for every need.

John Byington
Blessed from Bootcamp

God using everyday people in today’s world to do the miraculous:

Hi my name is Michael B. Rister. I have an interesting story of prayer and healing that I feel like I need to tell the church. For the longest time I lived my Christian life with the idea in my head that for whatever reason GOD did not do supernatural things in our present society like he did in the Bible. I reckoned, like many, that those occurrences mentioned in the Bible were rare things that were reserved for special occasions in special circumstances. Recently GOD began (and still is in the process of) challenging me in this arena. I began to realize than 1. unchristian people tend to respond more to stories of the supernatural than the dry reasoning I had fallen back on before and 2. to deny the supernatural aspects of GOD is to deny the very nature of GOD himself.

To make a long story short, I believed that GOD was able to do the things he claimed to do in the Bible, but for whatever reason he wouldn’t do them. And I definitely didn’t dare believe that someone such as myself could ever perform the kinds of miracles that Peter and the other apostles did (which is kinda dumb because it isn’t me doing it anyway it is GOD) But the challenge ensued, and for sometime this girl I knew had been having severe pains in her side so much so that it completely incapacitated her and no one she went to could find anything wrong with her, yet the pain continued day after day. Finally I gave in and told GOD that if he really would do the things the Bible talks about then I would step out for her and try to invoke a similar healing reaction. I prayed, I laid hands on her, we prayed together and did all the stuff that normally is done, and absolutely nothing happened. Later the girl and I went separate ways and still her pain continued as it had before. Needless to say this left me kinda jaded as to the whole supernatural healing of faith and all that stuff and I walked away with the belief that for whatever reason GOD just didn’t want to do those kinds of things anymore. Sometime later I met another girl with what appeared to be the exact same symptoms as the first girl, the only difference was this girl had not only been to hospitals here in Abilene but had been checked out by hospitals literally all over the country, and still no one could find anything wrong with her. Her story ended with us both in the waiting room at Hendrick hospital at 3:00 in the morning and I decided once again to give the whole ‘miracle of GOD’ thing a try. we prayed together, out loud, in front of everybody and I told GOD I knew he could do it and I would believe and give him all the praise I could if he would just step out and help this girl or at least let the doctors find whats wrong and give us a way to fix it.  I believed and she believed and that night a new doctor fresh out of school with relatively little experience found what had alluded doctors all across the country for years. He prescribed a relatively simple cure, we did it and it worked. She currently experiences no pain, and as for the first girl I ran into her again sometime later and as it turns out the same doctor found the same problem in her at around the same time frame and the same cure healed her and she too currently experiences no more pain. It was kind of a round-a-bout way to do it but I truly believe that doctor was only able to spot that problem because I prayed for them and GOD revealed it to him. So really three healings took place, the two women obviously but maybe also my jaded brain which was full of doubt and skepticism. Jesus Christ really is alive and really is GOD.

thanks,

Michael B. Rister

Many salvations:

The Peru medical mission trip saw 842 patients and 171 salvations!  Praise the Lord!

This week we (high school group) went to Mexico with a small team to help out at the Big Heart Orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico. The jobs we did required a lot of long, hard work. During one of these days, Jose Muniz (the Jesus Crew guy…known as a scary looking mexican to many) was cutting rebar with a table saw and accidentally moved his right forearm into the blade. His arm was cut deeply about 3 or 4 inches long. D’Linda Benham, our team’s nurse, immediately treated his wound and wrapped it. Jose was obviously in severe pain and couldn’t do much with his arm. Later that day, before our nightly devotional, D’Linda approached me and asked me to make an announcement after my devo to pray for the injuries that people had from the first 3 days of work. As she said this, I quickly suggested further that we should pray over people because I believed God wanted to do some supernatural work. As I said this, an intern that was there, Kendall, quickly agreed with me and we decided we would do this after the devo. So at the end of our discussion, I made the announcement that if anyone had any kind of injury we were going to stay afterwards to pray over them. About 8 people stayed, so we circled up around the first patient, Jose. And we prayed. After 10 to 20 minutes of praying, I felt confident that God had healed his arm. We were praying that the wound would be completely gone, and I believed it would be. So when we finished, Jose was pressing on the bandage and telling us how amazing it was that there was no pain. I eagerly prompted him to remove the bandage. When he did, we didn’t find just skin, but we also didn’t find a deep cut. On his arm where the deep cut had been earlier was a surface level scab that looked as if it had been drawn on his arm. He showed us that it had truly been healed by pressing on it and hitting it and twisting the skin around it. He could barely touch it without wincing before we prayed, and now he was laughing and poking it liberally.

But that was just the beginning. Next up was Jessie Davis, who had a huge burn on the inside of his leg from the searing hot exhaust pipe of a motorcycle. It had been plaguing him the whole trip and it was not pretty. So after we prayed over it for another 10 to 20 minutes, we were all sure God had healed him. And sure enough, we removed his bandage and found a greatly reduced burn scab that he said had no pain. In fact, that day, D’Linda had traced the area of the red mark from the burn with a purple sharpie, and she showed us that that initial area was at least an inch or two bigger in diameter than the burn mark that was left. Also there was no heat to accompany the wound, something that was a bad sign when D’Linda was checking it out previously.

Then we prayed over Stephanie Maybee who had severe stomach pains. For her though the healing was more spiritual than physical, and God truly did move inside of her. It was an amazing experience and she left changed.

All this to say, Jesus is ALIVE!!! And He is STILL continuing to inpress me and show off his Glory, in new and increasingly powerful ways. Jose’s cut was a ridiculous healing! He cut his arm the morning of the same day it was healed on, and it was TOTALLY healed!

If you have read this, take some time to praise God for the works he is doing! He deserves it!

I want to share the power of God that is flowing in this generation. Before I continue, I would like to encourage all of you to rejoice in what God is doing and TESTIFY IT!!! Even what seems like the littlest of things is still glory and honor to God and power to those who hear.

Tonight May 25, 2008 at Fearless in the Chapel at Beltway, a young lady was healed of a severe headache that was making her sick to her stomach. She had to keep going in and out of the chapel and also to the restroom. I walked outside the chapel doors and she asked me if I had any medicine for a headache. I kind of chuckled and said, “No, but I have an idea. Follow me.” I guided her into the chapel where we had just finished praying over another man. I announced her pains and we put her in the middle and prayed over her. I laid my hands on her head and everyone else laid hands on her and began to call on the healing power of God to come down. She told me afterwards that right as we started to pray it felt a little better. In the middle of the prayer time she could feel it going away, and at the end, she said it was COMPLETELY GONE! Even the littlest things of God’s glory and power excite me and I rejoiced. She then for the last song of the night danced and sang without any pain or any hinderance holding her back. She was faithful in receiving and then gave glory to the Father for His gracious works.

Whatever amazing things God is doing, TESTIFY IT! Tell others, spread the word that a revival is taking place. Let everyone know of God’s amazing power. No matter how little, small, big, or large His miracles are, they are still to bring glory and honor to Him! Ask and you shall receive AND THEN REJOICE AND TESTIFY!

Are you asking for God to move?

This last Sunday after we sang “Breathe,” one of our vocalists began singing what she was hearing the Spirit leading her to sing and had a feeling that God was up to something.

We found out this week, that a man who desires to go back into full time ministry has been waiting and waiting and no doors have been opened yet for him. He asked the Lord, “Are You finished with us?” and at that moment the vocalist sang “He’s not finished with you yet.” Needless to say, he was deeply encouraged by the Lord. Praise God for the ways He speaks and the new songs He gives!

My name is Troy Shockley and, for the next two weeks, I am the assistant sports editor and beat writer for Cooper High and Abilene Christian University at the Abilene Reporter-News. On Saturday, May 31, however, my wife and daughter will join me in taking the next step in the path God has planned for our lives. We will be leaving on that day for Oregon, where I have accepted an offer to join the staff of a small, family owned newspaper as sports editor.

Since returning to Abilene in 2003, Beltway Park has been home. My wife, Roxanne, and I fell in love with the place and the people from Day 1, and it has been the only true church home we’ve had as a married couple. We have so many wonderful memories made in our time here and we have grown immensely in our walk with the Lord thanks largely to Pastor David and our small group, led by Steve and Susan Keenum.

My situation at work, though, has been both difficult and frustrating. Often working 10 to 12 hours a day, many times six days a week, I rarely get time with my wife or daughter Elisabeth, who will turn three in September. Add to that the stress level that has been created by management, and my attitude when home hasn’t always been as it should be. Through much prayer, we decided that the only solution to these problems was to find another job that would be both personally and professionally satisfying. Over the last several months we’ve found many possibilities, but even those we felt would be a great fell through — until we came across McMinnville. That’s when God made his love and care for us so clear.

After leading me to the job listing (a listing that, “somehow,” never showed up on a popular Web site that would have surely resulted in a large increase in the number of applicants) we quickly felt very good about the possibility. God then led me to someone that, as it turned out, used to work at the paper. His current boss is great friends with one of the bosses in McMinnville. This person also used to work in Texas, and called around some of his contacts asking about me. Based on what he heard, he called McMinnville and talked to the hiring editor about me and reccomended me for the job — all without my knowledge at the time. This gave me a tremendous head start for a job that, I’ve found, had 15 applicants in the first 24 hours after the initial posting.

The hiring editor set up a phone interview a week after I sent in my application. It went so well that, a week later, I was on a plane headed to a second interview. That went so well that, on the second day, I was offered the job at more than a 10 percent increase in pay. There will be markedly less stress at this job, the hours will be more stable and the company is more than willing to work around family obligations. It is also much closer to home.

Even now God is working in the situation, as yesterday we found that the paper has doubled its initial (and standard) offer in regards to helping defray the costs of moving. I have always struggled in letting go of a situation. I don’t like not being in control. But God has made himself so known in our lives these last few weeks and it is truly amazing what can happen if you ‘let go and let God.’

We are incredibly sad to have to leave our church family at Beltway and know there will be many other difficulties as we make this move, but we are also excited to be following what is clearly God’s plan for our lives. And as clearly as He has been in control of this entire situation, we know He will continue to provide if we faithfully follow His plan.
Isn’t God great?

After playing on one of the Beltway Softball teams, I thought we were reaching out to the community. Little did I know that that was part of what happened. What I have gained is new found friendships from within the church body. There is not a Sunday, or Wednesday that I do not run into one of the Guys or their family members. The new found friendships have encouraged me to strengthen my beliefs, increased my prayer life, and walk what I believe. Even helped my self esteem and self worth, who would have thought a few week commitment to 10 other guys could do that!.

Thank you Beltway for sponsoring this ministry! I hope that you will continue to bless us members.

At congregation, pastor David encouraged all Israelis who felt tired or weary to stand up and for the foreigners to pray for them.  My husband and I live in Israel, but we are foreigners, not citizens.  Plus, I don’t feel tired.  So I opted to pray.  I was going to walk quickly across the room to a lady I knew and pray for her in Hebrew just for fun.  As I was about to leave my aisle, a friend of mine, also an Israeli was standing up.  I thought, “Well, I guess I don’t have to go very far.  Look, my friend is tired and needs to be ministered to.”  So, I hugged her.  As soon as we embraced, I began weeping immediately.  I prayed for her as the Lord lead for the “joy of the Lord to be her strength” in this time.  Unexpectedly, she in turn prayed for me and my family.  Later, I had the opportunity to tell her that when we hugged, when I started weeping immediately that it was not my tears but hers.  She told me “I have been beaten up.  I have been shedding a lot of tears lately.”  She started tearing up again.  I sensed the Lord urging me to tell her, “He cries with you”, and so I did.  She was very encouraged by those words and we talked about getting together later.  God is so fun!

Today, Tuesday May 6, 2008 at U-nite I was worshipping God in music.  I turned around and saw a college girl and immediately noticed her wrapped wrist before anything else.  I felt right there, “I’m praying over that and God is going to pour out.”

Well I went back to my seat while Brandon Hawk (the speaker) gave a few words of encouragement and joy.  As I was walking back to where the girl was, I decided to ask my good friend Thomas Wilson if he wanted to have some fun with me praying healing over this girl that I didn’t know and wasn’t for sure if she was injured.  He agreed and we made our way over to the college girl.

I asked her if her wrist was hurt and she said that she had strained it yesterday while moving out of her dorm.  She couldn’t move it much and it was giving her pain.  I laid my hands on her wrist and Thomas and I began to call upon the Spirit.  After a while we stopped and asked how she was.  She said it didn’t hurt as much and she could move it more, but that there was still some pain in it.  I told her this time to unwrap it and we were going to pray over it again.  I once again laid my hands on her wrist and Thomas and I began to pour out the Spirit.  Heat was moving, muscles were tensing, and everything was shaking.  We stopped and I asked her how it felt, she just kind of looked into thin space for a second while moving her wrist around and I thought she was going to tell us that she still felt some pain.  But on the contrary, she said that it was gone and that there was no more pain.  Thomas and I asked, “Seriously? There is no pain whatsoever left?” and she said “No!”  I told her that I wanted her to move it every single way it could and to bend it up and down, side to side, and all around.  NO PAIN AT ALL!!!  Instantly healed, GLORY BE TO GOD!  I told her to share it with those that she knew and I thanked her for her faith to let us pray over her and to have faith in receiving God’s healing power.

When you have faith and believe that things not only CAN happen but WILL, it opens the doors for God to come and rock your world!  The glories of Heaven are pouring onto this earth and revival and a revolution is coming!  Do you believe?

For about 2 years some friends have encouraged me to get involved with Kairos prison ministry. I’ve wanted to, but for whatever reason I never did. Well, I finally decided to sign up & go to a meeting, & 2 weeks ago I helped work Kairos #27 at the Robertson unit. It was awesome. I have recieved blessing after blessing by being a part of this. It’s wonderful to be a part of the body of Christ, & witness how acts of love completely transform lives. I was talking to a new friend from Beltway the other day about how in Matthew, Jesus tells us to feed the hungery, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison, & when we do this we do it to Him. Also, Jesus himself was held as a prisoner; as were MANY of His followers. I had a great time, & I’m still having it. I strongly encourage people to get involved, & watch the body of Christ grow!

I have a friend who had strained her ligaments in her ankle earlier this week, practicing for track. She has a meet on Saturday in which she runs multiple relays and is the anchor leg for one of them as well. Well, her parents, being the amazing, loving, and faithful parents they are, had told me a few times that they wanted me to pray over her. Yesterday, Wednesday 4/23, myself, her parents, and two other amazing adult leaders in our church prayed over her. As I held onto her ankle praying for healing, the others pour out God’s love and plans for her life. They pray for healing, they spoke things about the future, they spoke things about what God wants to do now, and they spoke about how the enemy is trying to prevent blessings and strengths in her. We prayed for a while as the spirit came in and moved, many receiving words of encouragement, and feeling the awesome power of Yahweh Rapha (the healing God). I had to leave soon to play drums for our Echo Night of Worship, but I was soon to realize what God did do that night. Today, Thursday 4/24, she sent me a text saying that when she got home she had no pain in her ankle at all and she totally believed that God had healed her. She spoke of when we were praying over her and heat came into her ankle and it had begun shaking. She is now able to run her races this Saturday by the grace and power of God! The only little pain she has is when she puts weight on it if she were acting like she was rolling her ankle, that’s it and by the grace and power of God, that will be gone tomorrow in Jesus Christ’s name! She is a runner for Christ and she will continue to press in and run towards Him. There is a new definition for the supernatural and that is “THE NATURAL.” God is at work and is using us to bring His glory and Kingdom.

A Life Group leader witnesses the working power of the voice of God:

One of our Life Group leaders received a call from a concerned father whose 28 year old son had gotten arrested for drunk driving, and was now taking up residence at the Taylor County Jail.  The son had requested a Bible and the LG Leader made the delivery.  He was able to meet the young man, we’ll call Thomas, in a small cinder block cubicle inside the secured area.  Merely receiving a Bible brought Thomas to the point of tears and he began confessing how he had made a mess of his life.  He’d recently given his life to Jesus at Beltway and had even been baptized, but the chain of substance abuse had obviously not yet been broken.  After 3 past admissions to rehabilitation programs, a deep sense of rejection still loomed like a dark cloud.  Our LG Leader was praying as he listened and discerned that there was a particular event early in Thomas’ life which was critical to his restoration.  Thomas was able to identify that at age 8 his step father sent him away to an institution for 99 days.  Thomas felt that his step father didn’t want a child that was not “his own blood” and had thrust him out of the home.

The LG Leader decided to risk acting on an impulse inspired by the Holy Spirit.  “Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where God was when your step father sent you to the institution” he began.  Thomas got quiet, then began shaking.  “God was right there with me!”  Thomas was surprised.  “How do you know He was there?’’  Thomas responded, “He was sitting right by me.”  The Leader took it another step, “What does He look like?”  Astounded, Thomas reported, “He looks just like Jesus!”  Our LG Leader asks, “Well, what are His feelings for you?”  Thomas is now sobbing profusely and exclaims, “He just really loves me!”  The Holy Spirit was so tangibly present I was sure that no security guard would even be able to enter the cubicle.  It was as if we were safely secured behind a thunderous waterfall of God’s Presence.  Thomas lifted his face which itself was flooding with more than just tears, and said, “I feel SO LIGHT!”  “I’ve never felt this way before.  I can’t explain it.”  God had demonstrated that during Thomas’ darkest hour, He was right there loving him.  Thomas now has consequences to face, but he has a brand new hope that was irrefutably birthed by a shaking encounter with the Living God.  I believe he’s got now what he needed at the very core of his being. 

Thomas Wilson, a guitarist on our worship teams, shares how God miraculously intervened in technology:

This last Saturday night, me, Josh Mcqueen, Blake Holder, and Pascoal Mafuieque did our regular deal out in Albany, leading worship for their youth service “Fearless”. We arrived in that great village a couple of hours early to set up and practice. Everything was going well, we set up, and it sounded ok, but a little way into practice Blake’s bass head stopped working. He dismantled it as the rest of us continued on, but to no avail. He had taken that thing apart and had tried so many different things to get it to work that we knew without help it would never happen. Searching for a solution, we called Brenton Dowdy to see if he could hook one of our friends up with a head from the church so that when he arrived later, though Blake would have to play without having practiced, he would at least get to play. We never really found out what happened with that because we soon found the correct solution to our quandary: Jesus.

As Blake sat trying to figure something out, the rest of us began to be discouraged, realizing the songs would be pretty empty without bass, and a spirit of frustration seemed to have infiltrated our midst. At one point, it was so bad that we stopped practicing, and Josh took the initiative to lead us in prayer. we sat and laid down on the floor, praying that God would take away any barriers that would be in our way of experiencing him and that he would smooth out all of the problems we faced. We begged that he would return to us a spirit of peace and a heart of worship. Soon Josh prayed out loud and after he said “Amen”, we looked up, only to see Blake still working on his head. The only difference was that now, he was putting it all back together. I somehow knew he had prayed over it, but Josh apparently didn’t, so he unassumingly asked “dude, what are you doing?” Blake responded confidently that it was going to work this time. Josh simply asked how he had fixed it, and what he had tried differently to get it io work. Blake replied, “nothing.” So as he plugged everything back in and Josh turned it on for him, I remember thinking “it really is going to work. wow.” And sure enough, without changing a thing, he turned it on, plugged in, and began playing, messing with his EQ to get his bass to sound good as the rest of us sat praising God for his Glorious intervention. God heals. People, animals, electronics, you name it. He heals.

So at the beginning of worship, Josh told this testimony, and a great time of worship ensued for all…..supplemented nicely by a very much needed bass guitar.

A prophetic song that I had been given managed to transcend space. I was leading worship for my church’s regular Wednesday night service in which we were taking communion. It was not the typical format though, in that every person was personally prayed for with an elder or pastor to agree with them on anything they wanted victory or freedom in. This particular format created an opportunity for me and the team to play music and sing over them. During that time as well as many others through out the evening the Lord had guided me to sing a particular song over the people that He had given me about a month previously. There was one specific moment, the first that God had prompted me to sing it, that I introduced it as a song that God completely downloaded to me on the spot during a youth New Year’s Eve worship time.   

Immediately following the service I was approached by a man that is in my small group. He was quite excited to share with me that even though he had just returned to America (after spending six months in Iraq) he was certain that he had heard that song in the desert on his iPod. There wasn’t an ounce of uncertainty in his voice or delivery. I asked him if he was sure he wasn’t confusing it with another song and they answered with a certain, “No.” He then stated that he had heard the song sung in my voice and he knew the words already. He said it had been stuck in his head since he had heard it. We began to think through the timing when the Lord reminded us that just a few weeks before during a small group time of worship hosted by his wife at his house (while he was still in Iraq), we had prayed that those who were not with us in person would still be blessed and encouraged by our coming together. That God would meet them where they were at and bless them as though they were present. Soon after the Lord prompted me to sing that new song again. This man was entirely confident that he had spiritually heard the prophetic song we were singing that night. We asked God to bless him like he was present, and God played him a piece of our worship on his iPod! The chorus, rooted from Psalm 34:10, was this; 

 

“Those who seek the Lord

They lack not one good thing

They lack not one good thing”

It is amazing what a few simple words can do coupled with God’s timing and revelation. One of our worship pastors saw it first hand:

Tonight after Wednesday Night service a couple came up to me asking the question, “Were you the guy who talked to us in Arby’s?” My memory was being tested, but I finally recognized them. I responded with a yes and then was able to hear a testimony of God’s gentleness and love.  

A few weeks prior I was eating at Arby’s with a co-worker and God highlighted a young family to me. I didn’t know what for right away, they just had my attention. Eventually I began to wrestle with the fact that God was prompting me to give them an encouraging word. I didn’t know what yet, but as I watched them I realized that they had a recognizable peace about them, as well as a gentleness and love. I then thought, “Man, that is a beautiful family.” That was about when God impressed a gentle, “Well yeah, thats what I want you to tell them.” So we finished up our meal and it was time to leave. My palms were sweaty and I was nervous. So I end up walking out of Arby’s with out saying anything. I got maybe two steps out and couldn’t take another step. I literally couldn’t move until I turned around and went back in. Thank God for his grace. I walked up to them, said hello and introduced myself, and then just said something like “I just wanted you to know I noticed that you were a Beautiful family. There is something really special about you and it blessed me.” They expressed their thanks and I left.    Fast forward a couple weeks and they are visiting our Wednesday Night service. They explained to me that that was their first day in Abilene and it ironically felt hectic and their kids were having a “lets be crazy day.” The words the Lord shared gave them some peace and confirmation that they were in the right place. Then they end up at the same church. Now we are in small group together with the guy I was having lunch with! God prompted another member of our small group to invite them with out knowing who they were. Thank you Sovereign Lord.