May 2004 Monthly Letter

Dear Partner In Ministry,

Is this just a coincidence or what?

During the Sunday morning worship service, the pastor called for anyone who had attended one of the UpBuilding Weekend sessions, to come and testify to what the Lord had done in their lives.

Sharalyn walked quickly to the front. Took a microphone. Displayed an ear to ear grin, and with a twinkle in her eyes said;

"Five years ago, I received Jesus as my personal Savior and experienced His forgiveness of all of my sins. In the women's session this weekend, we were talking about giving up those things in our lives that we hadn't been able to get rid of.

Since my acceptance of Jesus I had pretty much gotten rid of a lot of things of the past and forgiven those who had hurt or affected me over the years.

While Ron was speaking, I felt the Lord reminding me of one situation I had at my former job. There was a woman I worked with who was my supervisor and who had been an extremely good friend. I had even been her maid of honor at her wedding!

There was a merger in our company and she had done some things to the staff and me that wasn't the way I had hoped it would be. I left the company with a lot of resentment, never having resolved anything with her.

I am an extremely visual person. Yesterday, Ron had us do a visual thing. He had us write the name of someone that we hadn't forgiven on a posit-noteâ and we buried it outside.

I tend to be quite emotional on things like this. As I did this, I didn't really feel anything; wasn't even tearing up, I was simply going through the motions as I buried her name in the hole.

The most interesting thing happened when I left here yesterday. I'm in the choir and have been carrying around a Messiah poster that Julie (choir director) has asked us to put up around town.

I went to the beauty shop to make an appointment. I also knew my beautician would let me put a poster in her shop's window. I went in and who should be sitting in one of the chairs?! It was this woman whom I haven't seen since 1997!

It was amazing! I'm thinking, 'I just buried her name!' I haven't seen her for 7 years!

She was as surprised as I was! She said how much she missed me and as we reconnected I realized the past was totally and completely gone! The Lord verified to me the reality of forgiveness! We sat there and had an incredible visit for about an hour and a half, remembering good times---and reestablishing a old friendship!"

This testimony electrified the congregation! I hope it energizes you! So, what's your verdict? A mere coincidence? Or as Paul writes in I Corinthians 4:1: "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." Thank you, good stewards!

Ron

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