It's really awesome to see how God can use one thing to lead to another and how the family and community of Christians locally and globally can be used to bring the body of Christ into closer unity.
For many years my mom has received missions updates from the church where she used to attend, a Lutheran Brethren church, in Montana. For many years she prayed for the people who work in other parts of the world to bring the good news of Christ. One family in particular lived among and reached out to people in China and has long since retired, but their daughter almost 20 years ago went to do the same. My mom found out that this lady and her husband were going to be at a Chinese church in Milwaukee this past weekend and so she, my sister and I went to this event. We knew very little about what was going on, we knew nobody there at all, and yet everyone welcomed us in and made sure we weren't wondering where to go or what to do. They had a meal before the service and they directed us right away to the food and seats around the tables. Several came and introduced themselves asking how we found out about the church and why we had come. When they found out my mom "knew" the missionary lady, they told her right away and she came and sat with us at our table.
My mom had brought a photo album of pictures my great grandfather took in China and Taiwan probably back in the 50's or 60's all in black and white and meticulously labeled, which she showed the missionary lady. It was awesome to see her reaction to this little artifact. It was also awesome to hear about her and my mom's common connection with the Lutheran Bretheren church and to see how they've never met, but that there has been a type of connection that existed between them for many years.
Now maybe I'm just obsessed with all things foreign, but I loved sitting through a service where they translated into Chinese (whether Mandarin or Cantonese, I know not), singing the songs together in two or three languages at once, and to see the Chinese characters all over everything. Of course most of us have been exposed to Chinese culture even it the full extent of that is having a meal at a Chinese restaurant.
As it turns out, we were visiting this church during their missions festival and the missionaries that we were there to see were only a few of the several that were visiting this weekend. I was looking through the bulletin and found out that there were also missionaries to Nothern Africa, Japan and Thailand visiting. The missionaries to Northern Africa I know already, and the missionaries to Japan were the same couple my friend stayed with when she went to Japan for three months about two years ago and they also know some friends of ours who have been in Japan over the years. So I was priveleged to meet the people my friend had talked so much about, and made it a point to see the lady who I know since she was coming on Sunday morning.
As I have said, I was so welcomed there, it was amazing! When the people heard I have known this woman, they made sure I got to eat lunch with her. (They have a meal after every service at this church) This lady I got to see again (I hadn't seen her in almost two years) has been through a lot of hardships, losing her husband to cancer was one of them, and now she and her three teen-aged children have to cope without him. They have been very busy, but they are back in the States now to get some rest, to take the time to grieve, and to find ministries and outreaches to be a part of locally.
Another lady came and invited me to their young adults Bible study on Friday evenings and even suggested that we could carpool together. She made sure to introduce me to a few other people and I began talking to them as well. The church service had ended at 11:30 and by the time I left it was already 2:00! I hardly knew what had happened to the time.
I love to see churches with this kind of a heart for missions and for being intentional about reaching people around them for Christ. I have a hope that somehow there will be some very good and worthwhile relationships formed with this body of believers and that these would be blessed and wonderful friendships.
