Return to Intimacy
With the coming of spring, everything takes on a fresh look. May I bless all our brothers and sisters in this New Year hat your family relationships return to intimacy, your spiritual life is renewed day by day and you shall encounter the great joy of new wine overflowing.
Before Chinese New Year, we held the “Teen Darlings” party (please see last week’s bulletin) for the teenage children of our staff and MG12 leaders to shower them with love and care as seniors of this big family which we always do. However, this year, we could sense strongly that they had indeed matured – one expressed in tears his deep gratitude to us for pastoring his parents while another one avoided us no more, but quite opposite, he initiated dialogue with us, seeking advice from us about how to study well and be better prepared for DSE etc.
Lovingly, they designed a large thank-you card as a gift to us, including a pop up quiver full of arrows. And each one of them is one of the arrows, signifying that our quiver is filled with arrows and the next generation shall be our superb helper. By this, we are greatly comforted.
Deeply moved, we even shared with these mature kids our burdens and what God has entrusted to us. Their positive responses surprised us pleasantly again, doubtlessly, they have grown up! Not only were they thankful, but also were conscious of cherishing most intimate relationships which include peer group in this big family and the two generation
relationship. They do not set heart in pleasing others to win relationships as the world teaches us to.
At the end, we felt led to take a “prophetic act” which was to queue up to enter the “Gate of Heaven” according to one’s age. Therefore, C-Mo and I were first in line and the youngest were the last. It is true that our days on earth will end, but from one generation to another, our life shall extend, living out the eternal hope today.
Few years ago, we held “Teen Darlings” party for these children as well. Under the impression that they were just kids, impolite, ungrateful and taking everything for granted, I was infuriated by their attitude and gave them a lecture which was actually discipleship and rebuke in love.
Today, these children, the descendants of our next generation, who are at least forty years younger than us, are returning to the church and they are acutely aware of the great significance of being discipled. In the near future, some will even be ordained as cell leaders, equivalent to junior pastors, they willingly take on the mission of discipleship. This
news delights me tremendously.
Being parents, whether biological or spiritual, we are most overjoyed seeing our children maturing with age and able to take on mission. As the mother church of “Wonderful 611”, we were deliriously happy that over 200 people attended her first service in Hunghom new premise where a wedding ceremony was also conducted on the same day.Hallelujah! • [2018.02.18]