God's touch

Today at church we had a Pastor from Ireland who is visiting for 10 days speak. He was wonderful and reminded us of what a missions church we all belong too. About 5 years ago my Pastor had a vision to plant a church in Ireland and after a year of planning sent missionaries to plant this church. 3 stayed a year and 2 stayed for 3 years. They met this young man who was one of the few attendees at the newly planted church and he then became Pastor of this church. The church has become huge and this Pastor came to speak to us and to thank us for sending and supporting the missionaries who started the church he now Pastors. It was kind of strange because our misnister was telling us today that Hawaii is pushing a bill through that recognizes homosexual marriage and that gives them the same rights we all have under marriage. This bill passed the Senate before anyone in the state new it was happening so our Pastor is renting buses that are going to bus us all down to the Capital next Sunday so we can join in a peaceful protest. Anyway the Pastor from Ireland said he just had to comment on this. He said that this was serious because like in Northern Ireland, where it is under British rule, they have this kind of law and the law does affect the church greatly. He said that in Northern Ireland if you preach in your own church against homosexuality you can be thrown in jail for discrimination. If you refuse to hire on the church staff a homosexual you can be thrown in jail for discrimination, if you refuse to marry two people of the same sex you can be thrown in jail discrimination. I think this really brought the issue into a clearer light for people. It was amazing that this Pastor, who has experienced this first hand, was at our church the same week this law passed the Senate. Let's hope with so many rallying that this law does not go through.

Friday and Saturday were also busy. A neighbor of mine, who has some mental problems, opened her door to the MP's on Friday and was told if she didn't clean up her quarters CPS (Child Protective Services) would be by on Monday to go in and possibly place her kids. She was very upset so me and my two friends Sara and Brandon told her we would help her. Yes the house was a mess and it took the three of us plus her two kids my 3 kids and Sara and Brandon's son 2 days straight to get it in order. But we did get it done. My friend's husband Brandon who works at my church and really walks the walk of a Christian life was able to get her talking about what was going on. It was very emotional at some points. She admitted that growing up she had nothing and that she never wanted her kids to lack for anything so that is why she hoarded things. I can't imagine what would of happened to this family if CPS was there to take the lead. Instead we got her hooked up with a church charity who is going to come in and assess the house and provide help, counseling, and try to get this family back on track. The three of us also volunteered to help her each week to make sure things were getting better and that if she needed us to help keep it up to standards we would. So it was a really awesome weekend seeing how God can have his church come in and impact a family who would of been left out in the cold. To top it off her husband who is in Iraq was relieved to find out she had the support of us to help her when he couldn't. My friend Sara had been inviting her to Bible study and although this friend is a Christian she has been away from the church for awhile, but after we helped her she then expressed interest in trying out our Bible study. I think finding that people will help you and not judge you went a long way in her longing to go back to the church, but in not knowing how to go about it.