Some of you were there tonight for our mentoring and Lenten worship. It was a rich night of beautiful music (thank you Jessica!), humor, a neat sing-along sermon by Pastor Jim and a huge God surprise. We had discussed at staff this morning about the Mission Jamaica Team leaving Saturday and that we had not done a send off on Sunday. Phyllis suggested we consider doing the send off tonight at our Lenten service. We decided we would see who might be there and pray we would. We were not sure what it would entail until we were sure the team would be available.
When we started checking at supper it was evident that a significant portion of the team would be at worship. As we arrived at the time for the closing prayer I invited the team to come forward and as many folks from the congregation who wanted to lay hands on them as we prayed to come forward too. With the team facing the church family and 20-30 (women, men, youth, children) gathered around to lay hands on the Mission Jamaica team, we prayed. We prayed for the team and for others in our congregation that had asked for prayer too. With hands still laid on the team we joined together and prayed the Lord’s Prayer. It was a powerful moment as God surprised me and a few others I think. There was this undenyable sense of God’s presence. I found it difficult to pray the prayer as my emotions whelmed up inside of me. The mental picture of the whole church family standing and facing the team with so many hands laid on them in prayer was overwhelming. It was a huge God moment in my time here as a part of the Prince of Peace family. When I arrived home later this evening I had an email from one of the team expressing some of the same thoughts…
I want to quote just a bit of the message from Jennifer’s email….
“What power there was, I could really feel the hand of the Lord on me and the MJ team. I was telling Andrew (our oldest) in the car on the way home how cool it was. I was saying that saying the Lord's prayer up there with everyone laying hands on us was so moving, it was like God reaching down and touching us himself.”
This has been one of the most memorable and life-changing Lents that I have observed in my life. Another surprise that only God could engineer.
Pastor T
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