house church.

A little over a week ago, we finished up this season of House Church. Week by week, we went through the Bible from Genesis through Paul’s letters, connecting each story to the Rescuer of Jesus Christ. Our last week Stephen shared about Paul’s letters and how he wrote to the growing church about how to live as Jesus did.

There have been ups and downs to this year of house church. It was so wonderful to finally put into words why we are here and what we believe. It was also a lot of work to write the study each week and go over it with translators, then organize the group and provide snacks. It wouldn’t have been possible without Kelvin & Laura, who took some weeks and helped with snacks. The entire process was hours of our week, and that is nice to be shared!

It was also challenging to overcome the talking and chaos that comes with our community. It was challenging to want them to understand and believe and care so badly, but for it to be out of our control.

As Stephen shared on the last week, I sat listening among the kids. I tried to keep them quiet, tried to listen, and tried to pray for them. For a moment, it felt frivolous: why are we working so hard to do this? Do they care about anything but the snack? Are they getting this at all?

I thought of Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire. A strong wind; fire; multiple languages miraculously spoken.

I wondered why we haven’t seen God like that here. Why can’t Aung Moe see yet? Why is there still fighting when we are praying against it? Why aren’t things growing when we are praying for growth?

I just began to pray for the Holy Spirit to come, unsure of what that might look like.

I stood up to lead prayer a bit later. We’ve been talking all year about how powerful God is and how much he loves all of us. We’d been sharing how we made a choice to follow Jesus and love him, just like the Hebrews had that choice, the disciples, and now the growing church. We talked about the kids thinking about if they had made that choice, and then we prayed for them to love Jesus. We prayed for their families and the whole community.

I can’t say that we saw fire, but I can say that my prayer was answered. And all of our prayers for this House Church were answered, really. Both of us left that night encouraged; we felt like we’d finished well. There had been plenty of discouraging weeks; plenty of times we’d questioned if this was working. But we had finished. Truth had been spoken, week after week, and it is promised not to return void. An even more, we both felt like God was present, walking us through to the end and showing this community the power of his presence.

In some way or another, House Church will continue. We are praying through our options and talking with some friends and leaders about how to best reach the adults and kids alike. But all the same, we’re really thankful for this past year. Even as I am overwhelmed at all that is currently ahead of us; even as I write all these blogs..it is clear that God is walking this messy road with us.