What is it about coming to a place so familiar? What is it makes you feel that this is where I belong? There are the familiar faces .... the folks who knew you when and who are glad to see you and reminisce about the day. We catch up on our lives .... count the grandchildren born since the time we were young and our children even younger. There are the traditions that were a seamless part of our lives restored and fitting us like hand in glove .... "ah" we say .... "I remember this." ... there is the presence of God in this place .... words are spoken and songs sung the Spirit descends and my heart reverberates a doxology and an amen. It is so natural for me to be here and I feel a magnetic pull.
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Some time back David was asked by Pastor Tony Stevens of Stillwater PCA in Kennett Square to act as an elder on loan .... we have been nearly five years attending Brandywine Valley Baptist Church. We began attending because it is where our children wanted to go. I have the highest regard for this church and their pastor Bo Matthews. It is large and blessed with many services and programs and a large facility. What I have reaped there has been peace. But of late we have been alternating between the two churches. Stillwater is twice as far as Brandywine but I think God is leading us into a new phase and this is the place to be comforted. For this we must come home to the familiar.
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But there has been an interesting development. I would never have gone to Haiti without attending Brandywine with their special ties to Chambrun. But now at Stillwater it looks like I am collecting traveling companions for my next visit to Haiti. This is good. I would not want to go alone all though I thought most likely I would be able to tag along with either Compassion Corp or some other Brandywine folk.
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Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.
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