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for those following along - we had a visit last night
that really helped me with closure and forgiveness, love and peace. When we first started at the church we'd met a lovely couple who you could just FEEL the spirit of the Lord flowing thru. They were just amazing. They were past board members so very invested in the church. Welcomed us with open arms. Margie was the one who turned to me (she was sitting in front of me) in the church and said "you have an amazing gift , you need to be up there singing". She is the one , along with dh who spurred me to approach the music ministry 2 1/2 years ago to get involved. She ministered to my heart on many occasions. When I had my surgery she set up folks to bring over meals for us. My dh went and helped hers assist a congregation member in moving due to divorce a while back and even Tom has an affinity for these people. THey are truly Gods people with a heart for Jesus and for us humans too.
anyway, she'd emailed and asked if they could come over. They brought us fresh tomatoes from their garden and sat and laughed with us on the deck.
They came to our home to share their love for us, to tell us they were sorry we were hurting (tho they couldn't speak to how things were handled they were sorry we were hurt and reminded us again that humans even humans in the church are not perfect). They offered their hands in prayer. They didn't come to convince us to return to the church but to tell us we were always welcome but mostly that they wanted to be sure our hearts were not embittered to Christ thru this and that we'd find a new church home for ourselves and our children.
They especially were concerned with my teenager at her very 'at risk' age. These people showed nothing but the love of the Lord and sincere love for us as brothers and sisters in Christ. These are the kind of people who make up (or made up before so many started to leave) the PVCC congregation. If people like this were in 'power' at the church, I truly believe making decisions woudl be based on the congregations needs, feelings and with a heart for Jesus and I would return to the church. These are the type of people who have blessed us repeatedly over the years, that we respect, that we will absolutely miss by leaving. These are the people we came to know and love at Paradise Valley community church as what church should be - unfortunately they are few and far between now as so many have been 'driven out' by the current pastoral staff and board.
These people did what I'd have expected from the Pastor upon hearing people were upset, confused and considering or had decided to leave the church.
I feel a real sense of peace now knowing that the people who DO matter to me within the church understand why we did what we did, how we've been feeling and that nothing we said or did was out of malice but out of love for our church home. They blessed us again last night and I just wanted to share how much more calm I am this morning knowing that the people who truly make up our ex-church home (lol) , really do love us and hopefully all of this won't be in vain because some things were heard. Praying for the church still and the pastoral stuff - but feeling much better today
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~Barb
Mama to Chelsey,19, Zoey,8 and Roman, 5
Happy Holidays from my family to yours!
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