How a Blessing Began

This spring my friend Ruth and I slid into the tiny opening in a pew at church. We were late and woe to the one who comes late to our church (for he will lack a seat!). The sermon was about how God doesn't always work in the way we expect, and that we should be open to where God will lead us. After the sermon, Ruth started talking to an acquaintance of hers who was sitting beside her. They started talking about Bible studies, and I realized that if I didn't leave soon I was going to end up leading a Bible study so I quickly excused myself from the conversation before I got asked to help. I went and talked with a friend and returned to fetch Ruth. Ruth and her acquaintance were still talking about Bible studies and then the question I had hoped to avoid come came up. Her friend asked, "Would you mind helping out in a Bible study?" Now, I had prepared myself for this question. I knew my answer. My answer was this, "I will only work in ministry that is connected with my college. I need my primary focus to be on helping my students." It was that simple. But then Ruth's friend elaborated, "We are trying to start a Bible study for the college students." Gulp. What!? That's exactly what I'd been praying for for the last couple of months. (I guess I should be careful with my prayers!) As I talked with Ruth's friend, I realized that he worked at the same college as me. In fact, we worked in the same department, but somehow we'd never met. We decided right there to start a Bible study. It took us a couple of weeks to get the Bible study going and by the time we really got it going, I had to leave town and was gone for a month, but out of that little conversation has come a group called The Circle of Faith. I've been so blessed by this Bible study group.

Yesterday at the end of our Bible study we put our arms around each other and sang two songs. I stood there thinking that I once thought that it would be impossible to love another ministry as much as I loved my ministry in Thailand. But I looked around at these Florida students (in so many ways different from my students in Thailand), and felt blessed.

All this to say, that if you check my profile page, you'll find a new blog. It's the Circle of Faith blog. My friend, Karla, has done most of the posts on that blog so far, but I'll be posting stuff too. Check it out. It's a place where God has blessed us and continues to bless us!