A few weeks ago, I had a sermon all ready for our Sunday service at House of Hope, but it was feeling stale and out of place. As I walked home from work, looking at the West Bank in front of me, I felt God speaking… calling out over the neighborhood… “Come.” It was as if I could see his call resonating in the air over the towers that mark the West Bank’s landscape. “Come!” So I made a decision to scrap the sermon that didn’t seem to fit and write a new one that simply spoke out God’s call to the West Bank to come to him. “God is calling you to come to him. Come and rest. Come and follow. Come and die, that you might live.” That week, there were seven non-Christians from the West Bank who came to our service. Almost as many non-believers as believers… one of them a person I’ve known for years and who has always scoffed whenever I invited him to anything having to do with church… all there to hear me say that God is calling them to come to him.
What a profound and humbling experience. I truly do not know how to put into words the gratitude I feel that God is allowing us to do this work. I am more aware than ever of how unworthy I am to have such a ministry; yet God seems determined to use this church no matter what. I cannot tell you how overwhelming it is to see people respond to God’s love and his call. God is doing something marvelous and beyond my ability to comprehend, let alone manufacture. As we try to love and serve as best we can, he is moving in people’s hearts, and gives us the honor of being there as he begins to change lives.
On June 21, I will be leaving for the Rainbow Gathering, held this year in New Mexico. I am once again including a description of the Gathering and a brief summary of our activities there for those who may be unfamiliar or need a refresher. Even though this will be my eighth trip to the Rainbow Gathering, it is nevertheless a significant challenge every year. I don’t enjoy camping to begin with, so this is truly something I do because God has called me! I spend most of my time there speaking with people about God, and these conversations are rarely easy. In the last few years, I have also been given opportunities to preach at one of our evening worship services, so I anticipate that I may be asked to do so again. People at the Gathering range from angry and bitter, to loving but stubbornly resistant to the concept of objective truth, to nearly incomprehensible. So loving them all with their unique personalities, and expressing the Gospel in a way that is meaningful is always a challenge. Nevertheless, I feel like I am almost always given opportunities to share the things God has shown me in the previous year, and I also learn new things as I spend these weeks in such an intense spiritual setting. I therefore look forward to what God will do but certainly need your prayers (there are specific requests below). I always have stories to tell after these trips, so I look forward to sharing them with you next month.
One final note. Many of you may remember my story of how God miraculously healed a lump in my breast about a year and a half ago (If not, you can read the story in my February 2008 newsletter located here ). I had felt even before then that God wanted to move in supernatural ways here on the West Bank. Others in our church are now feeling the same way, and many people have felt God calling them to step out in gifts of healing. I believe God wants to move in powerful ways—not only in physical healing—but that it is linked to the amount of love we have for people. He will not heal just to do a trick for us. We must have compassion and long for his children to be restored. And as we express his love, I believe he will move in ways that show people he is God and his Kingdom is real. Pray for us! You are part of this; we are just putting feet to what God is doing spiritually, and your prayers propel his work!
Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong!
Molly S. Waggoner
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Praise
~ Our new website is up! www.houseofhopechurch.org
~ I recently got a call from the IRS saying they just needed a few small pieces of information (which weren’t available when I originally submitted the application because we hadn’t begun services yet), and we should be granted 501(c)(3) status! Most organizations hire a lawyer to do this, so praise God! (And pray for me, because my “success” has awarded me the honor of working on the Salvage Yard’s application now as well!)
~ I am so grateful to Phil Johnson, who owns the trailer park where our trailer is located at the moment, for allowing us to keep it there at an affordable rate, until we figure out whether or not we will be able to put it in place for the church.
~ Praise God that summer has arrived and we are able to meet outside without freezing. And praise him for the amazing location we have—that people continue to join us simply because they are walking by.
~ Thank God with me that our team is so amazing! I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have a team that is willing to pitch in and work hard, and still want to spend time together at the end of it!
Prayers
~ I met with the city councilman for our ward, and he is on board for putting our trailer in the lot for our church (praise for that!). But the city Building and Zoning departments are not such a simple story, and we need God to intervene on our behalf and make something work that practicalities and red tape indicate will probably not be possible. We believe for many reasons that God wants our trailer there, so pray his will is not thwarted.
~ Please pray for our trip to the Gathering—that we would be united as a team and that we would be given God’s passionate love for people. I also especially pray for patience, the ability to communicate well, and for energy. I am going into this trip already tired, and it is an exhausting endeavor; moreover, it is difficult for me to love people well when I am tired. Also please pray for House of Hope while I am gone. Two of our team members—Becca and Justin—will be speaking while I am gone. Pray God speaks to them and gives strength to the few people on our team who will be making the church happen while many of us are away.
~ Pray that God would show us what is next for House of Hope. Now that we have our services up and running, I feel that we are maybe supposed to begin enacting more of our vision. I believe part of this is what we read in Isaiah 58—passionately serving people in need—and that we need to be ready to “spend ourselves” in their behalf (v.10). Pray for us to know what God is calling us to do and that we would have the strength, resources, and people to do it.
~ Please pray for the people who are attending House of Hope—that God’s Word would plant itself firmly in their heart and bear fruit. Pray that people would feel like they belong, and that we would be able to make sure they are welcome. Pray that more people would come and that we would know how to connect meaningfully in the neighborhood so more people are willing to join our little family.
~ My roommates and I are trying to decide whether to stay in our current house or not. If so, we need two new roommates. Please pray God would lead us and provide the right people, or other places to live!
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