This is a letter I wrote to the Indian Creek Pastor. I remember more "kick in the butts" growing up than any pats on the back from my dad. That is not the case with my Heavenly Father. I like the way on "Little House on the Prairie that Charles Ingalls calls his daughter, Laura, "Half-Pint"...I'm God's Half-Pint, the other half is his, and many times it tells us to be "filled with the spirit." (Ephesians 5:18)
Dear Dr. Johnson:
The gospel is referred to as the good news (Luke 8:1, Acts 8:12, Isaiah 52:7) or the glad tidings of great joy (Luke 2:10). I wanted to share some good news about the single’s ministry at Indian Creek.
Currently, in this world we can turn on the television news and find that there is not good news being proclaimed. Sometimes, my adult daughters call me up and they tell me something going wrong in their life and recently I read this scripture in Psalm.
He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. Psalm 112:7
I look at the single’s ministry as the left hand of the Body of Christ. We know that most people are right handed. We are encouraged to write with our right hand as early as childhood, but there are going to be some people left handed. There are going to be some people who remain single in the body of Christ or are single for a season.
I started attending a single’s Bible study for Indian Creek that was in a woman’s home about two years ago. One of my former neighbors in my subdivision on the Westside had moved to the Southside and invited me. I lost my Christian husband of 14 years suddenly to a heart attack four years ago. Typically, I don’t find widows in a single’s ministry and this was the same situation I found. After about three months of wondering why I was at the Bible study, I wrote in this one Bible study on a piece of paper:
“God do you want me at this Bible study?”
Within seconds a woman broke down directly across from me at the single Bible’s study in tears that had lost her niece to a sudden death at 21 years old. I was able to share some comfort with her after the meeting as far as the comfort I have had from God in losing my own spouse suddenly.
I continued to attend the Bible study by faith although most everyone was single never married or divorced and then I met a divorced sister that wanted me to meet her friend where she worked at a hospital for dinner. Just like me, she lost her husband to a sudden heart attack. Right after I met her for dinner, I was flipping through the television stations when I was bored one day and I found this episode from Little House on the Prairie. It was called “Be My Friend.” It was about these cries for help and they were messages in a bottle and Laura found the messages in a creek.
I knew that God was speaking to me that the messages of help in the bottle were at Indian Creek. Laura was grieved in her spirit that she could not find the woman sending the messages in the bottle, but she kept going back to the creek to find the messages for help. What is rather “strange” is that Laura is the name of the person who had the Bible study in her home.
On the episode Laura’s father Charles told her that if it bothered her tremendously that she did not have to go to the creek to stay away, but Laura was driven by her need to help this person out. I knew the Heavenly Father is tender and he only wants me to follow his guidance and his will is not usually grievous. (For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous (burdensome). 1 John 5:3)
I had to back off at times from single’s ministries as a widow, and I found that when a group went to Wednesday night that was what God wanted me to do rather than the Monday night group. I quit going for about six months to the single’s group until the new group started. There were a total of three bottles which were messages for help that Laura found in the creek that needed help. Since that time, I’ve met with this widow several times for dinner to encourage her. Also, another widow was referred to me by Laura in person and one I met through a music concert that Laura organized.
Since I started attending the younger single’s ministry, I had the joy of baptizing my daughter Hannah on Super Bowl Sunday at Indian Creek who rededicated her life when she started coming to the single’s ministry with me. We had been attending on Wednesday night regularly and also many of the single socials. We both live on the Westside of town, but when she is off work, I come with her on Sundays to church, because she really relates well to the younger singles group. She is 29 years old. I wanted to share a recent dream I had that I believe is about my daughter. God has spoken to me many times in dreams the last 40 years since I’ve been a Christian.
I had a dream that I and several others were in a compound and an evil man was guarding the front entrance so he would not let us out of the compound without a fight. The evil man had a car there inside the compound, but I did not have the keys to his car. The evil man did not expect me to go out the back exit of the compound because the street was a one-way street the opposite way. I took my daughter’s car and my daughter and I and others drove out the back entrance of the compound. I had to dodge many semi-trucks and they were avoiding me too, but we made it and were not hurt or killed. There was another car load of people in my dream, but I don’t know what happened to them (if they made it out alive) or what exit they tried to go out.
I believe the back door is the single’s ministry at Indian Creek that the enemy – Satan did not expect me to attend being a widow and not the age of the group. He also lost out in capturing my daughter as far as her rededication to the Lord in her life through that ministry. It’s also been a ministry of encouraging any widows I’ve met through Indian Creek which have directly been a result from Laura in holding a praise gathering, a referral and her house.
I just wanted to give God the praise for the ministry that helped my daughter and leading to helping widows and other woman who lost her niece.
Sincerely,
Be My Friend: Little House on the Prairie
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