During a conversation, I was privileged to hear the following: During a holiday on a small island, I had been really looking forward to the Saturday evening service. I arrived at the church early, but it gradually dawned on me that the service wouldn’t be taking place. A family with two teenage children also came into the church. They asked if we should sing a song when they, too, realised there wouldn’t be a service. I gladly agreed. I then offered to read the daily readings from an app, which the family were happy to accept. More people arrived. We invited them too to suggest their favourite singing, so that we could sing it together. After the Gospel, we shared our thoughts on the readings. Intercessions also flowed from our hearts, and at the end there was a blessing. We felt a deep joy within us at this spontaneous service, which had grown bit by bit as we celebrated it together. By the end, we had the feeling that none of us had gone home ‘hungry’; rather, God had nourished us – with His Word, in prayer, in fellowship with one another, in which He was tangibly present amongst us. It was a gift and a new experience: God cares for us. We stood together in the church for a long time afterwards, and in the last few days I even received an email from the family who had arrived first. They just wanted to say THANK YOU once more.
