Intertwined Stories

Pete is in class this week… He’s actually at a mosque for prayer time right now.  It is a way to move past the fear and streotypes and see real people.  So I (Traci) thought that I would share some thoughts in his absence.
As I look at the time we have spent away from Valpo, I see…

• … a marathon race to connect with family for our Christmas celebrations together
• … an embarrassing loss by the Cincinnati Bengals
• … bad weather and illness throughout this week
• … time with our daughters
• … and a somewhat unexpected time of being encouraged.

This last one is what I want to share about.  This week as I have tried to step back and reconnect with God and refocus on Family ministry, I have been reminded that each of our individual stories are an ongoing part of God’s big story… a story that continues to show His redemptive power and ongoing work through each of us.  Life Bridge exists to reflect God’s love and His desire to be in relationship with us.  So much so that He provided His Son to redeem us from the cost of our sin… grace.
Mins and Pete’s and Life Bridge’s stories are tied into the story of White Oak Christian Church down here in Cincinnati (as well as others, such as Ignite Church Planting).  This past Sunday, we attended church at White Oak, but instead of sleeping in a bit and going to the later service, we went to the 9:30 service.  Our family was there well after 11:30 as people stopped us.  Most of these people were examples to our family in our 10 years at White Oak before coming up here.  They supported us in prayers and finances in our first 3 years of ministry.  They feel connect to God’s work through Life Bridge.  They are connected. 
It didn’t stop there, as many remember my neighbors, Albert and Agnus Black, and that they would bring me to church from the time I was about 10 years old until I got my license.  They remembered the Fehl family that consistently showed me God through their walk and day to day family life.  One reminded me of a bookmark she received from me or my sister, that she still carries in her Bible.  Another remembered how I came to church and then my sister when she got in High School.  All of these are stories of God’s work in people’s lives, intertwined to show God’s Big Story of love and redemption with human hands and feet.
There had to be a least a dozen senior saints who stopped us to reminisce and look back at the work God had done, through them, through their friends, small groups, and prayers.  I thanked them for their support and encouragement.  I tried to remind and encourage them that God is still doing a great work through them as they share years of faithfulness in serving God and walking with HIm… collectively representing hundreds of years of faithful service in just the few with whom we spoke. 
These people have modeled love, acceptance, and walking with God in good times and in bad.  They’ve been people who greeted at the doors faithfully from week to week, served communion and offering, taught classes, and led small groups, just to name a few.  They let God’s story be told through them in very real ways. 
How has God’s story being communicated through you?  Your choices? Priorities?  Does God’s grace show through in your relationships with others? 
What does God want to communicate through you in 2016 to your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers?  How will they see God’s big story through you?
I pray that God continues sharing His story of love and redemption through all of us here at Life Bridge and that there will be hundreds and thousands of years of collective faithfulness in walking with Him.
The story is continuing… with each of us and Life Bridge as we reach out in Northwest Indiana and the cyber world; and with White Oak in Cincinnati as they are reaching out to increasingly diverse communities, including Butanese Christians in the area, giving them a place to worship and unite in love for our Lord and Savior.  The are also talking with a group of Ethiopian Christians about doing the same… giving all of them a place to celebrate both their diversity and their common love and service of our Lord and Savior.
Different people, different groups, different stories… all feeding into God’s big story for His purpose and glory.
Give thanks to the LORD and proclaim His greatness. Let the whole world know what He has done.   (Psalms 105:1 NLT)
Let all the world look to Me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other.  (Isaiah 45:22 NLT)