Tonight marked the beginning of having to say goodbye to people that we know we’ll not see (God willing) for at least a year, and to be honest it had a kind of undesirable feeling to it.
The occasion? Well, for the past three years I have been attending a small house prayer meeting and Bible study with four other men. Each fortnight on a Monday evening we meet/met alternatively in each other’s homes and it has been a source of great blessing and encouragement as we have seen many answers to our prayers over the years. Tonight we went out for a meal together, each man and his better half and it was the last time that I’ll see them collectively until I return, God willing.
Each of the four men has been an encouragement to me and all in very different ways. A strange bond, I feel, is created over the months and years when people meet together to pray in a fashion such as we did. You learn to “bear one another’s burdens” and you can share burdens that you may not share with other people.
Tonight I had a relatively deep and blessed conversation with one brother about the need for the anointing of the Spirit. There is no way that this conversation came up by chance. It has been some time since I had a talk with someone on this topic and surely as I contemplate ministering to those in Australia, there is nothing that I need more. May God be pleased to increase my desire to seek this blessing more and more.
I shall miss the Monday night prayer meeting, not least for the friendship and fellowship.