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Dear Cedar Grove friends:
One morning, on a beautiful day in May, I had a “divine encounter.”
Divine encounters are what Seth Johnson, our Office Manager, calls chance meetings with fellow Christians which add unforeseen blessings to one’s day.
My encounter was in the church parking lot. I pulled into my normal spot and was walking toward the office when I heard someone call out, “Young man!” I turned and saw the driver of a large delivery truck get out and walk toward me. He was wearing a hat that said, “I love Jesus.” His shirt said, “Jesus Freak.” With a big grin he asked me, “Do you work here?” “I do,” I answered, with a smile of my own.
I asked, “Are you a Jesus Freak?” “I am,” he said. “Are you?”
“I am,” I replied. That was my introduction to Clayton the delivery man.
Clayton was delivering two new doors for the church. As he unloaded them, he proceeded to give me a Bible study lesson on Luke 8:40-56. This is the story of Jesus’ healing of the woman who hemorrhaged blood for 12 years, and the story of how Jesus raised a little girl from the dead. He was interrupted in his interpretation a couple of times by wind that blew some cardboard away, but his way of looking at this text was pretty good. Basically he saw the little girl’s age (12) as symbolic of the church (12 apostles), and that the sick church was being told by Jesus to rise again to health and vigor. I saw some parallels with recent news about certain denominational expressions of Methodism. I was grateful for the prophetic word, and thanked him for it.
After he unloaded the heavy doors (“Why aren’t you carrying these instead of me?” the 65-year old delivery man asked in jest), we paused to chat a while. Clayton is part of a house church in Glen Burnie that meets and worships each week in a parking lot. The name of the church is “Praise in the Parking Lot.” They, like Cedar Grove, have a ministry to the homeless. They’ve been meeting in the parking lot, rain or shine, winter or summer, for five years.
When we finished talking and it was time for him to head on to his next delivery, I suggested we pray. He eagerly agreed and removed his Jesus hat. I prayed that his ministry in parking lots, both in north county and south county, and everywhere in between, would continue to be fruitful. I prayed that all the doors he delivered would ever be open wide enough for God’s people to enter.
As he got back into his truck, he called out, “I’ll see you in the Kingdom!”
Yes, he will. And I’ll see you all at Cedar Grove, friends. May it be a divine encounter.
Peace,
A.B. Snell
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