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Angie!
Have you ever had one of those experiences where you do not want to do something, and end up doing it oh so reluctantly, only to find that it was one of the best things you ever mdid?
For Christians, of course, this can be God giving them a shove, when they are digging their heals in! Yes Christians do that. Very few act in blind obedience all the time. Well this one doesn't , and neither do a lot of my church circle.
One Monday evening in February last year, Caroline. One of the growth group, phoned up and invited me to go with her to a Women Aglow meeting in Sittingbourne. Only half interested I asked what it was about>
"Oh the speaker is some woman who's walked from Land's End to John O'Groats" was the reply.I muttered something about being required to be a growth group, as I was an assistant leader, but , said yes, I would come if there was room in the car. On putting the phone down, I then decided that I wasn't really interested in Christian long distance walkers, and was set to ring back and cancel.Derek forbade this because he felt I was being unfair to Caroline, so, ever so reluctantly I went.
Well it seemed pretty much like any other women's meeting.The worship was good, and Angie has a fantastic testimony about how she was saved from drink and drugs, by meeting Jesus personally when she was near death.Still I was thinking : "what has all this to do with me , Lord?"
Towards the end of her talk, she was speaking about how she had been reconciled with her children, who had been parted from her during her bad years. Suddenly she said that her son, in his 20's like Martyn had been killed in a freak accident. I could not believe my ears! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am not keen on receiving ministry - pride maybe, but normally because I don't often feel that the speaker can help me. Never before has The Lord so clearly spoken and said that I was to receive ministry.
There were lots of people queuing for ministry that night, as Angie nowadays has a marriage ministry. (The walking , with a six foot cross,incidentally was in memory of her son, as it was something he had planned to do).
I joined the long queue , and received the long overdue healing. nothing spectacular - only a few tears, but healing in The Name of JESUS, and the power of his cross.
In the weeks , and months that followed, I cannot say that anything spectacular happened, except I started to pick up some of the things that had been laid aside so long because of grief and emotional exhaustion.
A similar chain of events - this time being forced by The Lord to retrieve an invitation to a Lydia conference to America from the rubbish bin, led my to the Transatlantic link conference in Colorado Springs last Autumn.There followed a bit more ministry, freeing my family from the tragedies that have stalked us for so long.
Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I have changed this last year, that the burden has gone! what the next step will be I do not know, but I do know that ministry doors will open, in God's time, and I am at peace.
If you want to find out more about women aglow, they have a website at
and so does Lydia
http://www.lydiafellowship.org
