Published Tue, Aug 11, 26.
Written by Kristy Klitz.
“He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand up like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.” (Psalm 78:13-14)
If there was one word to sum up what God is doing in the Gathering Table ministry lately, it is: breakthrough.
This is the word I (Jeff) left with after our Pop-Up dinner this past Sunday evening, as my Kristy wife and I reflected on what God was doing during a simple meal that brings people together from all over our community, to share our lives and stories with each other and the hope of Jesus.
Here are some highlights, of some things that we see God doing recently in and through this ministry:
-first and foremost, the gospel is being preached to the lost. Thank you Jesus! We are seeing God draw the unreached and gospel seeds being planted.
-God has blessed us with an amazing team of people to help plan and implement the Pop-Up dinners every other month. We are currently having team meetings on the “off months” between the dinners.
-we had our first translated testimony shared at the August dinner. This was spontaneous, as an older lady who speaks Spanish shared her testimony being translated by someone on our team. This could open the door for future bi-lingual outreach through the dinners.
-the Bible study with the bee keeping and Veterans is going really well, and I think God might be starting something that may be a lasting ministry outreach to this community of Veterans, where there is a great need for the hope of Jesus.
-we were recently blessed with over $1,000 of bee keeping boxes and equipment for free. Yes, this was a crazy unplanned blessing, which opens the door for possible expansion of the bee hives from 20 to around 30 hive next year.
God is amazing! This is probably really only scratching the surface of what He is doing. We are humbled, especially in the light of how much of this year has been us being in a posture of waiting on the Lord (read our previous updates on Go Mission for more about that), and now we are seeing God’s hand move in power and wisdom as the ministry is starting to see momentum moving forward.
All of the bullets points above are things that we need prayer for covering, guidance and wisdom as we move forward as a ministry. That the lost would continue to hear and receive the message of the Cross, our team would continue to grow and expand, and the Lord’s guidance and protection in general. We encounter some very real spiritual warfare with the dinners, because they are missional and outreach based. The devil doesn’t want the message of the Cross to reach the hearts of the lost. But our God is greater!
Pictures: 1) the table set for the Aug dinner at Papa’s Place in Old Town Clovis 2) we just added honey boxes to each of the bee keeping apprenticeship hives 3-6) highlights from the apprenticeship, we meet every other Saturday morning starting off with a Bible study together in an awesome car shop on the property before we check the hives together 7) a FULL load of bee boxes and equipment that the Lord blessed the ministry with in July.
