Published Thu, Oct 01, 26.
Written by Kristy Klitz.

“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” (James 5:7-8)

This is a fitting verse for us, not only because of this late season heat wave in the valley where we are all waiting for it to cool off finally!!, but also because it describes the posture that the Lord has kept the Gathering Table ministry in all year long.

We are learning to wait on the Lord.

A couple recent testimonies:

Bi-Monthly Team Meetings

If you’re not familiar with Gathering Table, we are a ministry that, at the moment, primarily hosts pop-up dinners every other month as an outreach to bring the good news of Jesus to our community. (You can read more about them on our page on Go Mission.) During the in between, or “off-months”, we have our team meetings to pray and plan for the next upcoming dinner.

This past meeting in September, we we spent about 15 minutes listening individually to the Lord, specifically asking God two questions:

-What does God want to do at this upcoming dinner?

-How does God want to use the gifts He has given you at this next dinner?

It’s amazing that when we spend just a little bit of time listening to what God has to say, he not only speaks but guides the entire direction of our lives and in this case the planning of the next dinner.

After sharing as a team what each of us heard from the Lord regarding the upcoming dinner, it was evident that God had given us each individually some clear direction for the answers to the two questions we asked.

We didn’t leave the team meeting with a burdensome to-do list (which is often the case for ministry planning meetings), but with a clear direction for what God wants to do and how we can partner with what He is already doing. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

It confirmed to me that the Gathering Table team is not an “event planning committee”, though that is needed at times, but it it a serving ministry to show our community the hands and feet of Jesus in both our words and our actions.

We are excited for what God has planned and what He is doing in each of our lives and as a team.

Bee Keeping Apprenticeship

We just wrapped up the 2026 Bee Keeping Apprenticeship (BKA) that went from May-September, where we hosted a Bible study every other Saturday morning with 3 local veterans, while also starting 3 bee hives together as a fun way to build relationship and community with one another.

It’s hard to express all that God did during this time. Each of the men, including me (Jeff), were personally impacted by this time together. As someone who is not a veteran, being around 3 veterans was very eye opening. All 3 have struggled and still do struggle with PTSD in some way or another. I realized after the BKA, that there is a great need in the veteran community for groups like the BKA- hands-on, community-focused interaction, that is BIBLE BASED AND JESUS CENTERED. There are a lot of programs out there that do the first part (activities, community), but not many that are Christ-centered and boldly share that Jesus is the only way any of us will find true healing and peace in this life.

As part of the apprenticeship, we got to bless each of the 3 veterans with a unique study Bible to keep, to encourage them to continue diving into God’s word and growing in their relationship with Jesus. If this is something that you would like to donate toward, click here.

Prayer

If you would like to partner with us in prayer, please be praying for what comes next for the three veterans who participated in the BKA- that they would find a church community to plug into and take their next steps in following Jesus. One of the men is still on the edge of receiving salvation.

Pray over our October 11 Pop-up dinner for the testimonies and the gospel shared to take root in people’s hearts and for lasting connections to be made.

And lastly, for vision for Gathering Table for next year. We are starting to seek the Lord for the next steps for the ministry, including doing the BKA again next year, possibly opening it up to men and women as there have been a lot of women expressing interest in it, and finishing writing down the vision for a working farm ministry that temporarily houses and hosts people who feel stuck in life to find hope and purpose in Christ.

Photo highlights of the 2026 BKA with the 3 veterans