Alpha Lounge--Week 4

It's been a full day. My wife went to a women's conference at our church this morning. I watched the kids, while sorting through mail at the same time. She seemed to really enjoy being with other women, meeting some new ones, and having the opportunity to talk with some whom she normally doesn't have the chance on Sunday. Thanks Lucette Quarteron for having taken the initiative to organize these women's meetings.

This afternoon I took our son in our apartment complex's multiterraced courtyard behind our apartment to ride his tricycle. He's made great progress riding the narrow paved paths on the top level. He pedaled furiously for nearly 40 minutes before tiring out. He is a boy strong in body and in character. He's more naturally extraverted than his father and seems to be popular with his classmates, particularly the female ones. My wife said that one of them gave him a hug at lunchtime yesterday.

We had our 4th week of Alpha Lounge tonight. There were a few less young people present tonight, primarily because of some being away as this is the start of a 10 day All-Saint's Day school break here. Seth and Cecile made some mouth-watering Mexican cuisine. The teaching theme was "How to be sure of my faith?" One memorable illustration of Benoit-Regis was of how the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to truth. He compared the pre-Holy Spirit days like being the DOS operating system, with lots of line code that is difficult to read and understand. When the Spirit opens our eyes, it's like the Windows XP version, which is much more understandable and user friendly. I'm observing some strong community developing among the participants, some of whom are bringing friends.

At the end, I got into a discussion with a 16 year old young man who was at the July Mission Radicale youth conference. He ended up praying for healing for my right knee (which has bothered me occasionally since I hurt it in 1987. He also prayed that my throat would get healed of its nagging cough. He then had a picture in his spirit for me and an interpretation of it. It was on the theme of being a shepherd who leads people sometime in the future. During this time, I had the feeling that it was both humbling and wonderful to be prayed for by one of the young people that I'm trying to help. It again shows that ministry is reciprocal. We need to both give and receive.