Encouraging words from Chris Vaz at our last gathering in July 22.
Gerry and Paula led the worship starting with a medley of worship songs from about 40 years ago, which everyone seemed to enjoy and sing with gusto. They closed on a long song that I’d never heard of before- I really want to love Jesus every day- which was like a lesson in itself, stating that it takes time to live the the Christian life that we’re called to live if you do it properly daily- time to read the bible, loving your brother and sister etc.
Darren Ricketts was compère.
And Chris Vaz was the speaker. His talk was about Isaac sowing in a time of famine and reaping a hundred fold that same year.
He outlined the history that it was a time of double famine, and made the comparison to recent times when one Covid variant ebbed away, another wave started hot in its heels. His message was that in our times when everyone is focusing on the bleak news of the global financial and energy crises and of political turmoil, we look to God for our cues not to the world. He was suggesting that in this time, similar to Isaac’s, when it is counterintuitive to sow- we should follow God’s promptings and sow! He outlined different types of sowing: investing, sowing new gifts or sowing words into people’s lives- and that God will reap a hundred fold from these acts of faith.
He went on to tell of how his church was approached by a head teacher in Abergavenny during lockdown asking if the church could provide hot cooked lunches for a number of vulnerable children from his school during lockdown. So Chris agreed and then discussed with the church- it was a colossal undertaking that saw them provide over 12,000 hot cooked meals over a space of 6 weeks, with God providing the financial means- they didn’t spend even a pound. And many hardened hearts in the area were softened when they saw how the local church rose to the aid of these disadvantaged children.
