I marveled as I gazed up into the clear, blue sky. Rainy season was in full swing, and it had rained steadily all week. We had all been praying for a nice, dry weekend, but I’d had my doubts. But now as the sun shone down on me and I felt the cool mountain breeze, I basked in the moment. God truly does have His hand over His work, I thought to myself.
Our little church had just finished a month of seeking spiritual revival. In an effort to understand God’s will for our outreach, we read through the book of Acts, one chapter a day for four weeks. Each Sabbath afternoon we broke into small groups to discuss the week’s reading. We trained church members to lead out in the small groups and then debriefed with the leaders after each study. I had the privilege of monitoring the groups, which meant I got to spend a little time in each group every week. I was greatly encouraged as I saw church members participating. I felt a sense of awe as I listened to a church member describe how the Lord had resolved an issue she had been struggling with—something I had been concerned about a week earlier. As I listened to her share, I became even more convinced that this is truly God’s work. If we allow Him, He will take care of the things that perplex and overwhelm us.
At the end of our four-week revival focus, we wanted to escape the city and spend time in nature to discuss how we sensed God leading our church to carry out His mission in our city. This would be our first offsite church retreat, so I desperately wanted our members to have a good experience so we could plan similar activities in the future.
As we worshipped together, sang songs around the campfire, shared meals and hiked in nature, it was clear that God had truly ordained our revival retreat. On Sabbath morning, one lady shared a testimony that serving as a small-group leader had given her a deeper experience in studying God’s word. Another lady shared that a recent car accident had helped her see that she was not yet ready for Christ’s second coming, and she was motivated to do more to seek the Lord and serve Him. During our Sabbath afternoon evangelism planning meeting, a man shared that music and our music school had helped him come to Christ, and he would like to see our church use music to reach the community.
Later on Sabbath afternoon we hiked to a nearby waterfall to enjoy the natural beauty and each other’s fellowship. We closed the Sabbath hours with a drive and a short hike to a scenic outlook where we took in the glorious view of the forest and mountains around us. After a quick vespers talk, we headed back to our vehicles. Just before I climbed into my truck, I felt a few raindrops. I looked up at the mounting clouds, dark and heavy with rain. Again I marveled at God’s timing and His loving gift to our church. He had held back the rain all day just for us and had truly given us a wonderful experience together. I drove back to our campsite even more convinced that if we are committed to whole-heartedly seeking God, He will protect us and empower us to do the work to which He has called us. Please pray for our church as we go forward from this revival.
