New Fellowship!

The joy surging through my bones at this moment is inexpressible and wholly wonderful. I found a new church: Bay Ridge Christian Church! It was a blessing to be there, but I need to start my story from the beginning.
I walked there this morning. I left campus at about 09:45 for what I thought would be a three mile walk. I was making good time, and I would’ve made it to the beginning of their service, which started at 10:30, if not for a slight hindrance. After walking a long distance more than I’d anticipated, I grew concerned and asked a man doing his yard-work where I could find the church. He told me I’d walked a mile too far. I thought maybe I’d missed it—but by a mile? I walked a mile back to a plaza where, he claimed, there was the white Bay Ridge church. Over the course of my walk I told God that everything in my will wanted to turn around and continue the same direction I had been traveling, because it felt better, but I needed to be humble and take the advice of another. At the plaza I found a lovely white wood and brick Methodist church, but not the Bay Ridge Christian Church I was hoping for. At that point I knew that God was testing my character, and I was able to smile about it.
So then I went into the gas station there, and I reached up to grab a map and look at it. The man behind the counter harshly rebuked me and told me that I must buy the map to look at it. So I fronted the $3.50 and took a glance at the road I was on. (God was yet testing me.) As it was, I had been about one mile away from the church when I asked the man for directions, but I had been traveling in the right direction.
I took a moment, collected my Bible and journal, and continued down the road to the church. Two miles later, I found it, and I was only about forty-five minutes late. But it was worth every step. At the end of the service, the focus of which was God’s grace, we sang “Amazing Grace.” I smiled as I sang about how I once was lost, but now I’m found.
After the service I met a wonderful woman named Colleen, who will soon be embarking on a short-term trip to Mumbai, India. We chatted for a while about everything God has under the sun, and then she told me that there was another Johnnie at the church. I was actually quite amazed. I met Tim, a senior, and his new wife Tanya and spent the afternoon with them, and they offered to give me a ride to service any time. (Literally, they offered to give me a ride anywhere for anything. Awesome people.) The church gave us a big afternoon dinner prepared and served by the teenagers of the congregation. It was such a blessing. I heard the prayers during the service and I knew that God had brought me to a wonderful place for both ministry and rest, both spiritual warfare and peace in fellowship.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you in the way you should go” (Isaiah 48:17 NASB).

Praise the Lord.