This update posted by Pastor Pete while Pastor Seth is in India.
A handful of us met yesterday at an inn near the Northwestern campus. It was a smaller meeting since many of the students are away for the summer, and we had a good time of fellowship with one another. I realized that all of the people at the meeting had either come from Ann Arbor for the day or had been part of HMCC in the past, so there was already a sense of connection with each other because of the shared experiences that we had in the church. It gave me hope that we would see God working in similar, or even greater, ways at this new church plant.
After dinner we studied Acts 9:1-31, which is the story of Saul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Before we began the Bible study, some of us shared testimonies of how we had encountered God in our lives and how He had brought us to where we are today. Between these testimonies and the Bible study, I felt that God was wanting to encourage us with His power to transform lives.
We ended the meeting by praying together for our new church plant. We prayed for the people who would come to the church with faith that God would build a testimony in each one of their lives, and we asked God to help us be obedient to the calling He has given us. As we were praying, I was reminded that it is out of our own experiences with God, and the grace that we have received from Him, that we are able to minister to others, and I knew that God wanted to use this group of people to build His church.