Playdates: This Moment

Brother Pius is in town, though Sister Emily was unable to join him on the long trip from Africa this time. We all gather at Nick and Sharon’s to pray and listen and eat and hold each other in love. I want to ask him how his family is, how their ministry is…are things safer? Do they get discouraged? How can I best pray?

His smile is just as bright but it seems somehow softer and I hear a little wheeze in his breathing. We sit in a circle around him and as people enter, his smile widens more. I remember what Sister Emily told us last year: “My husband, he…goes everywhere. God called him to be an evangelist, God called him to be a missionary, God called him to go…wherever he goes he is at home.”

He is home here.

The guys are teasing him about how well he hands out compliments. They say he knows how to “play the game”. But he throws his head back and laughs. Then he turns those smiling eyes on us.

“When you meet someone,” he says, “you never know if you will see that person again. So I try my best to make an effect on that person. I try my best to make an effect for the Kingdom.”

His accent makes these words music and I know when he says them, he is in earnest. His dark skin glows and I realize this is the contagious joy that he carries with him: this moment may be the only chance.

And I wonder what it must feel like to live this way. What does it take to feel this urgency?

What if this moment is the only chance?

I want to hear more about his life in Africa. I want to ask about the Muslim population they reach out to every day. I want to hear his stories, feel that urgency, know there is reason to act in this moment…

And then we start to sing.

It’s easy to get lost in these voices and I close my eyes and feel the singing lift me up. It’s my favorite part, next to stories, and I would be happy to stay in this place all night. There is something about singing together that makes a love bond strong and my heart swells for these people.

“Tonight,” he says, “We are going to stand in the gap. We are going to pray for the church.”

Something is missing, he says. A spirit of giving. Of filling needs willingly. I wonder what kind of needs his church faces.

“When we pray, we believe something is happening. Somewhere, someone is being delivered; somewhere, someone is being saved. We may never know but this we believe…something is happening when we pray.”

We stand in the circle and hold hands and lift our voices in prayer.

And something does. Something happens when we pray. This moment? It may be the only chance. And I pray with all my heart.

How about you? How do you embrace the God-joy? Every Monday I’ll be sharing one of my Playdates with God. I would love to hear about yours. It can be anything: outside, quiet time. Maybe it’s solitary. Maybe it’s loud and crowded. Just find Him. Be with Him. And come tell us about it.

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