We arrived on Friday night at midnight to humidity and heat. We walked into a lively house, brightly lit, full of people, a lot of food, and a hearty, happy greeting. This was the church. Manny & Sunny's house – although located 2 time zones away – felt like any one of our homes here. Saturday morning, we toured the campus, took pictures, did that day's Devotional Time, and visited the amazing Sunday service location. It was across the street from the campus – like being in between Bancroft and Durant in Berkeley! We also visited the bible study location, and the giant football stadium that was within the campus. We huddled, shared DT and prayed for the campus. Isaiah 1 came alive in many different ways. I clung to the amazing promise of the Lord that he himself will restore the injured, afflicted people into a righteous city, city of hope and justice. Filled with Spiritual food and delicious sandwiches that made Quiznos look watered down (food in Austin was bigger and better – a comparison that we were to make across the board), we continued to unpack and help the 4 households settle in. Saturday night, we were full and satisfied. I thought that God was indeed good, providing for these homes in a timely way, providing for this kind of fellowship and sharing in this kind of excitement together.
Little did I know that the best was yet to come...On Sunday, we visited Hope in the City church. Some of us had heard about Austin Stone where Chris Tomlin sometimes led praise, but we went to Hope in the City instead. It seemed friendly, spacious, and warm enough – but then so was the rest of Austin as far as we could see. The college pastor, the senior pastor, and various staff walked over to us, introduced themselves and met us and greeted us warmly, even before the service began, so we knew that they were personable. The senior pastor, Ron Parrish, told us that he remembers the missed call from Pastor Ed, and heartily recognized our team. He was friendly and beaming, and we thought, Austin people are sure friendly! Then, during the extended praise time, Pastor Ron called out our Austin team to the front of the sanctuary. He then excitedly told the congregation about our church plant and our vision, had Manny take the mic and share some more. We had not expected this. Then, he asked the congregation to come out and lay their hands and pray for the team! People poured out from their seats, surrounded our team members in clusters, and prayed. The pastor and the praise team continued to pray and play music, and the pastor led us all through specific requests. It was clear that he knew what church plants were about. His prayers were specific – not at all generic. Specific about housing, jobs, adjustment, the obstacles they were facing, and their needs. It was as if he were with us all along and not someone who just met us 30 minutes ago!
We could not believe it. We could not help but marvel and praised God – who are we and who is our church that He would bless us so graciously and lovingly by such Godly people? This was a church that had planted 7 churches in 8 years, one of them being a 100-man Indonesian plant. That very day, they were sending off a team to Turkey, led by their college pastor. They themselves had a 120-member college department. Pastor Ron Parish and his wife had been ministering to the UT Austin students themselves and started campus bible study groups during their college years. They were both so happy and glad to meet us. Even after the service was over, they had our team come out again to the side, so that the people who prayed for them can share God's insights and continue talking and encouraging them. It was not what we had expected, although I'm sure we would have been blessed at many other services. God is so good. He is so gracious and kind, not treating us as our sins deserve. His heart is so urgent, so desperate for the lost out there, for this particular demographics that were not being reached.
The DT text upon our return was on Isaiah 40: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
There was a lot of comfort needed past week. Comfort for those of us who sent off the Austin team, and comfort for the team that departed. Hope in the City church people said that they understand the sacrifices our team had to make, but greater the sacrifice, greater the reward [in heaven]. I thought about the Beatitudes, how Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." I felt that God indeed spoke "tenderly to" our Austin team as well as to the rest of us through Hope in the City church's prayer warriors. I felt like they were that "man of peace" that welcomed us to their city, proclaiming that "greater things need to be done in the city" as was one of their praise songs, that they were like Simeon and Anna who recognized and blessed the baby Jesus in the temple courts. I felt like could this have been a small glimpse of how Joseph and Mary might have felt, as they brought baby Jesus to the temple to comply with the Law, and received an unexpected, overwhelming flood of divine affirmation and prophesy? Joseph and Mary obeyed and sacrificed their entire future and plans for Jesus, and though there was the host of angels and shepherds, they would now be facing the reality of bringing up the Son of God in a very earthly world. And how great their surprise and wonder and joy must have been when two revered prophets of the temple came to them and blessed and prophesied. Perhaps the power and the reality of Simeon and Anna's words sustained them through the difficult years ahead. How marvelous it was to be in the presence of God.
I felt like it was a charge and affirmation from God: Now, go and bring comfort to the city of Austin, to the UT Campus, to the many people who are lost in the spiritual desert.
I felt the rebuke of v. 27 "Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God'"? There is no room for any complaint that God does not understand or hear us. He led us to this church to be so richly blessed. He knew and He had us in mind through that church. He knew and fully understood our fearful, complaining, weak, sad, insecure hearts, and poured out unmistakable assurance that He is in control here.
Once again I experienced the juxtaposition of the "Sovereign Lord" who "comes with power" and the tender Shepherd who "tends His flock like a shepherd" who "gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart...gently leads those that have young." Through the concrete voices of the prayer warriors of Hope in the City, He acknowledged our fears and insecurity and addressed them. He showed His tender, gentle love by those same prophetic blessings that expressed the fears and sadness and insecurity in our team's heart.
One of the women told Sunny that it is hard to leave your loved ones behind to start a church; she went on to say, "greater the sacrifice, greater the reward/fruit." Sunny teared up as she recounted it to us, and I thought, surely our God is so kind and gracious and tender-hearted, comforting and strengthening her exactly how she needed it.