Farewell Love-feast

Half a year ago, a family moved to Gurugram, just one floor below a saint's family flat. Since the very first day of meeting and getting to know each other, we established a contact with them and started a home meeting every Friday night. When I first met them, my burden was to shepherd them with the proper and healthy spiritual food through the riches of the Lord's recovery. Besides, I also have a burden to shepherd the saint's family by helping them to learn to take care of a new family. In a way, it was an arrangement of "hitting two birds with one stone."

Week after week for half a year, the Lord has been gracing us to enjoy home meeting together with this family. They themselves testified of how much the Lord blessed them in their Christian life after meeting with us, especially through the home meetings. The material we used was the "Shepherding Materials." They also testified of how their understanding of the Bible was uplifted, their Christian life gained a new height, they started prayer together every night as a family, they started reading the Bible regularly, and their spiritual life has improved quite much.

Now that this family is migrating to New Delhi, we invited them to come over for a dinner love-feast last night. We enjoyed a good time of feasting together, physically and spiritually too. Our burden is to shepherd the new ones as much as we can. As we fellowshipped last night, I also released my burden of presenting to them God's economy of Christ and the church, and our need today to be recovered in our Christian life and church life for the fulfilment of God's economy. Even as we fellowshipped and prayed together over the "farewell love-feast", I have no regret within as this new family had been shepherded when we had the opportunity to do so. Whether they will remain faithful to the vision presented to them or not is up to them and the Lord. But we have done our part of shepherding them with the ministry of the word. I do believe, the Lord will gain this family for His testimony in His recovery one day.

1 Corinthians 4:1,2 A man should account us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here, furthermore, it is sought in stewards that one be found faithful.

According to the Lord's word, we are just servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, and we ought to be faithful. With the grace the Lord bestowed upon us, we have the peace to say that we have done all that we could do faithfully. Therefore, I personally have much peace within as we hosted a farewell love-feast for this family with the hope and faith in the Lord's word that:

1 Corinthians 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.