Shepherding Calls

Last week I received two calls; one from a sister and the other from a brother. The first call was a report of a certain brother who used to be in the church life and who became negative due to a certain misunderstanding with a full-time serving brother. The result of his disagreement on the matter led him even to speak negatively about the church life, the saints, and even the ministry. The call was basically to let me know the situation of the brother and his family and find ways to shepherd him practically. This brother's wife recently went through a serious health issue and that opened the door for him to be shepherded. Though out of anger he burst out many unnecessary and negative words to the saints, but now the Lord has also dealt with him to realize the mistake he had committed, and that he should be clear about the truth irrespective of someone's reaction to his queries. Having heard this report, we prayed together for the Lord to come in shepherd this brother's family.

After that fellowship, I received an offering to be passed on to the needy saints. Today, as I considered to whom to transfer this offering, the Lord reminded me of this brother. Therefore, I contacted him and transferred the offering, with some cherishing messages. Thus, the Lord led me to practically be able to shepherd his family. This was based on the phone call I received from a sister. A shepherding call!

Another phone call was for a visit of a brother's family for a time of love-feast fellowship with my family. Last Saturday, the family came to spend time with us. We enjoyed the love feast and the cherishing mutual care. At the same time, this family was also in need. First, I helped them to file the sister's income tax which I have been filing for the past few years. Second, they were in need of a new laptop for their children's online class. They did not have enough money to buy a new one. Besides, they also needed a printer for the children's assignments. 

In fact, the past few months the Lord has been burdening me about helping this family by gifting them an old office computer that has not been in use for quite some time now due to its oldness. But I hesitated for some reason. And a printer too, I repaired and tried to use it for my family's need, but somehow I did not have the peace. Therefore, I bought a new one for our family's needs. So this printer was available to be given. But again, I hesitated for some reason.

But when the family came to visit our family, the Lord impressed me strongly that I should offer this old computer and printer as they are not being used anyway. These will be a great help to the family. With that inward prompting, and with the grace I have been enjoying in my official service, I did have the right to give it out. So I gave the old computer and the printer to the family. This was great help and relief to the family as they have been struggling with their finance. This was also based on the phone call for a visit to our family.

These two phone calls accomplished a lot practically in a matter of shepherding the needy saints. What a blessing to be under the Lord's shepherding and be able to shepherd one another! The two calls shepherded me to shepherd others. Thank God for those shepherding calls.