A Wonderful New year

Dear Friends,

     I have been busy with many projects for the New Year, but I just had to stop long enough to tell you about Sunday. Last week, I was told that the deacon who left mad and took a family with them to start a new church arrived long after the service looking for us. Since we were not there they replied they would come back next week. All of our faithful were on pins and needles wondering what in the world was happening. Sunday a group of them arrived long before the service started and sat quietly through the service. At the end of the service, Pedro, a man I led to the Lord in 1985 and who had quit coming after almost 25 years wanted to make an "announcement" after the service. He was told to come to the pulpit area and announced that he had left about two years ago (actually about five) to take care of his family (who are all grown) and now he was coming back. I said "Praise the Lord" but I knew more was coming. He then started telling about this new work with the disgruntled deacon and invited all to attend their services. I was just about ready to step in and stop the conversation when he looked at me and said "Gary, why don't you come to visit next week?" I immediately replied, "No, this is my church and I will be here." He said,  "You can visit there and see the deaf and then come here." I replied basically the same that I was not attending another church and that basically shut him up.

     Immediately following that, the wife of the deacon asked to say a word, and I was hesitant after Pedro's comment. She stood up and with tears streaming down her cheeks, she said, "Please forgive us. I am terribly sorry we left. We love you all. Please forgive us." I assured her we all still love them and she sat down. The meeting was dismissed.

      After the service, the three men asked to talk to me and one other deaf man from the church. As they started off, they began some of the criticisms that caused them to leave. I stopped the griping and asked why they were there in the service. After several attempts, finally the deacon said his daughter, Fabiola, had taken them aside and chewed them out royally for trying to destroy the church. Fabiola had lead our choir from the age of 15 and still loves the work, even though she attends a hearing church. She knew Ann or I had lead all of them to the Lord and she knows our heart. She took them to Scripture and both parents left the encounter in tears (at their home). They had been unable to sleep for several weeks and finally decided that they had to act. They had come to ask forgiveness and to be restored into the church.

      About that time, another deaf man from our church entered and the "deacon" jumped up and grabbed him by the arm and told him to get out. This is the deacon who left, still bossing everyone around and who was begging to be reinstated. The deaf man really came unglued and I thought that we were going to have a fist fight. The conversation was something like "This is my church. You left, so you have no say-so here. Don't tell me to get out." Of course, he was right, but I finally asked him if he would please go ahead and leave so as not to cause more problems. Would he please leave as a friend to me, and he complied. I then scolded the deacon that the man was right, THAT was not to be accepted here. After several more minutes of bickering among themselves, I brought the conversation back to "Why are you here?" Again they replied that they wanted to repent and make things right. Remember that this deacon, five minutes before wanted a fist fight.

     I felt led of the Lord to make things really clear, so I said, "Well, there are some things that need to be cleared up." Over a period of almost an hour, I "corrected" problems that had been caused by this deacon over the past 20 years. He had always let his fury fly when approached about any of it. He sat quietly without a word as I enumerated 6-8 major issues where he had failed the Lord and had blatantly sinned against us all. These were issues where he should have taken the lead as a deacon, and he sat back and did nothing. Things where he should have sat quietly, and he threw a tantrum. Things where any deacon should have been the spiritual leader and he had shown nothing but carnality. To the point that some deaf had asked, "Will R---- be there at church? Then I am not coming." After almost an hour of confronting issues where he was at fault, he quietly said, "I failed as a deacon and as a member. It is my fault." Apart from the Lord, I could have fallen over from shock. I confronted him and the new Christian about raising criticism of the pastor without talking to him (the pastor). I named it sin. They owned up to it and said as soon as he came back from Monterrey, they would ask his forgiveness.

      The gist of more than an hour was, you will need to make some things right publicly if you wish to return. They agreed and at the end of the time, they decided to have the meeting this Sunday with their group to tell them they are disbanding and that all should return and/or come to our church. After starting a quarter of an inch away from a fist fight, it ended with "We were wrong and will ask the church's forgiveness and we will be willing to make everything right." Talk about being blown over with the Lord working in hearts, it was almost too much to comprehend. We will see if the devil gets back into the works or not, but I was almost beyond words. The wonderful part was, I felt like I was an external witness to the process because the Lord took over the whole thing. I have never ask R---- about anything questionable that he has done except it became a total blowout. He sat quietly and agreed that he had failed the Lord and the church. How marvelous is our Lord! Apart from knowing His power, I would have said Sunday's meeting would have been an impossibility. At the end, all left the church in smiles and with (apparent) love for each other. To God be the glory.

     PLEASE, do continue to pray that He might get the glory for "His wonderful works to the children of men." Psalm 107.

Gary & Ann