Just after I hit the “Publish” button yesterday Plan “B” of the Team Gathering began to unravel. Jessica called to tell me that, while walking to the commuter train station, she had just received a text informing her no trains were running due to line repair.AGH!!Since she was bringing the adaptor for the laptop, the PowerPoint of the songs, a chosen Scripture passage to share AND a loaf of homemade bread and it was now close to 5pm, we had a bit of a problem!
I told her to go home and sit tight while we worked out possible Plan “C’s”. My first call was to our trusty Gopher, Alexander. He was in the process of cooking a pasta dish to bring but I thought he might either be able to go and rescue Jessica or at least bring a compatible laptop and a loaf of bread. Better than that, he was able to convince his housemate, Luke, to go and do the rescuing, while he finished cooking. Whew, catastrophe averted, or so I thought!
Then everyone began arriving and a general commotion of greetings ensued. There were 15 of us in the end (Luke joined us too!), plus an ecstatic Wil who bounced around knocking things over in his usual boisterous fashino, while Mandu sulked under a table. The food was excellent, Janice provided an enjoyable Day Camps’ questions activity before the Worship while William and Gabrielle helped me the with dishes and things seemed to be chugging along nicely, when Jessica discovered that the computer adaptor was not going to work after all!
Then everyone began arriving and a general commotion of greetings ensued. There were 15 of us in the end (Luke joined us too!), plus an ecstatic Wil who bounced around knocking things over in his usual boisterous fashino, while Mandu sulked under a table. The food was excellent, Janice provided an enjoyable Day Camps’ questions activity before the Worship while William and Gabrielle helped me the with dishes and things seemed to be chugging along nicely, when Jessica discovered that the computer adaptor was not going to work after all!
And so to Plan “D” which entailed sharing out the few hard copies we had of the songs with some people huddling around the computer screen instead of using the projector. Anna commented that at least we had not gone through the alphabet to “On Beyond Zebra !”.
Worship time was lovely. Jillian, Joshua, Luke and Anna all did duty as musicians and the singing was truly uplifting, Jessica was able to read her chosen passage from Leviticus, the two testimonies were touching and sparked some good questions, we shared in a heartfelt time of open prayer, sang more songs (ending with the 2013 Theme Song) and huddled around the computer to laugh over the Day Camps Slideshow. There was even time at the end for a few more of Janice’s questions.
My prayer had been that each person would be blessed in some way during this time of drawing together in the special community created by those who have shared in a common experience. As I watched them laughing, joking and seriously listening to each other’s prayers I knew in my heart that my own prayer had been answered both for them and for myself.
As each one of them returns to the busyness and stress of daily life at school and work, I will also be praying that they will each feel strengthened and encouraged, knowing that they are valued within this fellowship.