[kisstheson]

Dear ones, precious and beloved,

My dear wife and I had a really wonderful experience of fellowship in the Body of Christ earlier this week. Last weekend, we travelled a good distance to a family reunion for my wife’s family. It was really good to see everyone again, including the families of some of my wife’s cousins whom I had never met before. Many in my wife’s family definitely know Christ as their Savior, so there was some good fellowship there. The setting was on a beach and was very beautiful. When we left we were exhausted in body, but very much encouraged and refreshed in spirit.

The best treat of all, however, occurred during our travelling back home. Being so close to the GLA, we just had to stop in and have some face-to-face fellowship with dear brother “Ohio” and his dear wife. I had contacted dear brother Ohio before we left, and to our joy he and his wife had time to fellowship with us.

We met at a family restaurant for dinner. I appreciated that we spent a lot of time fellowshipping about our current pursuing of Christ and our current experiences of corporate life in His Body. As we shared our current experiences, it was inevitable that some very sad details came forth about experiences of families being split in two by the recent “Quarantine”. Dear ones! It is just too heart-rending. To hear of children and parents, brothers and sisters, even spouses, divided against each other over “The Ministry” made me want to break down and cry.

One thing became clear to me – I had always envied the dear ones in the GLA since in many places they had been able to break free from LSM as a group. None of them had to make a solo journey back to the Headship of Christ. In my region, which is very much pro-LSM, my wife and I had no one to join with us in our departure from LSM control. Our situation really was desperate at times. For this, I envied the GLA. Now I see the “flip side” of the GLA’s experience and I see what an incredible price they had to pay. They had to know the agony of losing the fellowship with so many dear ones with whom they had previously been built together, including flesh and blood relatives. What an absolutely terrible thing it is for a group of “workers” to insist that all the dear brothers and sisters take a side and choose which group of “workers” they will receive and which group of “workers” they will reject. Even worse is the way so many innocent dear ones become "collateral damage" when two groups of "workers" split apart.

We ended up staying at the restaurant until they closed. The maitre d’ was flashing the lights to get our attention and get us to leave! We hated to leave, and we gladly received dear brother Ohio’s invitation for further fellowship at their home. I don’t know how to describe it – our time at their home was just so sweet! Here we were, two believers in Christ in the home of two other believers in Christ whom we had never met before, and yet, it seemed like we had known them all over lives! The uniting bond of peace, the oneness of the Spirit, the mutual love in Chirst – all of these were so real.

Dear ones, when we are gathered together into Chirst and open ourselves to fellowship in Him alone and minister Him to one another, how it honors the Lord and how He blesses such gatherings!