I continued attending the Sunday service. Aside from the usual Sunday worship service, there were other Church activities during weekdays. Other activities were announced during the Sunday service, we were encouraged to attend our respective group designation. There was a group for women, youth, and also prayer meetings during Fridays. I once attended a prayer meeting. I didn't have the slightest idea of what would happen, but one thing I was sure of, we were going to pray, and that was because it was called a prayer meeting. Wasn't it obvious?
I attended a prayer meeting. I was nervous. I arrived on time thinking that I didn't want to have any conversation with other people. I just wanted to reserve my seat and listen or pray or whatever I must do during the meeting. I didn't intend to meet and greet others, it was never easy for me to do that. It always felt like all hell break loose in my mind when I met strangers.
The prayer meeting started late. While I was waiting, there were only three of us, and a woman whom I knew during my childhood days and tried her best to engage me in a conversation. Mostly, she was the one who did the talking. She tried to show me thru her stories how blessed she was, how wonderful her family was. I listened to her patiently while I tried to put on the appropriate expression on my face on everything that she said.
I arrived at 7:30 in the evening, but the prayer meeting started at 8 or 8:30 the most. There was a lecture about a story from the New Testament. I remember something about Bethpage from the discussion of the Bishop, I am not even sure. At the end of the lecture, we prayed by a partner and some solo. I was with a partner and I was nervous, as always. She was kind enough to pray for me, and I didn't pray for her. Why? Because I didn't know how to or more like I was afraid that others would hear my prayer and discover how ugly the way I pray. After she prayed for me, I told her I would go home though I knew that the prayer meeting had not yet reached its conclusion. Others were still praying, but I was determined to leave. I felt insecure. That was the first and last time I attended the prayer meeting.
After that incident in the prayer meeting, I still continue attending the church. There were times that I missed the Sunday service because of my graduate studies. I listened to the message every Sunday and felt blessed every day. I knew I was on the right track. God wanted me to be where I was during those times.
During those times when I felt satisfied with my faith in and relationship with Him, there was a friend of mine who kept on insisting that I attend their D-group. Discipleship group or D-group is like a Bible study meeting. I rejected him a few times but eventually gave in because he was so persistent. I also started to seek more. More of Him.
It was a couples' D-group. A group composed of less and not more than ten, they were welcoming and accommodating, but I felt a little out of place since I was the only single in the group. I learned a lot from the discussion and looked forward to attending a D-group. I attended twice if I remember correctly. But eventually, I stopped attending the D-group session. I was not comfortable that I was the only single in the group.
Few months had passed and that same friend of mine nagged me about attending just one service of the church he and his wife was attending to. Again, he kept on bugging me, but this time I didn't give in. I was busy with my graduate studies and already attending a church why I would bother going to other churches.
One day, at the end of my last semester in my graduate studies and that, was November 2019, I just decided to grant my friend's request, I attended one service on a Sunday morning. After listening to a live-stream service from the main church, I was blessed. I was convicted. Since then, everything was never the same. I was never the same.
While I was getting acquainted with my new local church, adoration and praises would not cease coming out of my mind and heart. They just overflowed. I was able to compile them in a book that I just recently released on my birthday this year. I feel blessed. God never left me. In my trying times, He was there with me, always. He provided kind human beings to support and understand me. I am forever thankful and grateful. I am saved. I am redeemed.
And good news! I belong now to an all-girls D-group for singles.
This is the book I mentioned.
Click the photo if you want a copy.
~the end~
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