A different kind of evening...

We had our neighbors over for dinner tonight and they were telling us about their priest friend, Ken. He and two nuns were coming to their house later that evening. (Ken and our neighbor have been friends for years.) We had tons of food, so we called Ken and the nuns and invited them for dinner. They accepted, came over, and we all had a ball. What wonderful believers these women were. They were from Italy and have completely dedicated their lives to God. They are on "vacation" now for a month, and then will head to Kansas to work on the college campus there. When asked what they do, they told us that their only goal was to help people know Jesus better. We asked if they were paid a stipend from the church, and they smiled and said, no, we rely on the providence of God - meaning - they rely completely on God for everything - their food, clothes, transportation, housing, etc. The college campus will house them, but they eat when people bring them food, and get new clothes when people are led to give them. Father Ken told us that it is a 100% pure faith-based life. They talked of loving their simple lives, watching God care for them, etc. They spend four hours a day in prayer (we had to pry this info out of them, they were not bragging), and gave testimony to living a spirit-filled, spirit-directed life. They were gracious and kind and were beautiful pictures of God's grace. They loved being with our children and seeing our babies. They went to seminary in Rome and spend times of solitude in the mountains of Italy (this sounded very appealing.) I had baked a cake earlier in the afternoon, not sure why, thinking I would send it to work with Jeff on Monday. But as I looked across my kitchen table and got to see these precious servants enjoying warm cake and cold milk, I knew God had other ideas for that cake. I'm grateful I got to be a part of the feeding of his sheep and rejoiced at the body of Christ feasting together beyond denominational lines.