A Special Place!

     Every so often on the deputation trail, I get to be a part of the services of a church that is very special to me and today was one of those days. Berkshire Hills Baptist Church had a great Christmas worship service today with food and fellowship following as all good Baptists love!

     But why this church is special to me is for a number of reasons:

1) It is the church where I met my husband and half a year later married him. I'm so thankful for this! I kinda like that guy ;)

2) I was baptized in this church. I was saved as a teenager but not baptized following salvation. I finally did in 2002 soon after I started regularly attending and this leads me to number 3:

3) My first membership at a church was here!

4) This is where I learned how to serve in church and:

5) where I learned I have a spiritual gift and how to use it!

6) I made a great discovery here: that Christians can have fun! And boy did I!

I especially had fun in children's ministries like putting on skits in VBS or sliding down a soap covered waterslide with the kids. The things I learned in this church that I wished I knew before! 

7) It was here I learned how important personal growth is.

     These were all thoughts I had when looking around at the group gathered for worship today. A lot has changed since I first started attending 12 years ago, but not much. Some people have passed away or moved on, but there are still the handful of individuals who are just as faithful as they were then. There's plenty of new faces too. 

     I still find it amazing how the Lord led me to this church one August day in 2002 when I walked in the door of the church I had passed year after year on the way to my grandparents house. My grandparents attended the Episcopal church just two miles down the road and every year when I visited, I went to church with them there. That August day after I had gone to live with my grandparents, I set out to find a church of my own and the Lord led me to the very building I had gazed upon often as I peered out the car window as a child excited to go see grandma and grandpa. I'm still in awe of how the Lord works. 

Psalm 122:1 "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."