Yesterday was a shining example of God’s Grace in my life and the ministry of Military Fellowship Center. Though I am not at 100% following my bout with pneumonia, I was able for the first time in over three weeks to put in a fourteen hour day (which I do every Friday and Tuesday). It was extra special though for two reasons.

First I was able to keep my commitment to host this months “Military Connections” meeting for local ministries that specifically reach our Marines and Corpsmen. We had about a dozen ministers over to The Center and I cooked them a spaghetti lunch, gave a tour of the grounds, and we discussed outreach to the fresh troops at Camp Gieger and Camp Devil Dog Chapels.

I was able to rest afterwards and get some real study in on a sermon. I took a quick break to ride into town and visited the 2nd & Charles bookstore. They always have a free bin of books outside of damaged books or just books they think wont sell. In that bin was “The Olivet Discourse” by A.C. Gaebelein, a book just on the passage of Scripture I am studying for my next sermon!

Finally we held our Friday Night meeting. No energy to cook again so we had Pizza from our favorite local shop Lazzara’s. And instead of a formal Bible Study I held one of my “Lion’s Den” Q&A sessions. I’ve been doing this since my days in the Pastorate, allowing any question from the Bible, about the Faith, or really anything to be posed, putting me in “the lion’s den” and forcing me to answer. I love it. We’ve done it before at the Center, but never before have we had the response we had last night. We started around 7:30 after most had their fill of pizza and the Q&A lasted until after 9! In fact we stayed at the table so long no one wandered over to the Activity hall to play pool or ping pong.

Most of the Questions were centered around End-times, but we also touched on topics like Forgiveness, Suicide, True Salvation and more. Plus there was a personal testimony by one of our Troops that simply shut mouths and teared up eyes. It was amazing. God gave me my voice back for those precious hours, and like many times as a pastor, my voice began cracking again right afterwards. The Grace of God knows no limits! He Enables the called.

I am simply humbled and awestruck at His goodness.