Eight Women

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a church meeting with 8 women gathered around a round table? Well I can tell you what happened today. Our group is called Grace Circle. A group which meets at night has a different name. We usually greet and have coffee or tea, and our hostess supplies a treat such a cake, or coffee cake. At this point someone asks God's blessing on our meeting.

Then we have a business meeting. Today the new business was directed to one of our missions called Randy's House. This is a home for young men who cannot live alone for various reasons. We send them money each month and now are being asked to send supplies in small packages, like pop tarts, cereals, paper towels, etc. We decided to put a box (for receiving these various items) in fellowship hall where we will see it and be reminded.

When our leader is ready to begin the lesson she first asks each lady to tell about something good that has happened this past week. Several were happy that all of the snow and ice was gone. Our leader is from Connecticut and liked the ice and snow, and was happy to be able to stay in and catch up on five hours of ironing ! Another was happy that her daughter's eye surgery had been so successful and now she could see tree brances, read certain things, etc. One lady was very happy that a leak in her roof turned out to be a minor thing and easily repaired.

Then we got into the lesson which was from Revelations chapter 12: 1-12. Our teacher likes to have everything under control so she calls on different ones to read from the scripture then she reads from a paper interpreting what was just read to throw light on what the scriptures meant. When we had finished all of this she said that was all she had and were there any comments. That was a mistake as I always have an opinion. I was puzzled by the fact that God allowed Satan to have power to do things on the earth. To my way of thinking he has given Satan full reign at the present time, not only through the weather but by the hatred that is so vividely expressed in some parts of the world, as well as crimes against children, abroad and in our own country.

Our poor leader looked down at her books in front of her and sighed. Yet we all got into a lively discussion, no doubt releasing our own frustrations regarding the things which are out of our control. Individually and as a group we work to bring to life positive things for others here and in other countries. Sometimes it just needs to be said I suppose, that all is not perfect and we need to keep on keeping on to make things better. Still we believe that God's absence in our lives is what allows Satan to do his best work.