Its 4.30pm and hardly anyone on the scene yet, minutes later and the gates are flung open as the guys arrive in a large group, suddenly the parking lot is transformed into a feeding frenzy- heads to numerous to count, the noise level rising the atmosphere gripping as everyone keen to head to the seminar, then the bus arrives- the hustling starts as teams are organised and bodies start to pile into the bus, its all go! In no time at all we‘re on our way weaving through the slick streets of the ‘pipe’ on our way to the capital – at this rate we’ll be there in three quarters of an hour, this is good news as we’ll have time to catch up with the brothers and sisters already there before the meeting begins. These times are special, and there is a welcome anticipation in the air as the meeting gets under way and we begin to enter into praise and worship. The presence of the Lord is tangible and I know the Lord has something unique to communicate to his church.

Sure enough, as I sat in the bus on the way home, I couldn’t but think of the vastness of the heart of God, it is amazing. The message shared that night was nothing short of encouraging, it spoke of the heart of God for the church in the capital- and what a church it had been in the past, but lately passing through very challenging times, many who had experienced miracles and God’s intervention had backslidden and left the church, but as we sat and listened we were encouraged realising God wanted to restore, and bring back the lost. Mathew Chapter 18 vs 12 -14 was shared- (The parable of the lost sheep) “What do you think? if a man owes a hundred sheep , and one of them wanders away , will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” Oh God’s heart for his people is unsearchable. We as Christians cannot loose hope for those who have backslidden or left the church, these are Gods people- how we need to stand in faith and trust God knowing that he is faithful. Who are we to write off or close the door on a brother or sister that has fallen away, on the contrary we see the attitude and the love of our Lord in the above scripture. At the end of the meeting that evening, we joined hearts in fervent prayer realising God wanted to do something new, refresh hearts and bring back the lost!