WESTERN DISTRICT CONFERENCE
SEEDS
March 5, 2014
A “Reading the Bible” Blessing
Every Saturday morning I lead a spirituality group in the Addictions Treatment Center at Prairie View in Newton, Kan. These people come for a 30-day stay to work on healing from substance abuse. One Saturday a young man said that Psalm 63 really spoke to his heart because of a certain verse. When I asked if it was the verse about crying on your bed in the night, he was amazed that I could pull out the very verse that spoke to him. What he didn’t know is that I had just read Psalm 63 that week because I am reading through the Bible in 90 days with church members from Zion Mennonite Church in Elbing, KS.
The next week this young man shared a song he wrote called “Psalm 63.” When I shared with him that I was reading the Bible in 90 days (and confessed why I could pull out that verse), he began to smile. Another worker at Prairie View had shared with him that she was reading the Bible in 90 days. That worker even shared a “Year of the Bible” bookmark with him and placed it in a Bible that he had been given. The bookmark was placed inadvertently on the page with Psalm 63. That was when he first read verse 6, “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.” He shared that he had been distressed the night he opened the Bible and that verse had spoken to his need. I was struck by one of the lines in his song, “It took me 35 years to wake up.” God brings us into relationship in interesting ways!
–submitted by Karen K. Andres, chaplain
Prairie View in Newton, KS
WDC SEEDS is a weekly communication for WDC churches announcing what’s new and good in Western District Conference. Please forward this to congregational members. Pastors are invited to submit one paragraph summaries of kingdom initiatives that will encourage the networking of best practices across Western District Conference. WDC Seeds is also available at: www.mennowdc.org.
Western District Conference
2517 North Main, PO Box 306
North Newton KS 67117
316-283-6300; FAX: 316-283-0620
Email: wdc@mennowdc.org
Website: www.mennowdc.org