Monday Bible Study Last Night Revisited

11:50P Tuesday 062210

Last night was our regular weekly Monday Bible Study at E.L.'s house this week. I did my usual chauffeuring, with various confirmation calls to people I pick up, "Are you going?" and then estimating time I'd be there. Last night we had unusual drama before getting to the Bible Study. S.R. wants to return some bad shrimp to the grocery store, hadn't decided it was really bad until after he ate it for dinner. Great. He gets in the car with H.R. who is rolling her eyes at all the complaints before I got there which have been erased the minute he cheerfully steps into the car. E.S. has locked her house keys inside her home, still in her work clothes but answering her cell, happy to have time while we re-deliver the shrimp from whence it came before we pick her up. We end up only ten minutes late.

Four others, Pastor I.S., E.L., U.M. and E.T. are already there before us four, chomping away before we get there on what turns out to be delicious fried eggplant, homemade samosas, with fresh mint and hot red pepper "salsa" to eat with either or both. Cups of tea are passed around. I have brought my own iced tea. We have another twenty minutes "fellowship" (eating and talking) before Pastor I.S. starts the actual Study with a prayer.

We are studying from a book on Prayer written by Kenneth Hagin and do very well last night. Pastor I.S. starts the reading and then we each read a paragraph from the study booklet round the room. We always have many interruptions for questions, definitions, interpretations and discussion, but last night we read our full complement of eight paragraphs for eight participants. We're on page 118 when we quit last night after an hour and ten minutes out of maybe 200 pages in the book. We'll get there, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

We then discuss prayer requests for twenty minutes, lots of discussion there, sharing problems of our relatives, our neighbors, our pastors, our own issues, a bunch of caring people in that room loving others as we have been taught to love by Jesus Christ.

And then ten minutes of prayers. E.S. starts the prayers, and as she prays the room opens up, lots of verbal action from others at the table, everybody is praying outloud their own separate prayers, prayers in agreement, noisy, E.S. breaks into song in part, her own creation, winds down. I think she says Amen, but then continues with more! Pastor I.S. finishes with his own prayer and we all feel wiped out and elated as applause and a cheer goes up from us.

E.L. warms up the remaining eggplant and samosas, we finish them, then she passes the ten individually wrapped cake slices that I brought from nephew R.S.'s cake that he brought to me Sunday night, yellow bundt loaded with chocolate chips and chocolate glaze. A couple of pieces were eaten right then, but the rest went home with everybody for today's lunch.

So that was the Bible Study Monday night.

Today I get an early email from E.L. Subject is "Upper Room" and she writes: "Thank God for a beautiful morning, we all had such a blessing last night. It was like the upper room, so filling like the free spirit and the Holy Spirit at the same time. God has blessed us with our group. We are all different but the same root, such as leaves, branches, buds, flowers, etc. I thank you all. Have a good day."

Of course, I had to respond to that: "Hi, E.L., Such a beautiful 'morning after' message! I loved ur phrase 'like the free spirit and the Holy Spirit at the same time.' I went home last night and played praise and worship songs on my keyboard for well over an hour, transposing keys one after another, things I never dreamed I could do (and most likely can't repeat!) I wonder what God is going to do with us all! Are you ready?? Luv"

E.L. emails response: "Yes I am! Guess what." And she writes details of someone we prayed for last night at her request which we all know was an answer to our prayer last night. "Prayer Prayer," she writes, "Thanks for the cake I am eating while sending the e-mail."

S.R. calls. I guess he's over the threat from the bad shrimp. He's watching a "boring" (his term, not mine) soccer game, calls to kill the time. I read E.L.'s email to him. He quits talking. "Are you there?" I ask. "Yes," he responds. I hear the game in the background, but hear nothing from his mouth. I say after a ten second delay, "It sounds like you're watching the game." He says, "What?" I repeat. He says, "They're going into scoring mode." I say, "Hang up." And so we do. I think the Bible Study is going into scoring mode, too.