He Heard Me....

Occassionally,  I attend Friday night church services at Highland Baptist.  This is a church service unlike any other that I have attended at other churches because the Friday night church congregation consists mainly of men who are being bussed to the church as part of their rehab from The Wayside Christian Mission.  The Wayside Christian Mission serves our community as a homeless shelter and offers rehabilitation to those suffering from drug and alcohol problems.  You would have to be blind to not notice them as they come through the doors...many of them look rough around the edges and can be seen standing around the side of the church both before and after service smoking cigarettes and shooting the breeze.  They all come in and sit on the right hand side of the church.  It would be easy to judge these people but once you hear their testimonies and see the transformation taking place in their lives, you quickly remember the old saying about not judging a book by its cover.
I always enjoy going to Friday church because it makes me take 45 minutes of my day to reflect on real life problems and reminds me that the best way to deal with struggles is to turn them over to God. 
Recently, Greg and I have become more and more fond of this church.  I enjoy listening to the pastor and the choir really does sound near angelic.  We've spent so many nights talking about spirituality and the importance of raising our daughter to know God.  For the past few weekends, we've started attending Sunday morning church service but we always leave right afterwards and have not attended a Sunday school class.  We don't know where to go and we don't know anyone in the church well enough to speak up and ask which class we would best fit into. 
Tonight, at Friday church, I was surprised to see that the service was being led by the Youth group.  While it was nice to see the youth involved in the service, in my mind I was complaining to myself that I really wanted to hear the pastor's sermon.  I made up my mind that attending tonight wasn't going to feed my soul the way I hoped it would.  I was wrong.
At the end of service as the pastor was dismissing us, he said he wanted to remind everyone of a new Sunday school class that will begin this Sunday.  My ears perked up.  The class is called Highlights and he said that it will serve those people who are new to the church and who want to learn more about becoming a member.  God truly has heard my prayers.  I've been soul searching for awhile now about my faith and my beliefs.  I prayed and God led me to Highland Baptist.  Highland Baptist...the sign out front says it is a "Thinking, Feeling, Healing Church."  I have to say I agree and for the first time that I can remember, I can hardly wait until Sunday school.