Blessing/Sending

New Horizon sent me off yesterday. They prayed for me in each service. It was one of those tiny extraordinary moments in a series of ordinary ones. I mention it because there's a bit of an interesting story behind that. But first of all, I should probably explain that I have an abnormal fear of middle-aged male pastors. I'm not sure why, but I do. The fact that Roger (the New Horizon pastor) is probably the most un-scary guy in the whole world makes little difference.

When Roger found out that I was planning to go to Korea, he told me to be sure to not escape until my church family had prayed for me. Well, I thought it sounded like a good idea, even if I'm not usually too crazy about a lot of attention. But as it came closer to the time to leave, I felt too awkward to talk to him about it. Since my departure was delayed, I figured he'd probably forget about it. Margaret kept pestering me, saying that it was an important thing, but I decided I might as well just fly under the radar and quietly leave the country.

Well, apparently, Someone had other plans. On May 11, Roger cornered me as I was headed into church. I suppose I was rather alarmed (given my pastor phobia and all). He asked me to speak to the church about what I was doing and why. (The thought of a big crowd alarmed me a bit, too!) But I couldn't say "no," and that's how I ended up in front of the congregation on Sunday. It was amazing to see the amount of people--some who were total strangers--who were willing to offer me prayer support and encouragement. I suppose I considered it a bit of a "bear hug" moment from God's family. And that was good. Oh, and it has helped me to get rid of some of my pastor fear, too. :)