by Ann Johnstone

Created on: May 16, 2008

We meet at least once a week in our local community. There's no need to bribe our kids to come along. They're nagging us to hurry up or we'll miss out on the fun. Tonight we're getting together in Adam and Sarah's home for a meal followed by group worship, a brief teaching and discussion segment (where we're all encouraged to contribute, so long as it's relevant to the topic!) and finally we get to pray for one another. Often something will happen that changes our plans, but that's the general idea.

The older girls take turns to mind the babies and toddlers in one of the rooms, while the children and teenagers join the adults. At first we thought we should go along with the general trend and let the teens have their own space. After all, we live in a world that elevates teen culture and youth in general at the expense of the 'oldies' (read 'those over 30'). Then we thought, let's be radical and see what happens when we all get together as one large family, regardless of age.

We've certainly had some interesting moments. After all, kids can be uncomfortably honest at times! Just a couple of weeks ago our faces went bright red when our two, aged twelve and nine respectively, decided to 'share' with the group about the huge argument we'd had that week.

"You should have heard Dad yelling", Emma had piped up. "Just because I told my friends on Facebook about what Uncle John had done when he ..." I'd interrupted just in time. No matter how close we were as a church, now was neither the time nor the place for that sort of disclosure! Yet even that night had ended on a good note, with several people encouraging us and praying for the family.

Later that night We got home tired but really excited as we thought about what had happened over the past four hours. Just as well there was no school tomorrow! Caleb, our nine-year-old, had fallen asleep in the car and had to be half-carried to bed by his dad.

The evening had started off quite normally' (if that word could ever describe the nature of our get-togethers). Everyone had brought along a dish to contribute to what turned out to be a great meal. Then we gathered around the open fireplace and Sue brought out her guitar. She strummed a few chords and that was our cue for getting into a time of worship.

We really felt the presence of Jesus among us. I looked across at Jan, who had tears rolling down her cheeks. I went over to sit beside her and whispered, "Do you want us to pray for you?" She confided to me, between sobs, that

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