in the midst of fear
Fear seems to be a common theme from those who have
shared their experiences with Neighborhood Bible stud-
ies! "How will my neighbors respond when I invite them
to come to my house for a Bible study? Will they think I'm
weird, crazy, fanatical? What if I don't know how to answer
their questions? WHAT IF NO ONE COMES?" On and on the
doubts and fears go. Well, my experience has been no dif-
ferent! From the time two years ago when the vision was
shared for us to go out into our neighborhoods, workplaces
and families like streams in the desert, sharing the Living
Water, I knew that God wanted me to start a study in my
neighborhood! But, all those fears I mentioned kept on rear-
ing their ugly heads in my heart and mind!
I prayed about it some, but I'm sad to say, I set out to make
sure that I was far too busy to do it! I even signed up for
the Revelation study in Bible Study Fellowship to make sure
my time was filled! Well, our patient, loving Heavenly Father
was not going to let me off the hook! One Sunday early in
October 2015, Pastor Jim said "What assignment has God
given you that you have not followed through on?" That
was an arrow straight to my heart! I knew God was chal-
lenging me on my disobedience about stepping out and
inviting my neighbors to join me. I confessed my sin, called
my BSF small group leader that afternoon and told her that
I wouldn't be coming back, went through my neighborhood
and prayed and then sat down and made out the invitations
for the Bible Study for my neighbors.
Our neighborhood, like many in the area, is very diverse. As I
distributed the invitations, I prayed that the ladies that God
wanted to come would respond.... three women excitedly
said they would be there! I must admit that I was a little
disappointed that these three were already believers, but
reminded myself of the fact that I had asked God to send
those that He wanted to be there!
On the first Tuesday night, I got a call from another neigh-
bor 20 minutes before we were to start saying that she
would like to come if it wasn't too late to RSVP! So, we
started with four neighbors and myself... a Taiwanese lady,
a Chinese lady, a Filipino lady and then one lady and myself
who were just "regulars!" After the first night, the Filipino
lady called and asked if she could invite two other Filipi-
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no ladies. Of course! And so our very international-flavored
Neighborhood Bible Study (NBS2GO) began and my heart
overflowed with joy at the privilege of being involved.
Three weeks after we started, my Chinese neighbor said
with tears, "Thank you so much for doing this! I knew that
you & John had a Bible study here every other Sunday night
and I thought about walking over and asking if I could come
several times. And then you invited me to join this neigh-
borhood study with ladies and I'm so grateful to be here!"
Oh, what if I had not done it! Thank you Lord that You con-
tinued to push me to step out in faith!
In January of last year, we decided to have an internation-
al dinner during Lunar New Year with the ladies and their
families. Each one brought her husband and children, along
with one of their favorite ethnic dishes. We had a great time
and as is so often the case, the men ended up talking at
the kitchen table and the ladies at the dining room table,
with children going between the two. It was a wonderful
evening with delicious foods and sweet fellowship! As ev-
eryone was leaving, we heard several of them say to each
other, "I'm so glad we've finally gotten to know each other!"
We met until mid-May and then took the summer off. John
and I hosted two ice cream socials in August and invited
our neighbors to join us, praying for opportunities to get to
know them and that more of the ladies would decide to join
the study when we restarted in September.
Within the group there have been job struggles, family
struggles and health issues that have been opportunities
for us to pray for one another. Right before Christmas,
my neighbor's husband was diagnosed with stage 4 lung
cancer that had metastasized to his brain. She sent me an
email again this past week expressing how much it means
to her to have this group of women to share with and know
that they are praying for her as they go through the treat-
ment process.
It has been a joy for me to see how another neighbor is
growing in her faith and reaching out to others. She and her
husband recently invited six volunteer teachers from China
over to their house for dinner. They are here teaching in a