Today we attended church at BCC,
Bethany Community Church in Bellingham, MA. We were greeted warmly at the front
door and were guided by one of the ladies to where “Kings Kids” was taking
place. All of the lead Sunday school workers were in ornate Imperial costumes
from around the 1700’s. Genesis was introduced to a girl her age and we then
proceeded to the main sanctuary.
Teen Challenge had about 16
men at the church that were singing in a choir and telling parts of their life
stories. The most memorable was from a 26 yr old named Caleb who had grown up
in that church, memorizing scripture and attending the Christian school at BCC.
Caleb spoke of how the last
time he had been on stage at the church was when he graduated high school and
how he then fell into the wrong crowd, started smoking marijuana, and then doing
harder drugs. This led him down a path of armed robberies. He had been released
to Teen Challenge but will be sentenced this Thursday regarding the gun
charges. He knows that the sentence he deserves according to the law is 100
years because he committed crimes with a weapon while he was still on
probation. God has already worked in Caleb’s situation and he is now facing 6
years. All this for a young man who is now married with a two yr old and a two
week old.
Caleb apologized to the
church and the pastor for speaking out against them in the past and how the
Pastor’s forgiveness had helped him become the Christian he is today. Taking
responsibility for his actions by turning himself in and finding out that he
had not even been a suspect. The burden of his deeds had become too great to
bear.
We left the service thanking God for his
goodness to us and for His forgiveness for the things that cause struggles in
our lives.
After church we packed up and
drove out of Massachusetts through New
Hampshire and into Vermont. We are staying at a KOA campground that doesn’t
open for the season until next week!
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