Almost 3 years ago I said YES to serve as Lay Director on GB 192. To me every opportunity to serve in any capacity The Lord & this banquet community is an honor. Due to circumstances in the USA & around the world that brought so many things in our culture to a standstill—The Great Banquet Community here & #192 waited with anticipation, expectancy, frustration & constant challenge to our patience at a red light—for it to GO green. None of us expected the LONG delay to last as LONG as it did. But God is always working. There were constant challenges with each weekend date approaching to fill 25% of team spots as individual circumstances demanded priority over being able to serve plus the unknown question over these years that was before us all—would we have it this time? Then with a green light & a shout of Hallelujah it was GO TIME for The Great Banquet & fall teams.
But God…for the 2/3 of team that maintained staying power throughout this red light time frame, plus the newly added 1/3 it was amazing to see how the giftings & abilities of each person & their skillset was divinely appointed for such a time as this. (This was confirmed daily on the wknd as guest after guest @ each table shared their heart issues & testimonies that matched so gracefully the talks/testimonies of team @ each table) While we had paper instructions for everything, we were all stretched to remember the how to details of the little things that we were familiar seeing modeled before us on each wknd. We felt like pioneers forging our way @ times, other times we felt like bears waking from hibernation, & by the end of 9 mtgs & a glorious filled wknd, we felt like faith filled water walkers responding to the Lord’s beckoning ahead of us to keep our eyes on Him & keep going forward.
As lay director, the perspective is different. I saw weekly the dedication & hard work of each team member. The double duties so many stepped up to help in where even in a new “song choir” it turned out to be such a blessing & anointed worship—it was as if they had been doing it for years. We were a team, praying in agreement, we bathed one another & the guests in prayer who would attend. We worshipped deeply & passionately & His presence filled the house each week. We overcame sickness, we comforted those among us who had lost loved ones, we gave in every way there was a need & encouraged & cheered one another on. To hear each guest on the 1st night & constantly thru the wknd say–“I am so hungry to experience The Holy Spirit, I have heard that I will experience The Holy Spirit here, I am hungry for his presence, I have come to leave here free”, all these expressions were answers to our prayers. To witness the Holy Spirit meet each one with His grace right where they were with all that he is left me absolutely amazed & all of us I think & was an answer to our prayers. Prayer & worship ushered in His presence & Kept the freedom gate open through this banquet journey. God honored His word. He promised that those who hunger & thirst for righteousness shall be filled. He carried away all we gave Him. He filled to overflowing, & He gave beauty for ashes. I was in a store yesterday (which is almost a month since our wknd) & a man I don’t even know came up to me & began talking. He said the people I helped sponsor on your wknd are still glowing & it’s obvious they have experienced something wonderful & I thought you would want to know that. To which I say—Lord we lay the crowns of victory at your feet.
I am thankful for the grace God equipped me with for this Gb 192, for a team that stood shoulder to shoulder & poured out love & truth. for our kitchen crew stepping into greater spiritual freedom as mighty prayer warriors on the wall, for an agape crew that went above & beyond & did it with a smile, for the vulnerability of all who shared testimonies in their talks for table leaders who allowed Holy Spirit to flow & touch hearts from the start, for 2 assistants that called me the noisiest roommate they’d ever had, for a tech rover who is the best pinch hitter & geek a team could have, for the S.D. leaders who carried His presence well, for all the guests & their personal experiences they will have forever, for all the people who served in every area, brought snacks, prayed, for The Great Banquet Community & how God uses this ministry & his people to touch & change lives & do in such short time what can take years to accomplish on one’s own, & thankful that we as “soldiers in the army of God “, when we left—the enemy’s blood was on the field & God won the battle. God gets all the glory. De Colores, Sherry Hobgood