Lo, no fancy churches nor no temple,
but the private houses, though, were packed,
rituals were not there, it all was simple,
but the Spirit´s power never lacked!

(from an old Norwegian song, translated)

At an old guesthouse on the country side in Western Denmark, run by an outstanding lady, Elin (76), we met with a lovable group of elderly believers on Friday, May 25th, where it was my privilege to share with them the word of God from “the Romans”  (first half of chapter 1) in the afternoon, and in the evening we spoke on gospel witnessing – what that is about illustrated by practical examples.

A wonderful good and loving Spirit prevailed, so it was not so difficult to open the Bible with these local saints, and it was a blessing, too, to sit down with several of them and have them share with me their testimony, their sorrows and joys, their spiritual exercises, visions, their yearnings for spiritual reality, etc.  They gave me so much.    Indeed, we were “comforted together….by the mutual faith.”  (Rom. 1:12).

Speaking of witnessing I just got an encouraging e-mail yesterday from a retired pastor friend in Clovis, CA, who had the opportunity of following up on one my witnessing contacts just a few minutes from the house of our loved ones.  He tells me that he was so kindly welcomed in a married couple´s house where I´d already been three times just before we flew back to Denmark.  What a joy to experience “the fellowship in the gospel” (Phil. 1:5) on both sides of the pond!

The rooms of the guest house were all booked up, but in the yard there was an old house trailer waiting for me and my wife, Sophie, so we spent the night there.  It was rather funny.  Every time we moved a little in our beds, the whole trailer was rocking like a boat on the water.  We found it very amusing.

Early Saturday morning I went out for a long walk with a heart of thanksgiving and worship.  The morning sun was full of a big gracious smile and the birds were singing their happy songs of praise.  I went to another small village surrounded by farming country and close to an old church from the 12th century I sat down for a while in the quiet presence of God.

At the breakfast table at 8:30 am there were again precious friends gathered and I had the privilege to sit next to a visiting Christian couple from Toronto, Canada.  They were mostly under my wings as my elderly friends didn´t speak English.  They speak their own interesting dialect, however, typical for that part of the country, so that was a treat too.  I just love dialects!

By way of encouragement I said in parting to our hostess in particular that she had really for many years been a “female Gaius” hosting God´s people so wonderfully as the real  Gaius did with the church in Corinth  (see Rom. 16:23), - a challenge to all of us that we may use our homes likewise and become small “Gaiuses”!

Praise the Lord for every obscure place in our beautiful Danish kingdom, now visited by gross immorality, where it´s still possible to breathe freely in the Spirit of simple, but powerful fellowship.  As we often say, the first Christians met in the homes and they will probably also end up there!

May 27, 2012 - jn