05/01/2024
It's been a couple weeks sense I last continued the story of Hesed House taking shape. I sat with my old youth pastor just a day after the experience I wrote about last time. We talked about his church and house church planting experience, what went well and what he'd do differently, which was all very helpful and formative for Hesed House. He coaches church planters and is somewhat the guru for planters around Cincinnati. He told me tends to tell people not to plant because of the challenges and the skillset it takes. Its those things which have kept us away for a while. Then he looked at me hesitantly wanting to say something he felt the Lord was laying on his heart but not wanting to go too far, much like two of my previous encounters. He said, "Ben, you need to do this. You might even be disobedient if you don't."
Those words were so encouraging. In fact, later that evening I told Judith I was growing so confident in where God is leading us and so excited about it that even in the perfect scenario to get back to what I thought was my dream job with healed relationships and a great future, I'd welcome the reconciliation and, instead of taking the comfortable job, ask to partner in Hesed House.
I've been focused on insurance licensing and getting Dad's house ready for sale so we can gain some income, so moving forward with Hesed House has been delayed a bit, also waiting on some paperwork to process. In the mean time I've been getting a better idea of what the phrase Dawn Whitestone at Deeper Walk International said to me recently, "rest into it," really means and how it works. I've been pretty exhausted and am seeing the opportunity for deep rest coming before long.
For those praying for Hesed House, my big prayers now are for people to get interested. We will need a board of directors to get paperwork wrapped up and then those who are interested in leading house churches.
