it takes a village...

Last night David and I went to our first small group Bible study at the church we have been attending. We happened to sit near the couple who leads the study on one of our first Sundays, and they invited us to check it out. So last night we did. As I stood to the side of the living room and kitchen area and took the setting in, I was struck by the idea of community. There are five couples (plus us), and most of them have kids, ranging from baby/toddler to young elementary. This group joins together for a meal, and then then starts their prayer and Bible study time about an hour into the evening. So during the preparation and readying of dinner, it was pure pandemonium, in the most joyful sense of the word. Kids wandering from room to room, a little boy dragging a dog leash behind him, chewing on the metal piece, a little girl clinging tightly to her mother, another boy crying big alligator tears being comforted by two of the gals, someone holding out a sippy cup insisting on more water, dings and bells of children's toys singing from the next room. I loved it! It was clear that all the kids were comfortable in this home that they gather in twice a month, and that all the couples knew the children. This is what community should be about, coming together to break bread and share in one anothers' lives, even down to the needs of the kids.