February 2012 GLEANINGS Newsletter

From Virginia's Desk

At the WWCCR office, we have meetings with our many committees regularly.  Most of them meet once a month for prayer and planning.  One of the comments that is often made (tongue in cheek) is that we need to expand the office – build a second floor, build underground parking, remove all the interior walls!  The happy reality is we are bursting at the seams - what a problem to have!

The School of Healing Prayer that began in January had to find a larger facility because there were too many students and team members to fit in our building.  Thanks be to God, we were able to rent space at a nearby Episcopal church for all but one of the Saturdays that the School is meeting this year.

There have been several times in this past year when we had two meetings going on at the same time, or we had a healing prayer team praying in the chapel while a meeting was going on in our large meeting room.

In addition to the activities at the WWCCR office, there is a waiting list for the Women’s Retreat because all available spaces are filled, and the students for our Hispanic Instituto are filling a parish hall.

But the wonder of all this is not so much about the space as it is about the depth of commitment and quantity of time and energy that the volunteers are investing.  This “bursting at the seams” is a happy symptom of the good work that God is accomplishing through the people and programs of WWCCR.

All this activity also requires additional infrastructure.  It takes a lot of time and skill to communicate with many volunteers, to prepare the promotion for many events, to process registrations and requests for information, to keep our database current and many other such tasks.

Every day we are aware of our inadequacy to do this work, and every day we are aware of God’s amazing grace in accomplishing His purpose.  If you asked me how we get it all done, I would answer, “I don’t know.”  If you had told me five years ago that we would have so many programs and activities going on, I would have said, “Impossible.”  But God isn’t in the habit of asking us what we think or how much we can do.  Rather, God provides what we need in the moment and reveals His strength and His power by accomplishing the impossible through our weakness.

At this time in the history of WWCCR, we are witnessing dramatic growth.  I firmly believe it is for the sake of the new evangelization that this is happening.  It is through the grace of God and the obedience and love of many individuals and groups that God is fulfilling his purpose in our day.

And this is not only for WWCCR, but for all in Charismatic Renewal throughout the world, and indeed for the whole Church.  Please intentionally participate in the Day of Prayer and Fasting on Feb 17 (see p. 4).  In addition, please continue in some form of intentional prayer and fasting throughout Lent for the people and programs of WWCCR.  We cannot begin to know how important our intercession is in the plan of God!