in these last hours....

Hours 17-20
I couldn’t believe it was the last Alpha Course. It felt like a few weeks ago everything started. In fact, before I got there I had forgotten that this was the last one so I got a little said when they told us. Also, the people I had met and worked with were people I loved getting to know and since we would be traveling a lot on weekends I knew I wouldn’t really get to see them much more.

Anyway, it was a fun night; we set up and cleaned up as usual. We served the incredible dinner (I can’t remember what it was called) and served some yummy chocolate cake for dessert. I refilled water jugs, and did some dishes. We were pretty good, by now, at efficiency. I got the system down to where most everything I could get off the table, with the exception of the drinks, I got off before the speaker started, so as to have to do less dishes afterward.

It was really neat because at the end of the night they opened the floor for people to speak. This one man stood up and said this is his second Alpha Course to do and it has meant so much more to him. He was so thankful to have questions answered and loved getting to know the people, both members and non-members, at St. Aldates church. He said he enjoyed the retreat. He said though he is not quite there (to Christianity) he is thankful for what he has learned and is planning on the continued search. This was so cool for me to hear because it illustrated to me that that is our purpose as Christians; not to make other Christians, but to explain as best we can and share the love of Christ. From then on, God takes care of their hearts.

It was also neat to see what I have had the opportunity to be a part of. It is hard to see how God is using you, when all you do is behind the scenes stuff and I’m not really getting to interact much with the people. But it was cool to see that the jobs and sometimes seemingly menial tasks were all for a purpose and they truly had significance.

At the end of the night, they formally thanked us for the help by giving us a huge tin of Cadbury chocolate and thanking us for coming. Also, the vicar came up to me and thanked me personally for being consistent in coming to help with Alpha and he had made sure almost every week to come tell us how thankful he was for us. I’m sad it’s over. Hopefully some day I’ll come back here and visit and who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be back long enough to help out with the Course again.