New Friends - Sunday 30 August 2015

How often we Christians "flock together" bearing suspicions of those who are not Baptised into the Christian Faith. Please understand that this is not a criticism, but an observation of our own human reaction to those facets of life we don't understand. It is right and good to meet together in worship, prayer and fellowship and to hear and study God's Word, and to support and encourage each other in the Christian Faith. These are God pleasing activities for Christians, mainly because they develop and nurture the faith we have in our Triune God: A faith that encourages us to love our neighbour as ourselves, regardless of their personal race, colour or creed: A faith that makes us conduits of God's love and forgiveness: A faith that makes increasingly more accepting and increasingly less judgemental!

Today my wife Carol and I were welcomed into the home of Pat and Harry Krishna. Pat and Harry are the parents of our friend Shane, an Electrical Engineer who worked over a long period of time in the mining industry west of Mackay, and spent quite a bit of his down time at the home of our daughter and her husband and family in Mackay. Shane is a good and faithful friend who is so easy to like.

Pat, Harry and Shane Krishna (and family) are Fiji born Indians of the Hindu Faith, and today we were welcome into their home with warm welcomes, embraces and joy that both Carol and I found humbling. We were treated like important members of the family and were fed sumptuously with the most delicious food. In that household today Carol and I experienced more love, warmth and generosity than I can ever recall experiencing among our Christian families. During the conversation we acknowledged our Faith background differences and when Pat said "God Bless you in you life", I was later a little embarrassed that I had no such words of encouragement for them. On leaving, we were genuinely and warmly welcomed back to the Krishna's home, not just to share meals, but to stay with them.

What wonderful people the Krishnas are, and what a outstanding example of love, warmth and acceptance they demonstrated. I thank God for sending Carol and I to the Krishna's house today and I pray that He can provide us the qualities they demonstrated to us today that we as Christians may be empowered to do likewise to other people we may encounter, regardless of their colour, race or creed.

Merv James