“And We Come To Worship…”

Week-in and week-out, Christians from different denominations troop to their local churches to attend a service (or mass) every Sunday (or Saturday). I wonder if the kids being tagged understood the reason for the religious compliance. I still remember being brought by my mom to join her in their church gatherings. Most often, I got bored! And whenever I to entertain myself, I get a "pinch" from my loving mom.

Now its my turn to tag my kids along… No they don't get pinched by my better half because our local church has a customized program for kids, depending on their age and grade level. Live puppet shows, Veggie Tales and Chronicles of Narnia DVD's are being used with games and activities that will teach them the purpose of their existence– to Worship Jesus. So while we are in the main auditorium, our kids are in the children's church having fun.

While we imbibe Christian values to our family, our objective is to bring them closer to Jesus, to know the Lord in a personal level. Jesus is alive and my wife and I knew it for a fact. However, our kids are growing up experiencing only the benefits brought by our decision to accept Jesus in our hearts 17 years ago. The "born again" experience not only transformed our lives, but it brought also the blessings of Abraham to our family. I am praying that one day, my children will have their own encounter with God to compliment the miracle stories that we share with them. My children, themselves, are miracles. Their names stand for what God has done for us.

Elhav is my son and firstborn. His name is taken from two Hebrew words, "El" is from the name of God, i.e. El Shaddai, and "Hav" a Hebrew word for "gift". Elhav’s name meant "gift" of God. He indeed is a gift because he was conceived 5 years after our marriage (and useless scientific interventions). But prayer and faith did the trick– faith edifying spiritual experiences like visions (I saw my son in a vision during worship two years before he was conceived) and word of knowledge (a year before my son was conceived, someone approached me after a speaking engagement in a Christian church, in a "distant" place where nobody knows my family nor my wife's, just to say that I will have a son the following year) kept me believing. My friends are amazed of my firm belief that my first born will be a boy even though I have not seen the ultra sound reading at that time.

When Elhav was born, I am already happy, needless to say satisfied. But in another vision, I saw again my family– and this time, the Lord introduced me to my daughter". I kept it to myself for a while assuming I may just be day dreamin’. Besides, my son is less than a year old at that time. A few months after his first birthday, my daughter was conceived. My daughter's name is Elgene; Gene is a variant of Genesis, the first book of the bible. Elgene’s name meant God of beginnings. My daughter is a reminder that our God is a God that gives fresh start– like the "born again experience". God places a person's worth not in his/her past, specially the dark past. Instead, He embraces our future… our potential. God is "expert" in turning 'mourning into dancing’.

By the way, I forgot to mention that my wife has a retroverted uterus. That partly explains the difficulty of conceiving a child… but based on our experience, nothing is impossible with God.

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