Day 2

So far, it has been an interesting night at ZHOP...

At 11:30pm, the night watch meets together to brief for the night. Instead of having different teams brief for each two hour set, all 8 of us (5 from zhop and 3 of us from KC) get together to talk about what our focus will be for the entire six-hour shift. Tonight Tom Lacy, the leader of the night watch throws his bible to me and says, 'Hey Charity, why don't you tell the group what you were telling me earlier? We should focus on that tonight.' This is Tom's way of telling me to make up something on the fly. Suddenly everyone's focus is on me and I start to scroll through all the verses I know. Feigning confidence, I begin to flip through my bible, I think to myself, 'I might as well give them a beholding verse right?' Then it hits me. I confidently state, 'Everyone turn to Revelation 21:5,

Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these things are true and faithful.'

Whew...I throw the bible back to Tom and sit down. Then Tom throws the bible back to me says, 'So what is our prayer focus for intercession tonight?' 'Well, um, since God is a God of restoration, we are going to pray for the restoration of this land (the old PTL property) and the unity of the ministries here on base (morningstar, the cause, mahesh shavda and zhop).' A general wave of head nods pass through the room. Relieved, I toss the bible back to Tom.

Then Tom, immediately throws the bible back to me and says, 'could you give us a sermonette on the importance of meditating on scripture and an example of how you do that practically in your daily life?' I sigh noticeably, but the zhop kids look really interested in my answer so I know that I can't make something up. Sighing again, I tell them about the importance of having the word inside them and confess to them that I am much more of a scholar than a contemplative and tell them that most of the time my meditation on the word involves cross references and commentaries rather that pondering and pontificating. Once again I get the nod from the group and, hoping this is the last time, toss the bible back to Tom. This time he holds on to it and the last order of business is to assign singers for the 12am intercession set. 'Charity, can you be on first response?' Sigh. 'Yep, of course.' I don't sing, but they don't seem to mind, this is one of the first intercession sets they have had in months because they haven't had enough people to run one. It is my last night at ZHOP this week, but it certainly won't be the last ever. It is 'little, rough, and ugly,' but it is beautiful to the Lord and beautiful to me.

So I hope that you are able to 'behold and bless the Lord,' even in the most unlikely of circumstances!