There is an interesting thing happening in the life of our church family right now. February is a good month to address it. It's a phenomenon that has to do with reconciliation of a supernatural kind. Reconciliation is ALWAYS supernatural, but there's something especially poignant here.

Don't worry. I'm not going off the proverbial "deep end", nor am I trying to make something out of something that isn't. I think we are actually in the midst of an extraordinary story, or stories, of church as Jesus would have it!

I recently shared about the reconciliation of a relationship that occurred last Fall for Colleen and me. I don't have room to go into the entire story here. In short, after a years-long friendship that had ended painfully four years ago, Pete & Kathy Vigliotta came back into our lives.

We didn't reconcile out of a desire for the Vigliotta's to come back to NewHeart. They didn't reconcile out of a desire to come back either. The circumstances that God used to bring the reconciliation about are vast and deep and very personal.

However, as our friendship experienced its first couple months of re-growth, it "just so happened" (no coincidence to the Lord, mind you) that Pete & Kathy were seeking the Lord for a right church home. It began to stir in them that they were to return to NewHeart.

On the last Sunday of October, they came back for the first time. Not knowing what it would be like, they immediately felt right at home, and you as a Church responded with open arms and warm hearts when you saw them. They were strongly convinced this was the right move.

They did not know (no one did except for Colleen and I) that the Sunday they came back was my 10 year anniversary as Senior Pastor of NewHeart. This also was no mere coincidence! With all we've been through the last number of years with my burnout and recovery experience, it was a huge thing to welcome someone back rather than saying another painful farewell.

We (the Vigliotta's and I) are talking and praying now about how to share their story with the church on a Sunday morning sometime soon. It's just so profound!

Along with them came their daughter, Sierra, and their youngest son, Richard, both of whom are alumni of my Youth Ministry days here at NewHeart. Sierra is now married with three kids and has shared her deep desire to both continue walking with God and to have her kids raised in God's ways with this church family. THAT'S deep!

I've shared on many occasions my long-time desire to be in one place of ministry for a long time and how gratifying it is to watch families grow. We have a handful of families here now that include other Youth Group alumni that have faithfully served God with us the last many years. Jenifer Milbauer, Luke & Sarah Pedersen and Matt Jones are among them.

And now, as this relationship has reconciled, other Youth Group alumni who are now grown, some of them married and with their own kids, are re-discovering their own desire to grow in their relationship with Jesus and have their families do the same .... with the same church family they were raised in!

I talk to alot of Pastors. We all experience the pain of people leaving our churches. That's nothing new. Some people and families leave painfully. Every Pastor has to accept this as a part of what we do.

Let me tell you what IS new ... the experience of people who have left painfully returning back as they've allowed God to continue to lead them in their journey. THAT, my friends, is a STORY OF LOVE! And there are many of them being birthed among us in this "season of harvest".

                                                                                                Only God!