Calvary Chapel Westminster

I went to CCW again this morning. Today I didn't have any appointments right after church, and I got there early, so I was able to hang around and talk today.

Kelly had been emailing with a woman named Esther, so I decided that I would ask for her. The first guy I talked to said,"There's lots of Esthers here." When I explained that my wife had emailed someone at the church about us coming over, he said,"Oh that's probably the pastor's daughter." That sounded about right, so then I went into the main hall where the band was warming up and doing a sound check. Alwyn Wall was sitting at the mixing board eq'ing the guitars and so I went and sat down next to him and waited for a break in the sound to ask him about Esther. We had a nice chat and talked about church and the sermon I had heard two weeks earlier (see my earlier post). He knew about me from Esther and indeed it was his daughter that Kelly had been emailing. He said, "She should be here somewhere..." but then it was time to start, so he went up on stage to play.

A nice woman, named Agnes, sat down to record the music while the band played and we worshipped. After the music, she moved over to the other side of me and one of the guitarists came and sat down to record the sermon.

Alwyn started 2 Peter today, and only got about 6 words into it. That's my kind of teaching! "Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle" was as far as he got. There's a lot there in the introduction. "Simon" means "shifting sand" and "Peter" means "Rock". So he's starting out saying where he's come from and where he's been brought to. "Bondservant" is one who is a slave by choice. If you couldn't pay your debt, you could become a slave or servant of the person you owe the debt to for 6 years. Then after that, if you so chose, you could become a bondservant and be that master's slave for the rest of your life. The master would then pierce your ear to a doorpost and put a gold ring in it to signify your status as bondservant. In the same way, we owe a debt of sin to God, and once we become His servants, we realize we love Him and want to be His servants forever, and so become bondservants. "Apostle" is an authoritative representative for Jesus. So in these few words, Peter tells us where he's come from, who he has become, who he belongs to, and by what authority he writes to us. Amazing.

Afterwards, I asked the guy sitting at the sound board next to me if he knows Esther. "Yeah, I know her well. She's my sister." He pointed her out to me and I went over and met Tom, her husband, and the Famous Esther. We had a good chat about where to live and how to find a place. Everyone recommends FindAProperty.com, yet no one has ever actually got a place directly from there. It's more of a way to get an idea about the price of an area, and to find an Agent. It should be called "FindAnAgent.com", but it is what it is. Then Alwyn came over and they all prayed for me, which was wonderful.

I then came back to my room, called my agent and left a message to ask if he could have a copy of my contract printed today so I could pick it up this afternoon. We'll see.

Oh yeah, and there is a connection to Holy Trinity Brompton and CCW. Alwyn went to HTB first and came from there to start CCW. Interesting, no?

Dave