"Eldering our way to the eldership"

Roberto my brother and I got together for prayer on Wednesday morning from 6 am to 7:30 am. It was very meaningful to go over the whole list of 126 members and 12 people who are being contacted. 30 people didn't come. Some of these do not come regularly. 18 people had submitted requests for prayers on their behalf. We kept remembering Matthew 9:36-38:

Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

The workers are really few. The task is greater than us. We truly need to depend on the Lord.

Roberto and I handed the prayer request slips back to them who had submitted, along with a note of encouragement, a Scripture, and reassurance that their request had been presented to the Lord, and asking them to let us know of changes of their situation. For some of them this was very encouraging, and really lifted their spirits up. For us, it was a privilege, and we felt greatly encouraged by the fact that we are doing this pastoring work. When I was commenting to one of the US people visiting Barva about this, I told him that "we are eldering our way to the eldership."