I am Stanley Wayne and I live in New York state an hour north of the big city by that name with Suzanne (wife) and four kids. We are house church/ small group / community oriented Christians who earn our living as Christian private practice lawyers out of our home and small office. Our passion is COMMUNITY -- Christians living around a 'sabbath's day's journey' (remember that phrase!) from each other and having a common house to hang out in rather than just having worship services. We are working toward this ideal of Christian living. I used to belong to an old Jesus Movement group in the old days called Shiloh.
In this day and age when all of us have such RICH experiences with a variety of "church" and denominational experiences it would be presumptuous to introduce mine as special but mine and my wife's are just as different and variegated as yours may be. I was raised by Australian Plymouth Brethren missionaries to Japan. They subsequently became charismatic and they now have an independent Japanese expatriate church in Sydney. I still idealize the Plymouth Brethren lay leadership and bible knowlege and plural elder ideal. I serve as a interim pastor of a traditional Presbyterian church here in New York (I have some theological training and experience from a past life :0) which we are trying to extricated from an awfully liberal denomination. Meanwhile we really belong to a non traditional evangelical Presbyterian church called Goodwill which started around 1730!
Suzi was raised as a secular Catholic but became born again in High School.
We lost two kids in a tragic house fire at 1:30 in the morning one year ago so the latest addition is a real blessing.
Hope to get to know you in Cyberspace and look forward to finding out if any of you are near us.
It was nice to read your post and to hear your interest in Community. That is such a heartcry from many people we know! But unfortunately, there seem to be few who are found in such a situation as to experience it. That desire to be "builded together" into more than a pile of gathered stones lives in our hearts too. It has been in our prayers to the Lord to know who He wants us to be in mutual ministry with and to. In many ways we laid down having a strong connection with a large group of people and have learned to find a measure of contentment in knowing that we are in fellowship with the people the Lord has "given" to us. Recently we have been blessed to be able to choose a new location to live in, and the Lord opened the doors for us to live next door to our dearest Christian friends. We have been having wonderful fellowship and receiving much spiritual encouragement and support.
My heart goes out to you to hear that you had the tragic loss last year. Having gone through a loss myself, I have also had an extra lesson in life on the value of each precious child the Lord gives. You mention that you have had another baby since then - I trust you feel the love of the Lord, the blessing of continued healing, and the return of joy to your lives as you share these new hugs and smiles. (Should you wish to be in further communication about this experience, I'm available for e-mail through the directory listing.) Thank the Lord for His lovingkindness and mercy toward us!
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