many people have had some very nice things to say about tapestry, our faith, and the manner in which we love each other. for example, i once hired an atheist to come in and critique one of our worship gatherings. i wanted to see how she was received, experienced, and understood from one of our gatherings. she said some incredible things about the group that i get to lead. there have been others with varying beliefs that have come in and said very positive things about the group, both when and when i had not asked them about their experience. YET the above facebook status is my favorite critiques of tapestry thus far. it comes from the status of azza, a muslim citizen of egypt, a fullbright scholar, and the uwsp arabic instructor for the past year. she started coming to tapestry about 6 months before she had to leave the states. everyone who makes up tapestry immediately started loving on her – we all know how it feels to be a stranger in the land. she ate supper at many of our homes, went to movies with us, hung out with us, and even went camping with one of the families that make up tapestry. basically she was made to feel welcome and then shown a GOD WHO loves her by a group of people loving her.
she didn’t leave wisconsin as a follower of JESUS but she did leave knowing that a group of followers of JESUS loves her passionately because of their love for JESUS. so passionately that she decided to use her facebook status to tell other people to give tapestry a try. i like it when people do that.