“I'm So Happy in this Lovely Place”, Patrice Cleem

There are two words to express my gratitude to the Lord Jesus for bringing me to meet with the local church. There is a line of a hymn that says, “I'm so happy in this lovely place in the garden growing in His grace.” I'm so happy! I'm so thankful!

I was privileged to be born into a family that was already meeting with the local church several years before I was born. I realize now that as a child the church life was like a massive umbrella guarding and sheltering me from so much evil in the world and the unnecessary attacks from Satan, who tries desperately to steal children's innocence. As a child I also gained a large deposit of truth from the Bible by going to children's meetings and young people's retreats.

My freshman year I went to college in Missouri. Because there was not a local church meeting in the locality I lived in, I went to a few different denominations and met with Christian groups on campus. I met many dear Christians who loved the Lord, but the services were shallow and not as living as the meetings of the local church. Only one person was designated to speak and no one else was able to speak their enjoyment of Christ. I literally felt like I was in the Dead Sea, where there was some inflow from the Lord, but no outflow of life from the members. Within me I had a deep thirsting and longing to be with the living and functioning members of His Body. Eventually I was so empty and dead I began to cry out to the Lord, “Lord, I want to be with You. I want to be where there is life and a supply to grow and not to remain the same.”

After a short time the Lord arranged everything for me to move to Oklahoma where there was a local church meeting in that city. I felt the Lord brought me back home! After attending the meetings I was overjoyed. My spirit was rejoicing. After such a long time I had the deep impression that the local church is the most lovely place. It is just a garden where the Lord's children can grow. There is so much life, so much assurance of peace within me that the local church is the best place because it encourages me to love the Lord more and helps me to be filled with Christ's life.