Sunday, April 17, 2005

NOTE: Let me apologize for not getting this post in sooner - it is AMAZING how the week flies by!

This past Sunday was a unique Sunday. To begin, I had my mom and my grandmother visiting, and they had a chance to see the church for the first time since last January. They were very surprised by all the people and the warm reception, and I was glad to get up and talk about how much my mother has influenced me - what a privilege to have a mother and grandmother like mine!

The day was a good day. Truth be told, it takes a LOT of energy to do two services, specifically maintaining energy for the 2nd service, but we do it well. The attendance dipped below 100 (we had 98) for the first time in several weeks as we had many people gone, but God is so good. A few things worth noting:
1) Our offerings continue to stay where they need to be. We have experienced a major stabilization in our finances in the past 6 months, and I pray that they remain there. I am meeting with my finance team next week to discuss putting me on full time. I am excited about this as I feel our church is capable of this, and has demonstrated this. Besides that, it will be a step of faith, and God always rewards faith.

2) I preached for the third (and final) week about Experiencing the Care of Jesus, and I felt that it went well. God had impressed on me the key verse of I Peter 5:7 to speak on, and I was very excited to preach on "Releasing Ourselves into God's Care." This sermon was also my gross sermon of the year, specifically because of this gross story I told from the Hong Kong Medical Journal. I am hoping that beyond the gross stories that our people will truly learn to cast their care on Jesus Christ.

3) We intro'd the song You Are My World by Hillsong, and it was received well. The worship service has been great lately in both services, so much so that we intro'd double clapping during Free to Dance - you had to be there.

4) We baptized two people in our second service (pictures below) - Jane Nelsbach and James Smith. I am excited for Jane - she and her husband are new believers (see the blog from Sunday, February 20th, 2005) and while I baptized her, her kids gathered around and wanted to jump in - it was cute. James is recently back from Afghanistan and wanted to be baptized. This was a bittersweet day, as James and his wife Candace moved to Hawaii two days after he was baptized, and we will miss them. But I was so happy to baptize James and just share that experience with them.

5) We got to test out our new speakers and sound board - what a difference~!!! Thank you Lord for giving us the resources to be able to buy those without credit. We needed them so much. Hallelujah!

6) We had several visitors with us today that I believe will be back. Red & Karen Densmore were our guests for the first time along with Don Stockard. They each found us through the internet site, and Don's story is interesting. Don recently moved from Florida, and he and his wife attended a church called Northland while they lived there. It just so happens that we have a couple who also lived in Florida and attended Northland - Kyle & Amber Weststrate! So I hooked them up, and I hope that the service was a blessing to them. May the Lord continue to add to our numbers.

One other cool note - Miranda Atkinson, a friend of Kay Greene's, came with Kay, and she really enjoyed it. She is from Wakefield, and she said she would invite her parents to come as well. Overall, this was another great day at The Journey. May God continue to grow us, and use us to change people.