CHURCH LIFE

Well, we went to our sponsoring church yesterday for worship. We've been wanting to get involved - particularly so the boys have a place to connect with friends. They got to go to SS and we signed them up for Awana's on Wednesday night. J and I will be going to a small group that meets in our target area on Thursday nights beginning Sept 21.

It was an invaluable experience for me. I've been stuck in one church culture so long that you get used to it and your brain kind of fills in the blanks of things that a newcomer finds baffling. Yesterday reminded me of what it is like to go to a church for the first time. You don't know where things are, how things work, what isn't communicated clearly, and what you need to have available for a first timer. Fortunately, i met the discipleship pastor at the door and he walked me through it all. after worship, we connected with the DOM's wife and she helped us with the rest of the stuff. The most helpful person of all was a young lady at the sign up table for children's ministries. She helped me with the stuff to fill out, but most of all she talked to Jackson, made him feel welcome, and helped introduce him in his class. She was awesome!
The moral of the story - when you see someone new at church, ask if you can help them with anything and walk them through it (take them to the class, etc.). Also, you don't have to be a professional, you just need to be friendly, helpful, and willing to have your junk interuppted to help someone else.

I also had two more "It's a small world" moments last week. You know, things like the Sunday i announced our move to the church and Chris Earley's grandson was there - from Bellevue, NE, when I told Bruce and he did DMin work with our sponsoring pastor, when I preached at FBC PSJ and a guy told me he had just moved to PSJ from Omaha. Well the two for this week:
I met the discipleship pastor (Joel Davis) from our sponsoring church, West Bellevue. He asked where we moved here from and I told him PSJ. He got a grin on his face and i said, "Do you actually know where that is?" He replied, "Yeah, I'm from Panama City. My parents had a house on St Joe Beach for years." He went to school at Graceville. The other involves my sister. She moved to Watertown, NY (upstate, way upstate) a few months ago. She was talking to her neighbors last week and i guess mentioned what we were doing. They told her they grew up in Papillion, NE (our target area). Weird, huh?

Thanks for praying. Your prayers got the van out here - i think the waterpump went out. I should have had you pray for it to not break down - period! This week I'll be prayer-driving our area with Steve Holdaway (our sponsoring pastor). The boys will be starting Awana's. J will be starting homeschooling:) I'll also be meeting the pastor of a church in Lincoln that may help for the remainder of the year. I'm also meeting with a guy I hope may be part of the core.

Your prayers make a difference, please keep it up! You are an invaluable part of our efforts to make a difference for the Kingdom.