Sunday Fun with Flat Stanley

Day 6 Adventures:

We went to church. In children's church we learned about seasons and how there is a season for everything under the sun. In a game Charles won the little pumpkin playing Fall Bingo.

 After Charles' nap we went to Deal's Orchard and enjoyed time in the pumpkin patch and playing on the tractor.

1st Anniversary for Renew

Little did we know that when we moved to Carroll that we would be part of planting a church here. It is amazing how God works when and where you least expect. If you would have told us that we would be starting a church when we moved here we would have probably laughed. As always our plans are not God's plans. For his plans are greater and mightier than our own.

Renew: The name of our church is about change and making sure everyone knows about the love of God. For He will make a new creation out of us if we just call on Him.

So far this has been an exciting journey. We started off with just a few people meeting together in homes, and then we had a few preview services in the middle school, from that point we had our services at night at another church, and now we are in the process of getting the building we have completed. We are meeting each Sunday in this building as we get it completed. The location is great it is in the center of town. We would like to be the HUB of our community. Please pray for us as we continue our journey. This past Sunday our message was from 2 Kings chapter 3. The main verses were:

¹⁴ Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not pay any attention to you. ¹⁵ But now bring me a harpist.”
While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha ¹⁶ and he said, “This is what the Lord says: I will fill this valley with pools of water. ¹⁷ For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. ¹⁸ This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord; he will also deliver Moab into your hands. ¹⁹ You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones.”

²⁰ The next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was—water flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water.

The main point in the message was that the process of building a church community is that you have to dig a lot of trenches before you see a lot of rain. So we continue to dig because we want to see a lot of lives changed.

 

 

 

Our band. I love that teenagers lead our worship every Sunday. It is so neat to see them use their Gift of Music each week. They are learning early what it means to serve our Father. 

Social Butterfly

This weekend has been a blast! I feel like a social butterfly lately. Friday night we went out to eat with Michael and Kim then played Scene It and some other really fun game. We had Chinese food which was quite good if you were wondering.
Saturday was a day of rest: Wal-Mart, a movie on t.v., a nap, and knitting for me. For Patrick it was go hit golf balls at the driving range while I was napping and then come back home only to get bored because he can't sit still. So, he decides to go back and play a game of golf. He meets up with some teacher friends (the best kind right folks), and plays 9 holes of golf with them. He even got me to come out and watch about 4 holes! After that we went to celebrate a friend's birthday and have some great hamburgers with all the fixings.
Today we had a great Sunday School lesson over the Burning Bush. We are studying the book of Exodus which has already been very insightful and we have only covered the first 4 chapters. Learning to listen to God's calling, and watching how God takes care of his people. Also, how He uses the least likely. He will and wants to use us all. Wow! The workings of God are amazing. The main lesson today in Big Church was enlightening too. It was over Mark 8: 27-38. The key points that I got were: 1) Jesus wanted more than a textbook answer for who he was and is. 2) It is the head and heart that needs repair, for our tongue speaks what is in our head and heart. 3) There are no shortcuts to spirituality. It takes time! Lots to ponder right.
After Church we relaxed a little and then I went to a Jewelry Party with my friend Nicole, and Patrick went to play in a fundraiser golf tournament.