Wedding Invitation

After many hours of cutting, stamping and aligning, I finished the sample of Chandler and Saraina's wedding invitation.  I sent a copy to Raina and she loved it!  Now, only 75 more to make and I will be done!

Saraina texted me this morning and told me Chandler was preaching in preaching lab this morning.  She says he was awesome and preached with fire.  I have always thought Chandler was an great preacher but then I am partial to my baby boy!  I am so looking forward to seeing what God will do in Chandler and Saraina's life!  Only a month a half until we get to go pick them up from college and then the rush begins to get last minute wedding details done.  The next two months are going to fly!



The Wise Man/Foolish Man

For Jr. Church Sunday I planned on teaching about the wise man and the foolish man.  Sunday morning I awoke to a fresh layer of snow covering everything.  Of couse, although I had my lesson planned out, I had not gotten my rock or sand for my illustration.  So in my Sunday shoes I went out and trudged around the church playground to get sand and then went looking to find a big rock.  I looked everywhere and could not find one rock that was bigger than a pebble!  Finally as I went back in the house I saw one sitting under the tree only few steps from the front door of the parsonage.  I was thrilled to find a rock but aggravated I hadn't seen it before.  I used simple paper cups for houses and told the kids the story as I poured water on the houses.  Of course the house built on the solid foundation stood while the house without the foundation fell.

We then talked about how God is the strong foundation that we needed to build our lives (houses) upon.  I took a plate and wrote God on it and then took pretzels and frosting and started building a pretzel house.  As I laid each piece of the house in place, we talked about how reading our Bibles, obeying, trusting, praying, attending church, ect. all help us to build our strong lives centered on God.  I then let each of the kids build their own pretzel houses.

It was so much fun to watch their serious little faces as they concentrated so hard on building their houses.  I heard several comments later from parents that their kids came home and retold the story and told how they need to build their lives on God.  Amen!  So nice to know that the kids are listening!

A New Name in Glory!!

Tonight a couple that have been visiting the church
for several months called and asked if they could meet with my husband.  When they got to the church my husband took Julian into his office and Michelle and I went into another room and talked.  A bit later my husband asked to us to come into his office and Julian told us he had asked Jesus into his heart and life!

Rejoicing over a new name in glory!

M&M Bible Review Game

One of our sweet Sunday School teachers shared an idea she uses for a Bible Review Game with me.  First she took a small Cylinder container, cleaned it out and cut a small hole in the plastic lid.  The hole needs to be small enough to shake one M&M out at a time.

She then covered the container with wrapper from a big bag of M&M's, and then filled the container halfway full of M&M's.

One at a time the kids come up and shake an M&M into their hands.

Every color has a different point value. 
The teacher then asks the student a question and if they get it right, they get that many points for their team. 

After they answer, whether they get the question right or wrong, they get to eat the M&M.  The kids love the game and ask to play it often.



Moving

It seems like we are always moving people and this week was no exception.  Saturday, one of our ladies got a new house and so we moved all her stuff in, that she had in storage for the last month.  Last night another lady called to say she had just gotten the keys to her new apartment and asked for help moving in.  My husband called several families and with all the men, ladies and children, we had her moved in, in a very short time.  The men in our church are awesome and will drop everything and come running when they find out someone needs help.  Both our ladies were so happy that there were so many people to help and they are so happy to be in their new new homes.  One of the men helping joked that the church should start their own moving company
and our motto should be -

Fellowship Baptist Church Movers,

Call the Pastor cause we move you faster!

 Hey, he might be on to something!

Our Mentor and Friend

This weekend has been so exciting for us as we had
Pastor Mike Pinson visiting with us.

While we were in Germany, a man in Chep's unit invited us to a revival at his church.  We went that first night and went back again the next night.  It was a wonderful meeting and my husband and I, who had backslidden and fallen away from God, rededicated our lives to Christ.  The next two and a half years were some of the best years of our lives.  Pastor Pinson and his wonderful wife Tonda, took us under their wings and mentored us and taught us as we strived to change and live totally sold out lives for God.  Chep surrendered to preach under Pastor Pinson's ministry and he and his wife were a great source of encouragement to us as we set out to serve God with our hearts and lives.  In the past thirteen year we had lost contact with them and only talked to them by phone once or twice.  What a joy it has been to sit down and talk and fellowship with this man who has meant so much to us.  He preached our church services on Sunday and it was wonderful to hear him preach once again. 

For my little ones this Sunday we talked about witnessing and how God gave the great commission for us to go out and tell everyone the good news of the Gospel.  After the story we talked about where we can witness, who we can witness to and how we can witness.  We then gave all the kids a piece of paper and told them to draw a picture of who they wanted to witness to.  After everyone was done with their drawings, we had the kids come up one at a time and tell us about their pictures.

Nottia said when she goes out to play with her friend,

she will tell her friend about Jesus.

Tristine said he wanted to tell his Aunt Jessie.

Allan said he is going to go home and talk to his dad about God.

Ricky said he was going to go and tell all the military men about God.

(We live next to a Air Force base) We had 15 kids this Sunday and they all had such good answers and it was such a joy to listen to all of them.  Praying that each one of these little ones will continue to grow in the Lord and go and tell others what God is teaching them.

Miss Haley is my helper and she has been such a blessing to me.  She is so good with the little one kids and they all love her.  Thanks Haley!

How Many People........

Can you squeeze into a little living rooom???

48!!!

We had 19 kids and 5 teens and 24 adults!  We were missing several

people but God knew that we couldn't squeeze another person in!  It was a wonderful service!  Since we we all had to meet in the same room, my husband asked that the adults be included in the kids Bible Adventures. 

The adults loved the puppets, nerd skit and Bible story and several asked Pastor if they can join the kids every week!

The pest control people came today and set traps for the skunk.

  We are praying that in the morning we will have caught the skunk.  The cleaning company will be here tomorrow to neutralize the air and pump clean, cherry infused air throughout the building and then we should be back in the church building on Sunday.



The Skunk and Ladies G.A.B Night

I woke up this morning when my husband (who gets up MUCH earlier than me!) came into the bedroom leaned over me and said "smell me".  I took my nose out from under the covers and put it right back!  My dear sweet husband smelled like he had been sprayed by a skunk!  Turns out he had gone over to the church to study and as he crossed the yard, he thought it smelled like a skunk had sprayed somewhere.  As he sat in his office, he was surprised that it smelled worse in the church than it had outside.  Turns out a skunk had dug it's way under the church and for some reason sprayed.  The church stinks so bad that you can not go in it without smelling like you got sprayed yourself.  As Chep showered I took his clothes and washed them in hydrogen peroxide.  Chep then called the insurance company to see what they could do.  As he was waiting for a call back from the insurance adjuster, he got a call from the food bank wondering where he was, as today was drop off day and our order was ready to pick up.  As Chep ran across town I began calling all the church people to ask them to pray and also to tell them that Ladies G.A.B Night tonight and church tomorrow would be held in the church parsonage.   After getting the calling done, I began feverishly cleaning and rearranging to fit all the ladies in the living room.  Chep got home and since we could not go in the church because of the hideous smell, we unloaded the food bank items in our bedroom.  During this time God impressed on my heart to change the devotion for the Ladies Night so after cleaning, I studied and wrote a new devotion - Does Your Attitude Stink.  As my husband was out talking to the restoration guy about what could be done in the church, I ran to Hobby Lobby to get items for the craft, making smelly votives and also the door prize, a duster in the shape of a skunk.  I ran home with just enough time to throw some potatos in the oven for the potato bar we were having and to shower.  Our Ladies G.A.B Night turned out great!  The ladies loved the devotion and of course the food was good and it so so nice to sit and fellowship with everyone.  It was a long day and there are many things
that need done tomorrow but looking forward to seeing
 what the Lord has in store for us!

Full Weekend

What a full weekend it has been! Our Bus Captain was out of town this weekend, so as I was busy at the church office doing paperwork, Chep and Mason went out on bus visitation.  Chep loved the chance to go and visit with all the parents and encourage the kids to be in church on Sunday.  At our last church, Chep ran the bus ministry himself and got a chance to talk with the kids every week and he has really missed it.  Our Bus captains are amazing and do a great job and the kids love them.

Saturday Night all the church families got together for a game night.  We had an awesome time playing games and just talking and fellowshipping together.  Of course there was a lot of yummy food to go with all the fun!  The guys found them a table and played a long battle of R.I.S.K.. 

There was a lot of competition as the men battled it out before Bruce walked away with the victory.  I hear there is another R.I.S.K. competition being planned for next month.

Jr. Church is still a challenge to me every week.  I have no problem teaching the older kids but the Pre-K and Kindergarten are definitely a learning experience for me.  So much energy and excitement, that I have to have many activities planned that go with my story, because if I have any spare time left my class just goes wild!.  Many of the teachers let the kids go outside and play after the story and craft if the service is still not over.  I do not like to do that because we only have a few precious hours with these kids to get as much Bible into them as we can.  Also, one godly lady who taught Sunday School for many years told me, the kids will always the remember most the last thing they hear before they leave the room. I want the last thing they they hear to be about God and Jesus and not that about a dispute on the playground.

After we sang Bible songs, the kids hunted around the room for puzzles pieces.  I explained to them that as we grow in Christ we have to hunt and search God's Word for the many, many treasures that are in there.

For the puzzle I took our color sheet that we would be coloring after the story and glued it to poster board and cut it into many pieces.  The kids loved it and were so good and quiet as they waited for their turn to go hunt for a piece and put it up.  After the story of Jesus in the Temple, I then gave the kids all a page to color.

I thought I had done well in planning but the service lasted an extra half an hour and I ran out of activites but I am planning this week to have a few extra activities on hand to use the next time services last longer than expected.