Family Fun Day

Saturday we had Family Fun Day and it truly was so much fun!

 

 

Keith helping daddy fill up water balloons before everyone showed up.

 

The two winners of our costume contest,

Maid Marion and painter Bob Ross.  Maid Marion even did a bow and arrow demonstration, which was amazing to watch!

 

We had various carnival games for the kids,

a cake walk, fishing pond, beanbag toss, penny toss and face painting.

 

 

I thought this little tiger guy was adorable as he sat and talked with Keith.

 

 

The volleyball game was one of the favorites of the day. 

 

 

The Tug-a-War and my husband wants everyone to know, this was NOT the winning team!  (Yes, my husband was on the winning team and was upset I didn't get a picture of his team!)

 

A couple of the ladies made us an awesome Spaghetti Dinner! 

It was so good!

 

 

After dinner there was an intense football game.  I thought a few of the men were going to break something the way they were diving for the ball!

 

At the end of the day, the water games felt so cool and refreshing!

 

We had so much fun and we even had a couple of visiting families join us for the fun!  Definitely something we are going to do again next summer!



 



Senior Appreciation Day and Thankfulness

It was a very special day in services as we honored our senior members.

 

 

To start with, we gave all our seniors a rose corsage or boutonniere.  During the service Pastor recognized each senior and asked them

give the younger generation words of encouragement,

 words of wisdom and to tell the most important lesson they have learned in their Christian walk and what they have learned

to keep strong in their relationship with Christ.

 

 

I wish I was in services to hear these dear people speak for I heard many people say it was so touching to hear what was shared.

 

After services we had a special luncheon, with the seniors

 being waited on and served.

 

 

 

All our seniors said they loved it and thanked us for doing

 something so special for them.

 

For Jr. Church today we talked about the ten lepers that came to Jesus and were healed and how only one returned to Jesus to thank him.  We then talked about 2 Timothy 3:2 and how not being thankful is a sin.

 

 

For craft time we wrote thank you notes to Mr. Dan,

 the owner of Terry Bison Ranch and thanked him for letting us

 tour his farm and ride the rides.

 

 

They all worked so hard to make special cards of thank you and I will mail them tomorrow.

 

I also have to add that the adult Sunday School was amazing!  Pastor preached on loving God and not giving lip service but actually doing something to show our love.  I was very convicted and have several things to work on this week as I strive to do better in this area.



Stone Soup

We love Revival and want everyone to come, but with everyone
working all day and then having to come home and get the kids ready and fed and out the door, time can be a challenge and also an excuse .
 Several years ago we came up with the idea of anytime we have revival or a special event for more than one night, we would have Stone Soup. 
The first night we have several ladies make a pot of soup.

Everyone is able to come and enjoy a bowl of soup and fellowship before or after the Revival. Tonight we had Italian Wedding Soup,
Onion Beef soup, Chicken Tortellini soup and Black eyed Pea and Ham soup. 
They were all so good!

We then ask for everyone to bring a couple cans of vegetables,

broth, meat, spices or any other kind of soup ingredient and as we clean up we put these into the soups and put the crock pots in the fridge for the next day.  Several hours before Revival the next night I pull the crock pots out and let them cook and we then have wonderful and different soup 

that night for dinner.  We do this for each night of the revival and every night the soup gets better and better!  We also have a variety of cookies and brownies to go with our soup each night.

The people love the soup and many eat before and after Revival!

Revival was wonderful tonight! 
We have Brother Micah Brackett from South Carolina preaching for us and he is a man full of fire!  Tonight he talked about how we all have Jonah's in our lives and we need to throw the Jonah's overboard so we can get to where we need to be spiritually.  We all need to get rid of the Jonah's in our life so that we can have true revival.  Very convicting!  I am excited to hear what God will have Brother Brackett preach tomorrow!







Kids Sunday Night

We were so excited to have a family visit our church today

 that we had given a tract to and talked to on "Free Day"!  The mom grew up going to various churches and but now feels she is atheist, her kids loved Sundy School and Jr. Church and begged their mom to come back.  She talked to my husband after church and is sincerely searching for something and since her kids seemed to like it said that they would be back.  Please pray for Patricia as she truly needs salvation!

Tonight for evening services we had our young people lead and do the services.  It was so great to see our church's future leaders,

leading the music and sing and preach. 

Andrew, our youngest preacher boy, was a little nervous

but did an awesome job with a little encouragement from pastor.

Chris lead the music and also gave a sermon on God's love.

Andrew's sermon had everyone laughing as he described

the difference between creation and evolution and the crazy stuff scientists want us to believe.

Elisabeth and Victoria played a beautiful duet of "Day by Day".

 Ryan just joined the teen group this year but already has shown that he is a natural leader.  He challenged everyone to be the salt of the earth.

J.J. described what idols were and how we needed to avoid them

and put our focus on God and His Word.

The Corbin girls sang a beautiful song about salvation.

And Colin spoke on Colossians 3 and how we need to die to the world and seek those things above.  So many good messages and specials, I got so involved I forgot to get pictures of the other kids that also participated.  It went so well tonight my husband plans on doing this every time we have a fifth Sunday in a month.  Loved it!

Tonight we also had one of our missionary families, the Driskells drop by.  It was wonderful to see them and Bro. Driskell gave us an update on Camp Grace and all the work that is being done as they cleanup and start to rebuild from last month's forest fire.  It was so wonderful to see the joy of the Lord in them as rebuild camp from scratch and hear them share how God has guided them in so many ways and seen Him provide their every need.  God is so good, Amen! 



Church Clean Up

You know the "Barney" clean up song?

Clean up, Clean up, Everybody everywhere,
Clean up, Clean up, everybody do your share.

That song was running through my head, (still is actually),
 as several of our church members gathered today to clean the church from top to bottom.  Although someone cleans the church every week, at least once a year we deep clean and scrub everything down.  We scrubbed walls, washed windows, wiped base boards, cleaned lights, and dusted and vaccummed every corner.

Of course as we cleaned we talked and laughed and laughed some more! It was a wonderful time of fellowship as we worked together.  The men had planned on doing some outside projects but were rained out, so they sweetly came inside and moved things so we could clean behind and underneath all the heavy stuff.

After the rain stopped, the men were able to head outside
and were able to work on some their projects.

Taking the axels off a trailer, which will be our new, short term prophets chamber.  It is really nice inside and it will be nice to have a place for people passing through to stay.

The men also worked on tilling up the playground so we can plant new grass!  The playground is very uneven and full of weeds so we are excited to be able to till it all up, even it out and regrass it.

   SheBear saw the guys digging up the dirt and thought she would too! She is such a big help too!

We got a lot done today and are excited to see what God
will do in services tomorrow.

Men's Cooking Contest

What a wonderful time we had last night! 

The men took over the kitchen and did all the cooking and cleaning. 

We ladies had so much fun as we sat and visited and ate all the wonderful food the men had prepared.  It was so nice to just sit and not worry about any of the setup, serving or clean up.  We sat and laughed and just totally enjoyed our night off kitchen duty!

It was hard to choose a favorite but Bruce's apple crisp won 1st place with Dave's sloppy joes coming in 2nd.  The ladies also voted that the men should do the cooking and cleanup at least once a year!



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.