"I Love This Church"

I was playing basketball with some students after youth group last night. As we were playing one of them said, "I love this church. I want to come here forever!" Wow! I was speechless. I hope and pray our youth group and church is a place where negative stereotypes about church and God are crushed. Praise God. What amazing encouragement to know this is true in at least this student's life.

A Special Guest--WNI 4-16-08

Last night was a great WNI. Kendra, a former student in our youth group, came to speak. She did great. She was confident and courageous and clear. I think the students really connected with her story. She compared her story to that of the prodigal son. Her story is one of rebellion and return. Sin and forgiveness. Brokenness and restoration. Her story is one of "Amazing Grace."

She taught us so much. She reminded us of the power and consequences of sin. She taught us how to resist temptation. She challenged us not to underestimate our enemy, Satan or our hero, God. She reminded us that our personal decisions are never totally personal and always affect others. Most of all, Kendra told of a God who wants to forgive and heal and restore us.

Those are just my thoughts. I would love to hear from everyone else.

God Moment

We had a God moment in our second service Sunday. It may be hard to describe. Some things are best experienced. It started with a woman in our church named Kay. She has a bone spur in her neck which is putting pressure on her spinal cord. Claiming the promise in James 5.13-16, she called our pastor and asked in the church would pray for her. Since Chuck was scheduled to preach out of town this Sunday, he passed it on to Todd, one of our deacons. By the time Todd came to the front of the church we were already running 15 minutes late. Todd shared his heart and Kay's prayer request. He challenged us to seek only after God's glory and step to take the "meat" our pastor had been brining us. Next Todd gave an opportunity for anyone to ask for special prayer. Several shared. Some of the ordained men of the church led in prayer for the special needs. By the time all was said and done, we ran at least 30 minutes late. I didn't hear a single complaint. We will trust God for answering the prayers. In the meantime it was a wonderful moment of crying out in dependence on God. Thank you Kay for your honesty, humility, & courage. Thank you Todd for your leadership. Thank you church for responding as the body of Christ.

Prom 2008

For the last three years Amy & I have invited everyone to stop by our house on the way to Prom. We love seeing the students look their best and we gave a gift to everyone who showed up. This year we didn't push it because we no longer live on the way to prom. Still we had a few students show up. Here's the pics!