Sunday, April 28, 2013

Mother's Day Info

Bless the kids hearts who were in children's church today. I can't sing  a lick but I was belting out our Mother's Day music like I was a "Gaither". I danced & sweat with those kids & had the absolute best time. I know they think of me as some crazy old church lady but they never say a rude word towards me. They don't even roll their eyes at me! They just let me do my thing!! lol I love them!

I am going to be quick tonight. We are still practicing for the Mother's Day song, which has now turned into several songs. If we are going to move out the chairs & pulpit then we might as well make the most of it. So practice the next 2 Wed. nights & next Sunday. We need to have a dress rehearsal Friday night May 10. I'll serve pizza at 6, and we will practice from 6:30-7:30. I know this might not work for everyone w/ ball games going on, but if your child can be at the dress rehearsal please bring them. Go ahead and start inviting people to church for Mother's Day!! That morning we will also have Muffins with Mom in the gym at 9:00. Please come share in a lite breakfast with your child or children. I can't think of anything else right now.... except we will have a date for VBS decided on this week. I am planning alot of fun Wed. night activities for the summer so keep on inviting kids. Oh wait, I do have something to say. We got in the car after church today & Judson said, "Mom do you remember Ison". Ison Moore was a very old member of the church, He had a car wreck & died when my boys were probably 5 or 6. He felt like our church should be a lighthouse for the community and he was up for anything.... any kind of change, whatever it took to bring people into the church so they could learn about God. He was faithful. He was at church everytime the doors opened, cane or wheel chair... it didn't matter.  I remember Joey being the youth minister way back when & Ison, this 80 yr old man, taking these youth &  a very young Joey out for lunch after church. Joey must have spoken on Giants of Faith and in Judson's mind that was Ison. He had a huge amount of faith and it must have been so large that a 5 year old kid could notice it & remember that now 8 yrs later. We make an impact on the children around us whether we realize it or not. I am pretty sure Ison never thought a young child would remember him years after his passing but he made an impact on many lives. What kind of impact are we making on the kids? Just a thought! I hope yall have a great week and I see everyone back Wed. night!!

Monday, April 22, 2013

COURAGE

I missed Jameson speak yesterday because I was teaching children's church but I heard nothing but wonderful words about his message. I wanted to remind everyone what courage that took for a youth to say God gave him a message to deliver then to get up on that stage in front of everyone and deliver the message. Just an example of God saying hey if you follow me and do what I ask, I'll handle the nerves and fears! Great Job Jameson for following God's call!!I know you are going to lead others to our Lord!

Sunday school has been on my heart. I only had 5 kids in my class yesterday :(  Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to have those 5 but I honestly like a packed classroom.  I wanted to stress the importance of Sunday school in a child's Christian walk. Sunday school is where kids develop their foundation. We learn stories from the Bible and Bible verses. Year after year as a child moves up from class to class those same stories and verses are taught and the more they are taught the more they are stuck in the child's brain & heart. When the devil comes along and tries the child, he or she can then pull from the arsenal of stories & verses and tell the devil this is not true because God did this or Jesus did that & the Bible tells me this. Children's church and Wed. night kids does have lessons too but alot of the time those are character lessons or we are working on something special to do at church. Those times the same stories and verses are to getting drilled into the child's mind. I know waking kids up early on Sunday is hard but give it a months effort, try Sunday school for a whole month and it will become a habit.  This is not me trying to lecture.... I have been the adult who didn't want to make the effort on Sunday too or I needed to sleep because I got up at 4am during the week, or we had such and such we needed to do.  I am challenging you now to take my 4 week challenge...lol!!

OK, let's get to the kid stuff. Big City Studio is on hold for now. The kids will be practicing Wed. nights for our Mother's Day special. We have to use the piano for this one so we have to work around Amanda playing in the Wed. night service so my plans are to do a quick devotion & then we will practice with her in the choir room. I really need your kids there for practice. Sundays during children's church we will be practicing too just w/o Amanda... probably be me trying to use youtube. You should have seen the kids yesterday, squat down  in the choir room floor with me holding the Ipad just right trying to get the wifi signal so we could hear the music.  Go ahead and start inviting family & friends to church for Mother's Day. I think it will be a special treat! Don't forget on that Sunday we will have Muffins with Mom, in the gym 9 am. Mothers & kids will share a lite breakfast & enjoy some quiet time together. I can't think of anything else. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Maybe as we are nervous inviting someone to church or speaking up about God we can think about Jameson & his courage to delivers God's message. I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me Philippians 4:13. This was also Ben Clough's verse. Happy 13th Birthday Ben!!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Happy Tax Day

I have 3 sick kids at home today & sent a sick husband off to work. I am sneezing & coughing too so I doubt I'll have much to say today. On a brighter note, the kids only have 5 more Mondays of school and in 5 wks and 2 days I'll be enjoying the salt air of Destin. Hopefully, I don't have to wait 5 weeks to get some sinus relief but if I do I know that salt air will help clear us up!

I was so excited to see more visitors yesterday. Isn't it just great that God continues to send new people our way? Excitement makes me  think about tax day and Zacchaeus. You know the song....Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he, he climbed up on a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see....and as the Saviour passed his way He said Zacchaeus you come down for I am going to your house today. ( here I go I thought of something to say). Zacchaeus was so excited to see Jesus that he climbed a tree to make sure he could see him. I don't know about y'all but I haven't climbed a tree since I was a child. In this present world I can't think of anyone I would climb a tree to see. Nick Saban, nope, Tim McGraw, nope, Duran Duran, nope, The President, nope. There is nobody I could get that excited over to climb a tree just to get a glimpse of them, but Zacheus just wanted a glimpse of Jesus! I want to be that excited about Jesus that I am willing to go to the extreme to meet with Him, to do His work and to follow Him. I am a work in progress that is for sure. I still feel God molding me and changing me. I have the excitement  & the intentions just still lacking on the courage and boldness to witness more or to step out and just invite the complete stranger into God's house or to even say Hey, do you know Jesus. But the day is coming!

This Wed. night will be Big City Studio, 6-7. Sunday, May 12 will be Mother's Day, so in honor of our Moms the children's dept will have Muffins with Mom in the gym before Sunday school, 9am. This will be a time for our children and their Mommas( or those who have the acting role of Mom) to enjoy some special time together. We will have muffins, doughnuts, fruit, juice & milk. I look forward to seeing the kids and mommas together. I think their might be a special musical surprise during preaching that day so go ahead and invite the family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends to church.

Incase some of you did not know what Joey was talking about yesterday when he mentioned paying extra money on the gym, he was referring to last Wed. nights business meeting. The church has been blessed with really good offerings and has voted, I believe once in Jan & last week, to take $5000 extra each time to pay it towards the gym loan. I believe Scott Mayo told me we had actually paid over $20,000 extra on the loan since Dec. due to the  $5000 twice and then extra money people have put towards the gym. Don't quote me on the months. When the gym is paid for the plans are to move forward with a youth building. That is exciting! Extrememly exciting! God is going to provide if He wants us to move forward with this new construction! I hope you all have a great week and get a little glimpse of God!


Monday, April 8, 2013

Feeling Blessed

Today my heart is sadden for Pastor Rick Warren & his family. His son committed suicide over the weekend. When I was working at Bellsouth, now many years ago, and really trying hard to figure out how God wanted to use me at WBBC, I read A Purpose Driven Life written by Rick Warren. That book really helped me focus on what God's calling for me was. I knew if I stayed in bham working & with 2 young boys about to enter school, I would have no time to focus on the children or getting new children to our church. It was a drastic life decision & a huge income loss but God worked it all out. I think alot of times people think being Christians means we have no problems but The Warren family is an example of Christians dealing with earthly problems & hurt. I pray for their peace and comfort during this difficult time in their lives.

Most of you probably don't realize that the devil tried to prevent us from having church yesterday. The power was off at the church yesterday morning. Folks were pondering & scrambling trying to figure out how to handle no power, no air or heat, no lights, no coffee, no sound system, no words on screen but our church was not caving in to "oh we have no power, let's just put a sign on the door and go on home".  The devil knew we were having Sunday morning church w/o power and it came back on just as people started arriving for Sunday school. It was a blessing to be in God's house!

I don't think I can ever express how much I love our church. I sat on the pew w/ my boys, one of their friends & some other youth yesterday. There was children on the pew in front of me. They were all into the music & just a clapping. Really feeling it! I am so thankful we are a church that welcomes children & youth and their participation. On the drive home the boys and their friend discussed religion and why being a Christian was much better than other religions. It gave me that feeling of wow, God really has a hold of them. They have a personal relationship with God. I know the teachers they have had, the Godly influences our church has provided has made a huge impact on their spiritual life. I am so thankful for that. I pray as they continue to mature into an older teen life that they focus on God not this worldly stuff.  I had also asked my Sunday school class which is children 2nd grade thru 5th grade how they knew God was real, had they ever really felt him. They were all able to give me an exact time in their lives when they felt the spirit of God working in them. Isn't that just awesome to know that God cares about the children....that he moves and really works in their hearts and that the children know what that feels like! I just love it!! OK, I know I have rambled a lot.

This Wed. night the kids will have missions with Katie Smith upstairs in the green room. Katie doesn't know I am going to ask for this but please say a special prayer for her & Chris. He is working out of town right now w/ Alabama Power & Katie is handling it all at home by herself. She still wanted to teach missions this Wed. night & I asked her if I should I leave her off the children's church schedule for a little while so her & Chris could just enjoy preaching w/o having to prepare to teach & she said no they would teach. They are serving God even while they are physically stretched thin. Katie...God is going to give you the strength you need! I am thankful to have your family at WBBC.

I hope everyone has a blessed week. Get out an invite someone to church!

Monday, April 1, 2013

He's Alive

Wasn't yesterday just wonderful at WBBC? I could feel the spirit of God all in our church. The music was wonderful, Joey delivered the message with some kick and the church was packed out! The children were all dressed so nicely. I love the hats, the gloves, the jon jons & knee socks. It is always great to see old church members back and to see new visitors come thru the doors. The church was busting at the seams! Everyone was so happy to be there. It was a wonderful day at WBBC. I pray that those who do not know Jesus, left the church with the seed planted & that those who have lost the fire to serve God had a spark rekindle inside of them. I pray that those looking for a church home felt at ease with us and if it is God's will they will be directed back to our doors next week.

I am so thankful to know that God works in those who let Him. Sunday mornings are always proof of that to me week in and week out. I use to struggle so hard with walking up to strangers & welcoming them into our church. Introducing my self was so hard.  I know I have said this over and over but I am not the bold one in the family. Joey, mom & Debbie have those spots filled......fully filled like I mean the cup runneth over if you know those 3. Over the years when the church was trying to grow, it was so important to welcome visitors and to invite them back. I watched our elders do it week after week. Mrs. Carr w her O2, Audrey Broom head wrap on from cancer, Ison Moore w/ his cane & others always so generous and loving to those who came thru the doors. I have said this too, I would go to the bathroom and pray before I even went out into the church. I needed God's strenght to overcome my fears. Week after week He gave me the strenght I needed. Some weeks I felt dumb because I might stumble speaking but God kept encouraging me. Now it is just a regular Sunday with me. I can walk up to anyone who comes thru those doors introduce myself, welcome them & sometimes even strike up a conversation. Now if God could just help me remember the names with the faces, I would be doing really well! lol I know shyness doesn't seem like a big task for God or a big problem in other peoples eyes but it was important to me and God knew that. I am thankful He gave me the power to overcome that fear! We are still struggling with the public speaking , but I have to say  I enjoyed using the microphone at the egg hunt so that fear might be nearing it's end too. All things are possible with our Lord!

I wanted to thank all those who helped with the Easter egg hunt. You all are always so encouraging and uplifting to me and I am thankful for each of you who helped. I am thankful for those youth who helped too. Our youth is always so good to help with the little kid stuff. It makes me so proud! It was great to yield some new prospects from the egg hunt and to see them in church yesterday. Pray for those who are looking for a church home. I had a mom mention it was her child's last egg hunt because she moves up to youth next year. It is hard to see kids move up when you have taught them for years. In my heart, I still claim them as mine...

The Chattanooga trip was wonderful. Our kids were so well behaved! I can not brag on them enough! They were seriously good! God provided us protection traveling and wonderful times fellow shipping together. I think some adults got to know each other better and of course we all saw each other at our worse the next morning. No showers at the aquarium so we pretty much just got off the floor as is and hit the road. I had a child tell me that they barely recognized me with out make up!! Children speak the truth!Thank you to our church family for all of your support for this trip!

"Big City Studio" this Wed. 6-7. Step out and invite a child to church! I hope you have a blessed week and remember that we serve a risen Saviour who is alive and can help you thru any situation.