Praise Report

Admittedly, I whined in yesterday's post.
I did! I confess!
I do want a building of our own for our
church to meet in.
A place to have our fellowship meals.

However, yesterday rocked!

I took a couple of pictures of our meeting room,
at Willow Valley, for you to see.

Can you see in this picture that the piano is on a raised metal frame with rollers? Well, this makes playing it a little interesting. If you happen to "get into" your music, you could get a little seasick as the piano begins to move to the rhythm. I guess I am getting the hang of it but I love our own Church piano and cannot wait to play it again! It is in storage right now.

The staff that we deal with at Willow Valley has been very thoughtful and put us in a room that connects with another. This is the other room, which can be used for Sunday School and Nursery. However, it also holds the coffee. You don't want to know how much that costs. A couple of coffee addicts are supporting their habit. The rest of us get to benefit.

It has been so interesting meeting in a public place...there has been the loud vacuum running in the hall right outside our door, the different layout of the chairs each time we come. We sing a song about shouting to the North, South, East and West. We laugh because if we were set up in just two more directions we would have literally done that. This is a real learning and growing experience. I know there are many churches who set up and tear down each week. We used to attend one. We did the setting up and tearing down. So it is ok with me that Willow Valley does this for us! We just miss the "control" that comes with your own space.

In case you are new here...our church formerly rented space in a building that was sold recently. That space was exclusive to us and we had decorated and made it a true home for the five years prior to now. We are praying that the Lord will lead us to another suitable space. In the meantime HE has blessed us with this room and it is beautiful...just different.

Finally, about yesterday...

Sunday School: Totally awesome! Mike is teaching from the Minor Prophets. Not someplace that I have spent a lot of time studying. Oh, this should be a whole post of its own...lets just say that if you had to defend your faith you could do it from the book of Habakkuk. That poor prophet had serious concerns and yet he knew that God was just and faithful. The end of chapter three is awesome!
It reads:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls...
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The sovereign Lord is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to go on the heights.
I challenge you to read that out loud, right now.
See if you can get a sense of praise in times of struggle.
It is not a matter of praising when all is well...it is praising the Lord anyway! It is a matter of the will.
I love this!!!!

Worship Service: The music, the sermon, communion. So special! There is no way I can describe to you how God met us in that room. It was sweet! Pastor Mike was on fire in his preaching and Pastor Jack led us in communion that was so meaningful! Did you think I was going to say I was in tears? Well, you would be right! I laughed and I cried. I just had to laugh when Pastor Mike used the term, "Well, Duh!" with all of the emotion and tone of Patrick(SpongeBob)in the middle of his sermon. Let me just say that every young person in the room was at full attention and totally involved. He spoke directly to them and challenged them to know the Bible so that they could test the input from the world against it and see what is truth. This, obviously, is the short, short version of that but let it be enough to let you know that God met us in a very special way.
It has been sooooo hard.
But God is Faithful!!!!

Fellowship Meal: I came home to find the chili, cooking on low, in the crockpot, had boiled over and was all over the counter, cupboards and floor. It made me so glad that the tables were up and set so that I did not have to stress over the time spent cleaning up that mess. Then Warren came in and started the coffee which overflowed and made a mess in the very same spot. That part of our kitchen is now very clean.

The seating arrangement worked out very well. I used the gateleg table that you see in my header, moved it to the center of the living room and seated eight there. The dining room table had at least that many at it. A couple of kids were eating downstairs so it all worked out.

After that somehow the ladies found themselves playing the Wii as the guys talked about building electric cars, at least that is what they said they talked about, in the living room.

The day ended late, after watching very good movie, The Sin Eater. The title sounds strange but this movie is based on a novel by Francine Rivers by the same name. It is very good. If you haven't seen it, I think you would appreciate it. It is not a comedy, but it ends well.

Bless your heart if you are still reading this horrifically long post!
I could have just said that yesterday was great...but that just didn't have that blog feeling that I was going for. Really, this is my journal and I am looking forward to remembering this day...I will re-read this many times, in the years to come and remember the day that started out with a whine and ended up so blessed!

Thanks for visiting!

Your friend,