Sunday

Sunday morning was filled with a celebration gathering of the entire church, kids, home groups, student teens and the elder members who lurk behind the scenes helping every other endeavor run smoothly. Ken was called upon to share a story of a recent encounter in another church that encouraged everyone to be on the lookout for ways of inclusion for everyone who ventures toward the church and to have a mind-set that brings you together at the church with the intention of looking for ways to give away what you've received during the week rather than coming to see what you can get from others... We spent the afternoon with the assistant pastor and his family building relationship, encouraging them, and examining ways that we can serve them in the future. We know that they are destined to lead their own congregation some day and we want to be a vital part of their development along the way.

There is a group of young men, former (hopefully) Satanists, and general sub-culture youth who are examining the claims of Christ along the way of the spiritual discovery. They've agreed to go through a multi-week introductory teaching time known as Alpha Course. They've rented a storage area of a former garage, equipped it with a small pot bellied stove, layed some small carpets on the floor and painted the walls with multiple shades of day-glo paints. Do you remember that from the 60s and 70s? The temperature outside was -15 but it was a cozy -12 inside on the rock hard, frozen concrete floor! Suffering for Christ took on a whole new dimension for these 50+ year-olds. The good news is that we had some indiscernible greenish tea to warm our innards. We had the pleasure of presenting the week's theme, "Who is Jesus". At the end of the night we were ready for a warm, soft bed but we weren't allowed to leave without promising we'd come back, outside the context of the Alpha Courses, to speak to them about how two former Hippies could make the transition to a life as Christians. There goes that Brer' Rabbit refrain again... A warm and soft night's sleep was the perfect prelude to our long drive home in the morning across expansive stretches of deep snow. We love our life...