Challenge

I have been challenged to start this up again . . and I will do so, if only for myself.    Not sure what my purpose for it is so at first it will be just to keep track of allthe crazy things that go on here . .

Yesterday . ..
Don's Painting Party has been going for a couple days now - goal is to finish the inside of the cathedral chapel ceilings (okay, inside our chapel) by Saturday afternoon so we can put together the chapel again before Sunday.

Our ladies group prepared lunch for the DHQ employee Appreciation Day at Camp - and we had a great time doing it!     Tostadas and all the fixins . . guess what we are having on Sunday after lunch?

Last night, our teen girls went to the Silver Ring Thing - a traveling show about purity and making good choices . . .it was good and five of the girls got rings . . .hope they stick by that covenant and commitment!  Very precious!

Busy weekend ahead - it's Mothers Day and we are starting our monthlong commitment to be involved in the 24/7 Prayer Focus of The Salvation Army - so Lord's Prayer is on the menu for Sunday "meat."

Fall Seasons

The end of summer, the beginning of the new year.    Camp programs, WMI, WYI, vacations . . . we were kept so busy that we regretfully didn't post . . .my apologies.

However, we have started the new fall season . . .and it is exciting to already see what is happening.  

We opened up a Day Drop In Center for homeless families and have been hosting the Homeless (Nomadic) Shelter for two days each week the last few weeks.    The church family has been great in helping!

More events coming up - we'll keep you posted!

The assembly . . .the called out ones . ..

Amazing.   That's what God is.   And that's what church was this morning!   Good friends, good music, good WORD!    Visitors, altar calls, long talks afterwords, it was just a blessing.

HEART to God - Acts 2,3,4 - it all goes together so well.

The cycle of redemption is not new - it has been going on since Moses led the people out of Egypt.   They were called out of Egypt - just like we are called out of slavery - slavery to a life of sin, Peter calls it "this empty way of life".    They were redeemed before they ever came to worship him.  Peter also says, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."   (1 Peter 1:18-20) 

We are saved by grace, too!    They were formed into a company of freed slaves - and we also are a rag-tag bunch of vagabonds, traveling together.    They came to a mountain and were faced with a choice - with God, or without God.  Thankfully, they chose Him.   We are saved and then faced with choices - the same choice - with God, or without God.   Hopefully, we choose to worship Him.  

That means, serving Him.   Obeying Him.  Following Him.   Looking to Him.   But it also means something else - Being His Light to the Nations.     Somehow they got off track here . . .

I hope that our line shines brighter every day.    Today was a pretty good flame!

Music Camp Final Concert - Del Oro

It was so much fun today .. .all the kids did sooo great.    I loved, loved, LOVED the boys chorus and the girls chorus  - so much energy!    Oh, and I loved the hula, and the timbrels and the guitar and the recorders.    Seriously, each number was too cute!

Afterwards, Don and I went to a prophecy seminar - very enlightening . . . actually, a little disturbing.    Syria is the place to watch ...

Tomorrow is church - can't wait.   Practice was FUN . . .

Mission Moment The stranger among us

Adrian met him first.   Adrian meets all of them first, it seems.   Adrian talked to him for a while and then brought him to church to meet Captain Don . . .Adrian told me privately that he seemed "too nice" at first but he couldn't really understand why the guy was homeless.

The first day he was here, he swept the parking lot and helped move boxes. 

Music Camp Solo Night

Just came back from Soloist Night at the Del Oro Music Camp 2010. I love going to it. It is not polished or professional and yet it is sincere, encouraging, and uplifting. The young people are nervous and yet do so well!

I am encouraged to see kids learning music - such a great way to worship God! In a day when professional musicians seem to be the only ones who can take the stage, it is good to know that everyone has to start someplace!

Go, Team Del ORO!

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus

What would you do if you found out you didn't know Jesus as well as you thought?    That's the question we all asked ourselves as we opened the pages of "Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus" by Anne Spangler.   It's our Bible Study on Tuesdays, at 1:00pm.

Many of us have been raised as Christians - we know the Bible stories - we know the old hymns - and yet each page seems to hold new ancient truths that we have never heard before . . .how does THAT happen?

Others are completely new to the faith and they sit enraptured by the stories that are woven into the pages.   Jesus is a man who is completely different from the surfer Jesus that they see on church walls (usually holding children), or the crucified Jesus that they see on the Dollar Store figurines, or even the revolutionary Guevara that becomes silkscreened on our shirts.

As we learn more and more, it seems as though our answer changes . . .and yet does it really?   Perhaps it will make us more loving (surfer jesus?), more giving (crucified jesus?), and more committed (guevara jesus?).