Monday Morning Thoughts

What a weekend!  It was busy, but so, so, good.  About 20 volunteers showed up at the Kim's house on Friday evening to strip and paper their roof.  On Saturday 10 volunteers installed the roofing and many more dropped by with food!  By 4:00pm on Saturday the roof was done and looking good!  The Kim's were blown away and it was an awesome experience for everyone involved.  A huge thank you goes out to the Olsen's and Lambert's for planning this project.  Smithrite even donated the bin.

Our Sunday gathering was good.  Sir Isaac lead us in worship and we celebrated together the goodness of our God!  I talked a bit about being the Church on Monday.  Then we raised a few hundred bucks for youth camp through a hot dog lunch.  Our Church Elders met following the lunch where we discussed and prayed about future decisions for our Church.  Our Church is blessed to have such humble and loving men and women!

This week is miscellaneous projects at home and the Church.  Some landscaping, painting, and other items are in order.  I hope you have a great week.
 
 

Prayer Focus This Week

Church Family

• A 3 month old grandson fighting bleeding in the brain 
• Friend of Rob G. who is fighting cancer.
• Shaela Warkentin (Sight)
• Zain Krikau (Health)
• A friend of someone in our Church that is fighting leukemia
• Jim Moses (Health)
• Mike K. (Health)

Foursquare Family

• Bible Fijian Fellowship (Surrey, BC)
• Barry Buzza (President of Foursquare Canada)
• Tyler & Elizabeth J. (Foursquare Missionaries in South Africa)

Other Churches

• North Valley Baptist Church (Mission, BC)

Our Community & World

• Mayor James Atebe & Council
• Premier Clark & MLA's
• Prime Minister Harper, Senate, & MP's
• Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, China, Israel

Church on Monday?

Explore More
What Now? A Study in Acts (Pt. 8)
Church on Monday? (Acts 3:1-10)
June 26 - July 2, 2011

PRAY
Before you begin reading, reflecting, discussing, and applying, begin by opening your heart up to our Lord and Saviour.  Praise Him and ask Him to incline your heart to His.

STUDY
Read Acts 3 & 4.  Continue to read Acts to get more comfortable with this part of our history.  We encourage you to make time to sit down and read all of Acts in one sitting at some point... the context of everything really hits home then.

DISCUSS
What was it about Peter and John that gave them the faith and boldness to see and act the way they did?  Why did they not wait for the cripple to come to their Church service to get healed?  Why did they do missions in their home town?  Did you know that you are called to be a missionary... many of us are even career/paid missionaries cleverly disguised as carpenter’s, bankers, plumbers, and administrators!

LIVE
Before you begin your day, take time to get a new perspective!  Pray for people that you know you will see and ask God to show you how to love them.  Pray that your eyes will be opened to all the opportunities that come your way.

Coming Back Down the Mountain

I came across this article and thought it would be helpful for our parents who send kids to camp as well as our Sunday School and Youth Ministry leaders/volunteers.  It will help our homes and ministries with post-camp life.

Posted By: Shawn Michael Shoup on June 20 2011

My two oldest daughters and I just got back from a 2,700-mile, two-week journey visiting summer camps in our district. We've still got a couple more camps to visit in July. It was an amazing trip and I've just got to say that it's such a blessing to do what I get to do!

Every year, as youth workers engage and God does amazing things up on the mountain, we begin to concern ourselves with how well students will hold on to their experience, what they've learned, and what they've received as they come back down from the mountain.

These are simple, but here's three things I shared with students as a challenge to keep growing as they go back home.

    LOVE GOD. Like I said, simple. But a lot of students wonder why they don't experience God in the same way as they do at camp. I have a hunch. When they were at camp, they were consistantly engaging in scripture, small group discussions, quiet times, and reflection. If they go home and don't do any of that, don't spend time building relationship with God, well… guess what? There is going to be a different outcome. I think this is a great time to teach students how to have personal times with God, developing that deeper relationship.
    
    ENGAGING CULTURE. As students go, I believe they are going as "sent ones." If we have been saved, we have been sent. It's all part of the Great Commission (which happened to be our theme verses this year). It's a natural outflow of loving God. As they get closer and closer to the heartbeat of God, students will find that they adopt his compassion for loving others. If we stop going, we stop growing. It's part of who God called us to be.
    
    KEEP COMMUNITY. Encouraging students to keep surrounding themselves with others who will challenge their faith and relationship with God is key. We need each other. We weren't wired to do this faith thing alone.

I'm praying for students this week. That they will keep pursuing all of the God-purposes that were planted in their spirit at camp. I hope and pray the same for your students!


Posted at: http://www.youthspecialties.com/blog/coming-back-down-the-mountain/?utm_source=Youth+Specialties&utm_campaign=e3812982bd-YSU_6_22_2011&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=e3812982bd&mc_eid=59f9968cb1

Friday Mashup

Yesterday was the day of eating.  I started off with a breakfast meeting, then coffee meeting, then lunch meeting, and then a final coffee meeting.  I came home to "Taco Thursday" with the Hersey's and Pringle's.  We washed down dinner with Angela's soon-to-be world-famous lemonade cake (borrowed from someone on Pinterest [Angela's new favourite interest]).


In other news, we're supposed to have a sunny weekend with perfect temperatures.  I hope it's sunny because a number of people from our Church family are doing a roofing project for the Kim's.  Watching people organically organize loving and helping one another is very exciting for me to watch!  I've heard other reports this week of couples/families helping other couples/families.... many times its simply through cooking meals, bringing groceries, praying, and encouraging one another.  That's the beauty of the Church... and I'm grateful to be a part of this family.

Today, I'm working on a few admin things, helping Sir Isaac on a few things, and finishing up Sunday's message.  Tonight we have a family gathering at my sister's.  Tomorrow I plan on helping out with the roofing project.

On Sunday, we have our Church family gathering.  We'll sing songs of love and praise to God.  We'll pray together.  We'll get in the Word and look at the beginning of Acts 3.  We'll then eat together (hot dog lunch) and support our youth in their efforts to get to youth camp.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend... I hope you are too!

P.S. I hope you are remembering and applying the three challenges from last Sunday.  I haven't been doing very well at it :(