July 15, 2007

If you did not receive this note last week, that was because I ran out of days of the week with too much work to finish. My week consisted of a funeral on Monday, July 4 holiday on Wednesday, and another funeral (for my own aunt) on Friday - hence the reason there was no note last week. Thank you for your prayers and understanding.

Our "Summer of Service '07" is well underway and has been a blessing! On July 4th the Mace's and Workman's represented our church at the "Freedom Celebration" sponsored by the Chapel in Akron. Bill Mace worked the children's mini-golf game, and Debbie Mace handed out the prizes. Beth, Joshua, and I gave out water and lemonade, and Leah was recruited to "face paint" even though she never did it before! But the kids didn't care. This was a great way to celebrate freedom - by serving others. Join in next year. Here are some pictures of us in action:

This week has been the Baptist Mid Missions Annual Conference held in our area - another opportunity to serve. I appreciate Beth and Leah representing our church (and Denise Gentile, but they sent her home because of not enough kids to watch.) Here are some of those pictures:

It was a huge blessing to attend a couple of the meetings and mingle with the over 300 missionaries who attended. We were glad to see Mark and Becki Lounsbrough and their family - we support their work in Brazil.

This Sunday, July 15 we will enjoy learning and worship together in the Lord. Our ABF's continue to meet at 9:30 AM and in our 10:45 AM Worship service we will sing and then consider "God's Grace and Our Giving" from 2 Corinthians 8 as we continue our study through this book. Looking at this passage will show us not only about the how's and why's of giving, but some deeper issues involving Christian love. And I hope that we will see that we are not just giving, but mainly investing in lives for Christ's sake.

Remember that we continue this Sunday evening "suspension" of our regular evening service format, but Jeff Sheldon will still be here for a Bible study with any interested. We will be holding a meeting at 4:30 PM for everyone involved and interested in our "Sports 4 Life" program beginning July 22 at 6:00 PM. The meeting will last about an hour and will further explain responsibilities and how it will run. If you signed up, or plan to, you need to be there. If you still need a ministry area, we will assign you then. After this meeting we hope you will help out by distributing flyers for the program in the remaining neighborhoods not covered at last Sunday's distribution time.

For our board members please remember our meeting this Thursday, July 19 at 5:30 PM at the Workman's home. Let me know of your agenda items this Sunday. And for everyone, please keep us in your prayers as we meet - we desire God's best for our church.

Thanks to Deanna (Riddle) Edwards and her husband, Sam for a good explanation of what the "atom" sign up at the bottom of this page means. Refer to their comments from the last post to explain it, and I hope you will sign up for it. And be sure to leave your own comments or greetings, all of us enjoy hearing from you.

Before I go, here is a picture of Nicholas from this past week as he attended his first county fair. We found out that he just LOVES dogs, so they "face painted" him like one:

Sarah said he also came away with two balloons, a light necklace, several toys and some other things, all given to him for being so "cute." Sounds like he made a haul! And this past week he had some "firsts" - chicken (that baby kind, like a paste which made him gag) and sugar free ice cream (he cried when there was no more.)

It has been good to have Jessica Goodrich home for a week or so and to sing last Sunday. A lot of our people are "coming and going" at this time of year, please keep all in your prayers.

And pray that our services this Sunday will touch lives deeply for the Lord, and that what we offer Him will be acceptable and pleasing. We pray some might come to trust Him as Saviour, we know that causes rejoicing all around.

God bless you - Pastor Don Workman