Easter 2008

Thanks for your prayers.

Easter 2008 was a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus as well as our first year as a church. We were concerned about our 200 goal because Spring break took about 30 college students from us. The home community leaders helped set this goal and had worked hard to reach this. However, God was moving at our Easter Brunch/Worship.

We had 125 come for worship. Dignity Village brought 15 folks. 5 neighbors came from the areawide mailout (we sent our 15000 flyers). We had about 40+ visitors total. We had a lot of kids who stayed for the egg hunt and kids' games. The Home Communities all had booths such as face painting, duck pond, fishing pond, obstacle course, bean bag toss, and ring toss. We also had ham, eggs, fruit, and one of our folks made cake. A new local coffee shop next door to the school provided our coffee and we are looking forward to a great relationship with them each Sunday. It was a great time of fellowship, worship, and prayer.




Elliott Munson was baptized. He is a friend of Brandon and Whitney who were baptized a couple weeks ago. We all cheered as he put on Christ there at the football field. His girlfriend Lynnea should follow soon. Viola Hoxha translated the baptism talk into Albanian and also translated some of the worship for 3 Albanian families who came.

We also now have 12 home communities. Our pre-marital home group which currently has 6 couples, had 5 more couples sign up today. We plan to make this a new home community.

God was moving as many of our visitors stated that they felt welcome and accepted here. During the "How have you seen God working this week," 5 people mentioned they got a job. Everyone clapped. The sermon was about Jacob being called back to Bethel (Genesis 35) and that Jesus is our Bethel (John 1:50-52). As we are becoming more ethnically diverse I notice that "Amens" seem to flow more and more when people talk. It's pretty exciting.

God is moving this so fast it is scary, exciting, and addicting. I never felt comfortable when things were out of control but now I know God is in control and we have to grab hold and hang on. The worst thing we can do is back off--so we need a lot of prayers. It is good to see Satan get his butt kicked every once in a while.

Go God!