Hey everyone! How are you doing on this Memorial Day weekend TGIF? There's just something special about the Friday before a long weekend! I hope that among your other special plans you include Church Requel this Sunday evening at 6pm.
We have some special plans too! Do you remember that scene in the Willy Wonka movie (the first one with Gene Wilder) when Charlie finds the last golden ticket? We who are authentic Christ-followers also have a golden ticket, even an eternal ticket, into Heaven! In our final sermon from The God Life series we will discover if it is possible to know for sure that we are Heaven bound. Is there such a thing as confirmation of our eternal travel plans? Come Sunday night to CR to find out!
Those are just the pastor's sermon plans. There is so much else going on too at CR these days! Jack and Sheri's wedding is only eight days away! Lissa and Randy just found out they are expecting a baby girl! And Sean and Kyle are only days away from graduating from high school. How could you possibly stay away from all this excitement?
And if you have a pre-schooler you won't want to keep them away from CR Sunday night. I have it on very good authority that Shannon has made some special plans of her own for the nursery kids Sunday evening. It seems like whenever Shannon shows up, so do all the kids! The more the merrier!
We also have included some special videos remembering our armed servicemen and women who have sacrificed so much that we might have the freedom to worship. In our countdown we'll see excerpts from a speech from President Reagan. And the Skit Guys have come up with another exceptional way to remember. We plan to honor our families with loved ones who are currently serving in the military as well as our veterans.
So don't stay out in the heat Sunday. Come in with your CR friends to the air-conditioned chapel for an hour of praise, prayer, communion and celebration. You'll be glad you did!
From This Past Week. If you missed it there are a couple things you might want to check out. First, last Saturday the Mansfield News Journal published a Viewpoint article written by yours truly. If you would like to read it, I've put a copy of it up on the CR blog. It's called "Mad Men, Gravity, and God." Also, more and more folks are listening to the weekly podcast distributed every Monday. This past week - in addition to the sermon - we talked about Facebook's IPO and the man who bought out the K-Mart store and gave it to charity. You can listen to the podcast on our church website here.
Prayers This Week. Keep praying for Dick Jourdan. He visited his surgeon this week and is scheduled for bypass surgery on June 25th. Also keep your prayers going up for Lincoln Bohnke. He now weighs 4 lbs 9 1/2 ounces and remains in stable condition at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Dan and Katie heard the disappointing news this past week that because he is still so dependent on the ventilator, they will not be able to bring Lincoln home until later in the summer at the earliest. In addition to praying for the Bohnkes, you could also leave an encouraging note on their CaringBridge website.
That does it for the "What's Happening" post this week. I hope to see you all Sunday night at Church Requel!
With great affection! Pastor Mark
