Good Friday morning everyone! TGIF! It's an amazing, beautiful day here in sunny Mansfield, Ohio. I hope you have fantastic plans for this weekend. Personally, I'm running in the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) 5k Run/Walk tomorrow morning. Getting some exercise, donating to a great cause, and earning a new t-shirt... how does it get any better than that? If you don't already have Saturday morning plans (9am), come out to the fairgrounds and cheer on this slow body. Or cheer on our own Jana Edwards as she will probably lap me!
Our children will all be in town at one time or another this weekend to support their mom! Not only is Mary Kay the catalyst behind the NAMI 5k, but Sunday being Mother's Day, she will be the most honored person of our family's weekend plans. At one time - back when I was a naive and inexperienced husband - I tried to explain to her that the title to the day was "Mother's" Day and not "Wife's" Day, thinking that our kids were solely in charge of the honoring responsibilities. I'm happy to report that our relationship has survived that hapless era of our marriage. Guys, if your wife is also the mother to your children, don't miss this opportunity to say how awesome she really is!
One of the best ways to do this is to BRING ALL MOMS to Church Requel on Sunday evening! We have gone all out to honor all of our moms. We have a very special worship service planned this weekend. We have praise music - led by Tim and Jillian Vincent - specially selected by our CR moms as their favorites! We'll enjoy a funny and poignant visit from the Skit Guys. Every mom walking in the door will receive a flower. We also have some special gifts set aside for some of our most special moms. And I've written a Mother's Day sermon that will remind our M.O.M.s to Model, Obseve and Motivate their children. Sunday night's 6pm worship service will be one of our most special ever!
Before I wrap up this Friday morning message I want to pass along a "thank you" encouragement to Patty, who is my Friday morning waitress at Paul Revere's Family Restaurant. She watches me write many of these messages while keeping my coffee cup filled AND she's on our email list. Recently she enjoyed a vacation to Florida (she also obviously took all our warm weather with her!) She told me that she looks forward to her weekly, Friday-morning email from Church Requel. Last week I was late in getting the email out. Patty told me she checked her email down in Florida several times throughout the day wondering when the email would arrive. Thanks Patty for letting me know that there are folks who look forward to this weekly message from Church Requel!
Or maybe you are more of a Church Requel Podcast fan. Jana Edwards (yes - the aforementioned runner who will most likely finish the run well ahead of me tomorrow morning) texted me that she loved last weekend's podcast and found another great use for it. She was at a conference in Kentucky this week with her brother. He was keeping her awake with his snoring so she took out the headphones and listened to the CR podcast to drown him out! If nothing else we are good for white noise!!!
How about you? Do you like knowing what's happening at Church Requel? I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for reading. Thanks for supporting Church Requel. Hope to see you Sunday night at CR!
With great affection, Pastor Mark
