Good Friday morning Church Requel!
I'm back to my Friday newsletter writing today. Last week Mary Kay and I took a mini-honeymoon in Chicago to celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary. We had a great time together!
We have so much to write about today. Let's start with Baptism Sunday! This Sunday Leia and Eric will be baptized in the Church Requel baptismal pool. Yay! I had a chance to interview Leia about her baptism Sunday. In fact I even recorded a little of our conversation and will be playing this video for you before her baptism.
Eric is a newer attender at Church Requel. He told me that he recommitted his life to Christ a few weeks ago and would like to be baptized also. I told him the water was warm and inviting!
By the way, it's not too late... if you would also like to be baptized Sunday just let me know. We will be happy to include you as well!
Potluck Sunday. It has been such a long time since we've enjoyed a potluck meal together. We couldn't think of a better reason to celebrate than for the end-of-summer baptisms.
So just in case you have forgotten how this works... each family should bring at least one dish to share. It could be a casserole, or a salad / side dish, dessert... even a bag of chips or a carton of cookies will do. We don't assign anything to anybody and we invite everyone in the church family to enjoy this feast and fellowship.
The church will provide all the paper plates, eating utensils, napkins. We've also purchased and prepared ham slices as a main entree. And yes, we couldn't resist sharing an early picture of Bryan leading the way. This has become a Church Requel tradition. No complaints as of yet from Bryan.
Your Generosity Is Turning Heads! Since I last wrote to you we have offered a Saturday night neighborhood meal in our kitchen downstairs (accompanied by a ukulele guy!) Last Monday many of you showed up here at the church to prepare a lunch down at the People Helping People Pavilion.
Yesterday we were contacted by someone wanting to help us help others. They made a generous contribution to our food pantry! Yay! Speaking of the food pantry, please continue to contribute. Each week we give away bags of groceries both to those within our congregation needing help and to those who just show up and ask for help. Since Don Angel has taken on the food pantry leadership and has moved into the Church Requel Chome, we have seen a pretty dramatic increase in the amount of help we are providing. So thank you! Don't tire of doing good!
The Songs Of Worship... Here is another tradition we have on Baptism Sunday... (wow... for a young church we sure have a lot of traditions already!) We LOVE to celebrate with music. This Baptism Sunday will be no exception.
Here are the songs we are planning for this Sunday: "There's Nothing That Our God Can't Do" by Passion; "Battle Belongs" by Phil Wickham; (NEW) "Run To The Father" by Cody Carnes; (NEW - and requested by Leia) "Amen" by Micah Tyler; "River Of Life" by Mac Powell; and "Restart" by Newsboys. Sounds like a mini-worship-concert to me!
The "River Of Life" song is perfect for baptism. We plan to play and sing that one just as long as is necessary for you all to come up and congratulate the newly baptized after their baptism. Maybe we should give Momma Brandi first dibs on congratulating Leia so Brandi can get back to her keyboard... what do you think?
One Last Word. Mary Kay's wallet was stolen out of her purse last Sunday. Mary Kay was helping to clean up after church and was taking out the trash. She left her purse under the pew. A man who had come into the church early Sunday (around 8:30am) and who remained the entire time sat behind Mary Kay and me in the back pew. From the descriptions given to us by local store owners, we know this was the man. We gave him coffee and donuts and a place to hang out for a few hours... and he stole from us.
As soon as Mary Kay got home she knew she had been robbed. We rushed back to the church hoping that whoever took her wallet would have taken the cash and left the wallet thrown away somewhere. No such luck. Just the opposite in fact. He took her credit cards and went to as many local stores as possible in as quick a time as possible and purchased cigarettes. Within the hour that it took us to realize her wallet was gone and to call the credit card companies, he had made 4 purchases totaling more than $500 of cigarettes.
I'm not going to sugar coat this for you. Sunday was a bummer of a day for us. We spent the entire day contacting every company that had any connection with Mary Kay's wallet. Sundays are not a good day to be robbed (followed closely by Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.) We have come to the conclusion that it is easier to get credit from a store than it is to report a stolen credit card to a store.
Both of us felt defeated and honestly, just a little sorry for ourselves. Our unspoken heart prayers the rest of that day probably sounded a lot like, really God? This is how your servants are rewarded for taking out the trash in the church? I know this isn't pretty... just real. That night I think we double locked just about every door and window we had. After all, the thief had (still has?) Mary Kay's drivers license with her address.
Yes, of course we reported this immediately to the Mansfield Police Department. And yes, every store in which the thief used our credit cards also had video surveillance of him committing the crime. But so far no luck in catching our thief.
The next day just happened to be the day we were scheduled to serve at the Pavilion downtown. I went and helped out, but I have to admit that my heart really wasn't in it. After the Sunday robbery episode, I began looking at the people we were helping as the people that might hurt us. I know this isn't how you expect your pastor to talk or to think, but guys this is honesty. When you are hurt or taken advantage of, it's normal and natural to wallow in some stinkin' thinkin'.
While I was at the Pavilion and doing my best to stay in the background (I didn't want to infect anyone else with my own moroseness), a local man came up to me and just wouldn't respect any boundaries. He wanted to talk with me. He wanted to smile with me. He told me how much he appreciated me. And he wondered if we could get a selfie photo together. How do you turn down someone like that? How do you NOT smile when someone is so gregarious with their own joy towards you?
Afterwards I realized that this was God's not-so-subtle-message to me. Yes, serving Me sometimes brings on heartache and hardships. Yes, Mark, you do recall those sermons about Christianity and suffering?
With the joy being expressed to me through this one local man, I realized with clarity that I could not allow the criminal act of one lost soul to keep me from God's calling and mission and JOY in my life!
And I decided to share this story with you all - for a couple reasons. ONE - be reminded that your pastor is human just like you and is tempted and tried just like you. I don't always respond the way my logical mind tells me I should. And that's ok. Trust me, it makes for better sermons.
TWO - when (not if) you find yourself in the fecal winds of the world's oscillating device, look for the joy. Look for God. Look for His message of affirmation and love. He promises NEVER to leave us or forsake us. He just may have to send a joyful, smiling, no-boundary person your way to remind you of His Presence. If that happens accept His Presence as your Present for the day. And find your smile again too.
Love you all much! Pastor Mark
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