Good Friday morning Church Requel!
And it is a Good Friday - at least for the Pierce household. Late Monday night a large storm that included 3 local tornadoes blew through our area. Trees were down everywhere - along with broken electric lines. Nearly 60,000 of us in North Central Ohio have been without power for most of the time since. Our power came back on yesterday afternoon. Most of you have had your power restored too. Yet there are still 4300 Richland County electric customers who still don't have power as of this writing.
Like most of you - we were in survival mode most of the week. We called it "Camp Pierce". The power outage gave us a good chance to see how prepared... or not prepared... we were to be without electricity flowing automatically through the lines with the flick of a switch. Most of us are not taking this miracle of electric power for granted this morning.
Sound System Install - Luckily I started working on the sound system early on Monday - the only day we had power - and the only day I really needed power to work on the sound system. Most of the rest of the week was a matter of laying down the cable and connecting all the new sound mixers to brackets and to our praise team stands. We haven't had a chance to try it out yet - and it will still probably be several weeks before we make the switch over to the new system. However, we were able to get a lot of work done this week. We made good progress. For all of you who were so generous with your giving to make this possible - THANK YOU!
Our Worship Plans For Sunday. Sunday will be Father's Day here in the U.S. Father's Day is also celebrated in the United Kingdom this coming Sunday as well. Why do I report this little holiday factoid you ask? Because Don and Vanessa Causley from Devon, England will be sharing their worship gifts with us Sunday. Don has some valuable insights on Father's Day from a personal perspective. He will be sharing right at the start of the worship service, so don't be late! Vanessa has a special song to sing - "Everything" by Lauren Daigle. I think this one might be the best Vanessa has ever done! If you're like me, you'll be walking away thinking to yourself, 'Wow!'
If you are like Don and Vanessa - as well as many others - who watch the worship service online - you can tune into our Facebook page or watch on YouTube - https://youtu.be/xG3UlsKzxCg.
We will all be wearing our Hawaiian shirts again and will have the colorful leis for you to wear when you come in. Let's continue our festive summer celebration at Church Requel!
Here are the songs we plan to sing Sunday: "Father's House" by Cory Asbury; (NEW) "The God Who Stays" by Matthew West; "Run To The Father" by Cody Carnes; "So Will I (100 Billion X)" by Hillsong; and "Good Good Father" by Chris Tomlin.
Hymns 4 Him #3. We will continue our summer Hymns 4 Him series with an appropriate Hymn for Father's Day: "This Is My Father's World" by Maltie Babcock. As always we will learn 4 takeaway lessons from this hymn.
I'm guessing that this may be a new one for some of you. Don't worry. I'm looking forward to teaching it to you. As always, I hope you walk away with a new appreciation for our hymns as well as those who wrote them.
I must tell you that sometimes my sermon writing takes an unexpected twist or turn. That definitely happened this week. You may think that the pastor knows exactly where he is going when he sits down to write. However, if one is committed to following the lead of the Holy Spirit, then the sermon writer himself can also be surprised by what comes out!
Here are the online notes for this Sunday sermon - for those of you who just can't wait to see the winding road of the sermon writer: http://bible.com/events/48909151.
That's all I have for you this week. Remain faithful. Keep the faith! Share your faith! Invite someone to come to church with you Sunday morning! Love you much, Pastor Mark
