Tonight we have our section’s annual Harvest Festival. All the Assembly of God churches in our area get together for a potluck and a service. Each church collects groceries and brings those, too. The groceries are than divided between pre-decided pastors from our area that could use some help. My family happens to be one of those families. This is always such a blessing to us. Our canned goods last us through the whole year! It’s really amazing! This is one more way that God blesses us. There is also a love offering taken up that gets split. There is another family in our area that always gets blessed, too. They have 7 kids, I think. I’m sure it must help them enormously, too.
I’m looking forward to the service. The festival is a lot closer to us this year than it ever has been. Only about 30 minutes instead of 60 or 70 minutes. That means that we have a lot more people from our church attending! Yay! There is going to be a time of thanksgiving with each church given 5 minutes to tell about the great things we have to be thankful this year in our church. I really hope that we can get someone, other than the hubby and I, up there to talk. I would love to hear what our people think! I have plenty I could say, but I’d rather hear others.
So, today, I’ve been praying for courage for our people that come. None of them are used to getting up in front of other people. It’s getting better, but right now hubby and I do all the in front of people ministry. There is a LOT of stuff that gets done because of thier hard work, to make the church run smoothly and look nice, behind the scenes. But, like I said they aren’t used to being in front of people. So, I pray God will give them courage to get up there and say something that will bless them, us and everyone else there.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)
Maybe I should have read that verse yesterday morning…
12/11/2007 at 10:42 pm Permalink
What would you have said?
12/11/2007 at 11:08 pm Permalink
I’d have talked about how I see differences in our church lately. How more people are getting involved-E coming every Sunday morning to sweep cobwebs from the church doorway so I don’t have to (and I know she is praying for us and the church at the same time), people being more open to us the longer we’ve been here (I think they feel safer knowing we’re in it for the long haul). I’d have talked about how I’ve had the opportunity to meet some families our age lately (which is amazing in our area) and how great the coffee shop is going for the kids. People come up to me and ask me about how the coffee shop is doing. People are intrigued by what is happening at our church. It’s been such an off-to-itself church for too long. Now they are seeing we are here to stay and make positive changes to our community. We really have a lot of potential and it seems we are just getting into our stride.