Revival and SIGMA

We are in revival with Brother Joe Arthur this week and last night was great! He preached a terrific sermon on the fire and how God uses it to empty us, empower us, and entreat us, using illustrations of the times the Bible says Peter was by the fire. Oh, it was good! I'm looking forward to tonight.




Here's some pics from SIGMA Wednesday night. The Eagles were doing a skit here. I believe this one was when Peter was walking on the water and lost his faith. Justin was Peter.



Here they are doing a game of fast-paced pictionary with a twist. Brother RJ gave them so much time to do as many Bible drawings as they could while their team shouted out the answers. It was pretty interesting to say the least.

LeAnna is a pretty good artist, I must say! I have no idea what that other character is wearing. LOL

Elizabeth with her big grin!

Hannah and Cassie after their prayer time together.

We've had a great deal of people sick in our church with the flu. I'm sure you're all experiencing it where you live also. It's been very bad, hasn't it?

Here is a video of our Ladies Trio singing What's Wrong With Living Right last night at Revival. Hope it's a blessing!

I Assure You, It Is NOT Mother's Day!

All right, today's post is for "Little" John O' and his friend that were in a panic the other day when they read this post....

Remember how Bruce went to have lunch with his mom last week? And I went to have lunch with my mom on the same day? And I titled my post It's Mother's Day! Well, two mothers were frantically called by very remorseful sons who are in Bible college way out yonder in California, apologizing for forgetting Mother's Day.

Now, boys, haven't you been sons long enough to know that Mother's Day is always in the spring? And that Mother's Day is ALWAYS on a Sunday? And that Mother's Day is never, NEVER in Februrary??? I mean, FEBRUARY!!!! Wasn't that a clue? Are you studying so hard for exams that you THOUGHT it was May?

I suppose I should take some sort of blame for this kafuffle, but honestly boys, did you even READ the post? I also suppose it's comforting for these mother's to know that if their sons, did in fact, forget Mother's Day, they would feel extremely sorrowful.

Quite honestly, I've gotten myself a nice little chuckle out of this story tonight. Mainly because I know "Little" John well enough to know that if he gets around to reading today's post, he'll just hang his head, wag it back and forth, all the while wearing that grin of his that only he has.

Fret not, Dear John, you have until Sunday, May 11, before it is TRULY Mother's Day.

I Have Not Forgotten

These are videos of my Pastor's sermon at the Heritage of America Bible Conference Monday night at Springmore Baptist Church. Please keep in mind that the quality of sound is not great because I was using my little camera. HOWEVER! Brother Chad did give Pastor one of those lapel mics, and that helped a lot. Pastor has a tendency to move around and out from behind the pulpit. He can't just stand there. So if he goes out of view, I promise he'll come back. Also, there are three links to click. I knew blogger had a limit on video length so I had to video in segments. But at one point I forgot I was video taping and left the camera running too long and blogger refused it. So I went to YouTube and they also rejected it. I don't know why, I've seen much longer videos on there. ANYWAY! My last resort was Photobucket and they just happen to have a brand new feature where you can cut and edit your video clips. YAY! So the links are there to continue on with the sermon. If you have about thirty minutes to 45 minutes to watch these, I think it'll be a blessing to you!

Click here for Part 6

Click here for Part 7

Click here for Part 8

Tonight we attended Springmore Baptist Church to hear our Pastor preach a message for their first Heritage of America Bible Conference. The Pastor there is Brother Chad Jones with his sweet wife, Rebecca, serving along beside him. They are special friends and we love them bunches. Chad and Rebecca were members of our church when the Lord called Brother Chad into the ministry. He took a small church and they have worked extremely hard at building it up. The fruit of their labor was very evident tonight. It was such a blessing to see how the Lord was blessing in their church.

They have several of Ambassador Baptist College students attending and working in their church so the service had that Bible college atmosphere. Coupled with Brother Chad's old fashioned preaching and enthusiasm, it was a wonderful service.


As usual, Pastor Goodman was plugged in and goin'! He preached a teriffic message on I Have Not Forgotten. I video taped his sermon in segments so I'll be posting those soon.


Here is their choir singing I'm On The Winning Side.

Brother Chad and Rebecca, it really was a blessing seeing you and your children and how the Lord is blessing there at Springmore. We Love y'all!!

To See A Play

Susan, from Fruit Basket Turnover, invited our second to fifth grade homeschoolers to come see her daughter, Ally, play the white rabbit in a musical production of Alice in Wonderland. There was an extra seat or two left so Hannah was able to join us. We had a really good time. I didn't want to use my flash for all of the pictures, so some of them are a tad blury.



Eagerly awaiting for the play to begin.


Alice is bored as her sister reads to her, eventually falling asleep and dreaming herself into Wonderland. Well, you know the story!


Alice is talking to the door.


She ate the cookie and grew big.


She drank the drink and became small.


Ate some more cookie and became normal again. Here she is meeting Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.


Alice talking to the White Rabbit.


Alice took another bite of that cookie and grew too big for the house!


Alice meets the snooty flowers.


Alice at the Mad Hatter's tea party.


The White Rabbit is still running late!!!!



The playing cards are painting the Queen's roses red.



Alice is in court before the Queen orders her head be cut off.


The closing finale.


Here's the White Rabbits big entrance.


Thank you, Mrs. Susan and Ally, for inviting us. It was a terrific play and we had a really good time!

Guess What We Played After Church Last Night...

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza.....

We had a SIGMA outing tonight at Mr. Gatti's. My mother usually keeps Harrison for us when we have an outing, but she was working today out of town. So Bruce called his mom and asked if she would keep Harry.
My microwave stopped working this week. Bruce and I went out pricing and looking for a new one before dropping Harrison off at Marie's. But then Bruce wanted to go eat. He stopped to pick his mom up and she wanted to eat at Pizza Hut.


After dropping Marie and Harrison back at her house, we boarded the bus with thirty people and headed to Spartanburg, SC to Mr. Gatti's.


Mrs. Liz was being VERY sweet to her mother on the phone. The level of her sweetness would determine the items to be placed in her box coming from Massachusetts. Hehe


While the rest of us were eating the PIZZA buffet and playing games, Justin was enjoying a birthday party for Alfalfa.


Bruce was going crazy, slipping back "into the day" playing Galaga.

Clayton was racing. I couldn't make him understand it wasn't real.

Dustin shot hoops....unsuccessfully, I might add. No, no, no, I'm kidding....he was great.

I have no idea what Evan and Jeremy were playing, but every game with a gun seemed to call them.

Parker and Hannah took a virtual roller coaster ride. Hannah must have liked it because she rode it twice with Brenda Jane before talking Parker into riding with her the third time. Parker, on the other hand, asked, "You wasted your money on this?"

Cleaning, Errands, Friends, Groceries, Friends.....

I got up early yesterday to clean mom's house and then ran by her bank to drop off the medicine she had forgotten to take that morning. I rushed home, straightened up a bit, checked over school work, threw in a load of laundry, and freshened up for my Friday lunch with Bruce. This week was a little different for us because we shared our time with friends....Brian and Amy and their cutie pie son, Cameron, whom we'll just call Chicken Boy. His daddy said he eats so much chicken he's gonna fly away one day. Bruce and I had the gyros from Showmars and they were really good. But the fellowship was better.


Brian was giving Justin a very nice punching bag, so they followed us home after lunch to drop it off. Bruce had to leave for work so as soon as Brian and Amy left, I hopped in the car to do some grocery shopping while Justin carried all the pieces to the punching bag to his room and put it together. Brother Brian, just so you'll know, Justin, Jeremy, and Bruce have already had some great workouts with it.


I rushed through the grocery store, just grabbing what looked good. I know what you're thinking, Rachel, but I just didn't have time for coupons today. Anyway! I'm really not sure what all I grabbed, but I am pretty positive I got everything we needed. Oh wait, nope....I forgot self rising flour. I KNEW I'd forget something. So anyway, I got home with the groceries and while the kids unloaded the car, I put Harrison's pizza in the oven. The other two wanted hoagies..simple enough, just grab some from the deli department! Hannah whipped up some dip for their chips while I, once again, went to freshen up. Freshen up for what you may ask. A girl's night in at my friend, Rebecca's, home. She was very congenial and hospitable. Although the girl's night was for both of us, she made it all about me. Now fess up...who wouldn't like that??? Her husband is a manager of the managers for the Pizza Huts in this area so of COURSE there was Pizza Hut pizza involved. Pepperoni Lover's deep dish for me and cheese pizza for her. Mmmm Here she is with one of her cats, who has the CUTEST little face.


And don't let me fail to mention the table of veg-out snacks she had prepared. By the way, we call it veg-out food, but there is never a vegetable to be found. Anyway, she went all out in the food department and me with nothing in hand but a growling tummy. Those delicious looking things to the left were brownies topped with some kind of mousse and caramel and chocolate topping. Oh me, were they ever good! And the lovely rose was bought for me too. It is now adorning my own table.

Thank you, Rebecca. I had a good time with you, just being a girl and chit chatting away the evening!

SIGMA

Last night in SIGMA, Brother RJ took us over to the gym for a few minutes of kickball to expel a little energy that had built in the youth since school let out that afternoon. HA!
Brother Jeff, although suffering greatly with a kidney stone, was our pitcher....roller....what would he be called anyway?


John H


Nathaniel....These pictures of Nathaniel were taken right after he kicked the ball. I thought they were kind of funny.



When we were finished with kickball, Brother RJ took us back to the fellowship building for announcements. John found Percey's glasses and tried them on. Very natural looking, aren't they?


Next thing was studying and saying Bible verses.
Gary


Tyler


Every week, Brother RJ divides the youth into different groups. Sometimes by birth month, sometimes by place of birth, sometimes by age, sometimes by hair color, etc....whatever he comes up with. That way, each one is in a different prayer group each week.


And then it was time for preaching. They gathered around the tables because we're keeping them up for next weekend. Which, by the way, is our revival with Brother Joe Arthur. That Saturday night will be youth emphasis night. We're still having old time preachin' revival, but the revival will be centered around youth. A few churches have said they're coming. Our youth choir will be singing and we'll be having pizza after the evening service. We're looking forward to it.