Make a Difference

Each person is fearfully and wonderfully made by God and makes a difference to someone in this world.  This video is touching and shows the difference we can all make by expressing our love for others.  Why not make a difference in someone's life today by telling them how much they mean to you.  Do it before it is too late.

Especially for NATHANIEL!!!

I had a wonderful time on my trip to California!! My family has this "thing" about surprising each other - it's always so much fun! (you should ask Linda about the time Mother and Daddy surprised her in North Carolina - that story is priceless!!) Ronda's face when she saw Linda & me tells the whole story.

When I flew in on Wednesday, Nathaniel picked me up and we had about 3 hours to waste until Linda flew in. So... we ate at Cheesecake Factory, drove around San Jose seeing neat places to live downtown, went to Best Buy, drove by the "Shark Tank" (which I asked if it was an aquarium for sharks - LOL! It's actually the venue where the San Jose Sharks play hockey!!), went to a car dealership, and I don't remember what else. We had a great time. It's been a while since I've gotten to spend any time with 'than, so it was really fun.

After the surprise on Wednesday night, we stayed up LATE!! Does that shock anyone? We had to get in every moment together that we could. 

Thursday we went to San Jose and met Bobbie and Nanci at Santana Row for lunch, shopping and ice cream (we always HAVE to get ice cream in remembrance of Mother). 

Again, it was a LATE night - I think this was the night that Linda and Ronda outlasted ME!! That doesn't happen often, but I went to bed!

Friday - Ronda, Linda and I stayed home in our robes until time to get ready for the party. It was a fun, relaxing day. Just before the party, we met Uncle C.W., Aunt Gloria and Valere at Foster's Freeze (this was especially for Linda). Yum-yum!

Friday night was the wonderful party for Ronda.  

Many kind words were spoken of her. Nathan and others wanted us to kind of "roast" Ronda, but we discovered she is just un-roast-able (is that a word?). In fact, Nathan ended up being the one "roasted". LOL! Of course, we may pick on Nathan, but we all know who to call when we want someone to pray for a need in our lives!!!

Saturday we were able to spend some time with Jimmy & Bobbie Shoemake, Randy & Sharon Keyes and Jonathan Shoemake. It was FUN and enjoyable. FUN, FUN, FUN!! These are lifelong friends of my family. The Shoemakes and Keyes were part of my family even before I was!!!

Sunday was a wonderful time with the Pentecostal Church of Hollister. 

What an incredible church family! 

I loved the service, I loved their worship and I loved hearing Nathan preach! (can't wait for him to preach in Pflugerville!)

One of the things I enjoyed so much in service was getting to see Nathaniel and Danelle in their respective roles at the church.

I'm so proud of them and who they have become. They are awesome people (and Matt, too)!!!

Sunday evening we met up with Gary and Patricia, Matt and Danelle at a barbecue place. Good food, good fun, good friends, good family!!

Monday, I came home after eating an awesome cheeseburger at In-N-Out!!! My husband and boys always have something to welcome me home - this time I came home to this sign and a clean house. I have the best three men in my life a girl could ask for!!

To see and read more - from maybe a different perspective - visit my sisters' blogs: Linda and Ronda.

Friend Sunday

We enjoyed a great time with friends today!  We had several back in service with us from Easter and some brand new guests.  One of them found us on the internet!  Several of our guests were crying after the message - touched by His Spirit.  We didn't have classes today, just our 11am worship service.

Following worship and altar, we gathered in our new (unfinished) Youth Center and had a great time of fellowship.  The church provided yummy brisket from Rudy's and all the families brought side dishes and desserts.  It was fantastic!  It was cool enough and such beautiful weather that we opened the big overhead door and let the sunshine and breeze in.

My wife and I were so aggravated when the last person left and we were cleaning up— realizing that we didn't take even ONE picture while everyone was having such a great time.  So, I grabbed the camera and took pictures of where they had been!

The youth ate in the loft.

We set up tables and used our newly donated chairs. We even used the scaffolding to serve dessert on!

Chad's friend from school, Ahn, came with us this morning and then got permission to go to service tonight at the Bernard's! He is a great guy. He also came when the Henry's were here for Revival services. He comes over to our house after school quite a bit. He is from Vietnam and his family immigrated to America within the last 6 years or so.  He is teased quite often about his name- pronounced "On".  At least he is never "Off"!

Here she is! Mrs. America! Leaving the church after a long and tiring day, but feeling fulfilled in our purpose.

Final Note: Say a prayer for our founding member, Sis. Faye.  Her 94-year-old mother passed away today in Elgin, Texas while all of us were enjoying dinner together.  It was expected, but still hurts.   It looks like I will officiate the funeral.

He knows what we need.

We had 22 visitors last week and 12 yesterday!  Several who were there last week, joined us again this weekend.  It always blesses me to see new faces come into the house of the Lord and to see them changed the presence of God.  I needed to see some new faces— anybody else ever feel that way?!  He knows what we need.

Our VBS mom, the lady we baptized just recently, asked to speak to me after service yesterday.  As I approached her after the message, she said, "I don't have to talk to you now!  You answered by question during the preaching!"  I said, "Well, God knew just what you needed!"  She had tears in her eyes just realizing that God was watching out for her.  He knew what she needed.

We missed my wife so much yesterday, as she was out in Hollister, CA with her "old" sister, Ronda Hurst!! (she's not the oldest, though!)  We are looking forward to Karla's return tonight.  When God put Karla in my life, He knew what I needed!

Whatever your need, He knows how to fill it.  Call out to Him.  "You have not, because you ask not."  From our point of view, we need a youth leader, Sunday School teachers, a bus driver, land and more....  We ask.  He is able.

The work continues...

Paint, paint and more paint.

It has not gone near as fast as our last remodel because of having to work realty this year.  We have been having fun along with our work.  There is something so special about the times when we come together to do work for the Kingdom!

Cobra sighting

On my way to the office yesterday on Capitol of Texas Highway, I heard quite a roaring noise and suddenly I was surrounded by Cobras!  There had to be at least 20 or more of these little sports cars.  They were really cool looking and especially loud.  As quick as they came, they took off and were gone.  It was fun just thinking about being a part of a trip like that, but not for now.

Thankfully, they were driving better than this woman!

Free Resources

I just posted about this on my Austin/Hill Country Home Missions blog, but thought I would post it here too!  It is called "Mister Nifty" and it really has a lot of neat resources and all of them are FREE!  If you do any church projects, you will probably find something on here that you can put to use.  There are some great graphics for churches to use in presentations and resources for all the office work that takes place in our ministries.  It was created by one of our UPCI ministers and has been really a great help to me.  Here's what they have to say about this service:

Mister Nifty was created to help churches find great free resources. The resources listed here are intended to link organizations with low budgets to high tech tools online. If you don’t have a solid technical team consider Mister Nifty to be your IT department. You don’t have to put us on your payroll, all we ask is that you pass the word to other churches. What a great deal for you!

Mister Nifty was created by Brian Fegter, who resides in Cooper City, Florida. He is currently an assistant pastor at The Pentecostals of Cooper City. He also is co-owner of TheCardGuys.com, a design firm leading the fight against ugly business cards. Brian has a passion for helping churches on low budgets connect with free software and resources to make them more effective in their ministry endeavors.

Easter Service and another Record Crowd

We are so excited about our Easter Sunday service. We have been preparing for several weeks for this special day. We had 66 in attendance— another record for us!  Our last record was 63. We had only 4 chairs left!  The presence of the Lord was there as we sang and the message was given.  We had visitors crying and experiencing His touch.

We also had a BIG egg hunt following service!  Everyone had a great time.  Some of our young people setup the hunt during the message (Cameron, Chad, Lindsey, Kayleen and Melody.)  They brought shoes to wear in the field protecting their good ones.  They were stylin' in their Easter outfits and casual shoes!  They did a great job putting out 500 eggs.

Chad and Cameron wore their new suits.  Chad's tie was picked out by Alayna Elms while she was in town last weekend!  He has told everyone who compliments him how his little cousin made the choice.

Cameron wore a knit tie like I had during the 80's!  You know, the kind with a square end.

Happy Easter!

I, along with everyone else, have tried to figure out why Easter is SOOO early this year. This information was sent to me by a lady in our church. I didn't research it so don't know if it is exactly correct, but at least it gives some sort of explanation. Hope this helps you all!! ;-)

Easter this year is:  Sunday March 23, 2008.  Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).  This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives!  Only those 95 years old or above have seen it this early; the last time was 1913.

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now).

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT DAY TOMORROW!! WE CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR (READ) THE REPORTS OF YOUR EASTER SERVICES!!!

Awareness...

Try this out! I was amazed. How did you do?