ESL Class

Thought I would show you a picture of our class from last quarter with their Certificates of Completion! The classes started back up in the last month and it is exciting. Not only are we starting a church for those who speak Spanish, we are teaching them English. A special thanks goes to our teachers... (from the right) Betty Cash, Sarah Loveland (babysitter last quarter), Teresa Gaitan and Victoria Pena.

God is honoring our efforts and we have now baptized our first person who speaks Spanish only. He and his family are a great part of our church now and being taught the Word in our Sunday morning and Friday night Spanish Bible Studies. His son sang a solo in the Children's Choir this past Sunday night. We can envision this ESL class growing into a training center with many classes to meet this great need!

Children and Youth Events

Our children and youth are very important to our church family. We took a Sunday night to celebrate the accomplishments of our Sunday School classes and teachers. Promotion Sunday 2009 was a service led by the children. Praise singing, choir, offering, and special prayer were all done by the children.

The children who were advancing to the next class were promoted during the service.

Joseph Ouellette, our children's minister, was the speaker for the service and he spoke on the subject, "Who's your Granny?" A very moving message... although the title would never seem that way!

All of our teachers and their families were honored with a dinner and time of fellowship following the service.

Sharon Bivens and my wife were surprised by a visit from Danny and Tommie Kay Stephens, their youth leaders from YEARS ago! :)

"Preparing for the King" was an all-day event held on a Saturday for the young ladies to encourage them to dedicate their lives to the service of God and let their life show His glory. Kaspri Photography took pictures of the girls after they had dressed up for a banquet escorted by their Dad's or family member. My wife was their trial run for lighting and such — after a lot pictures were snapped, she put on a crown...

It struck her funny! As you can see below, she is a beautiful example of His glory (and I am a little partial!)

The End of August...

First day of school...

Cameron is a senior this year and Chad is a freshman. This is the first year since Chad was in the third grade that they are in the same school. It is amazing how time flies and the little children grow up. I wouldn't want them to stay little forever, but slowing it down wouldn't hurt! Oh, well, we are enjoying every stage and year that the boys go through. They are great guys and we are proud to call them our own. Perfect? No. But neither are we!

Chad's 15th birthday was August 30th and we had a party this year. The whole youth group was invited and the house was full! We had a great time...

Digital drums from Grandpa and Grandma... a gift to everyone in our house as well!!!! Silence is golden.

Alayna and Ashlyn, Andrew and Mandy's girls, had a great time tickling the boys! They are so sweet.

Back-to-School 2009

Here's a video that my son, Cameron, put together for our Back-to-School service this year! It is time for us to "Stand Out" for the Kingdom of God!

Our children and youth committed Sunday night to be what God has called us to be. We are looking forward to what God has in store for the 2009-2010 school year!

Homecoming makes the paper today...

Just wanted to let you see the newspaper article about our 1960's-70's Homecoming. It is great coverage and we are thankful to Sarah Johnson for getting it published. We are continuing to receive notes from those who attended letting us know how much they enjoyed themselves. We are so happy that it was such a blessing to everyone as it was to us also! You can click on these images and they will open in another window at a larger size enabling you to read the article. The first page is pictures about it and the story is on the second page...

"He A-wose"

This is the cutest thing I've seen in a long time, so I wanted to share it with you all.
(Thanks to Janet Anglin for sending it to me.)

Have a great day!

How Much More?

During the homecoming on Saturday, Bro. Danny Johnson sang the song "How Much More" by Rusty Goodman. I've always loved this song but had forgotten about it. I purchased it on iTunes today and have listened to it over and over. There's a special message here. I'm so thankful for the love of God.

"If He knows when a robin falls from its nest... if He grieves when He sees it die... I wonder how much more does He love you and I...
If He cares for the lilies in an open field... if He acknowledges a tree when the winds make it kneel... how much more does He love me and you...

How much more than a fragrant rose that He gives life in the Spring...
Or does He love me less than a bird in a nest that never sows yet he soars on the wing...
If He can speak a simple word and calm an angry wind...
Peace, be still, He can calm a rolling sea...
Then He can speak peace, be still to the storm that's within...
That's how much that He really loves me!"

I've posted the video here for someone to hear. He has your life in His hands, and He loves us more than we could ever comprehend.

More Homecoming pics...

Sorry that it has to be in a slideshow. There are just too many pictures to upload individually. There are MANY more on Facebook, if you would like to join us there...

The play button above will take you to another webpage for these pictures.

Enjoy! We sure did.

A few pictures to begin with...

I will have to post more about this because there is so much to tell.  But, first, here are three pictures to get started!  My wife snapped some pictures with her phone, but there are THOUSANDS of other pictures out there and we will be posting more.  

I never dreamed that the Homecoming would be as large and as fun as it was!  We ended up with 256 registered on Saturday at the Convention Center.  We spend 6 hours there and it was not near long enough.

Registration

Greeting everyone on the hallway into the convention center!

Gathering for the meal

There will be more to come about Saturday and Sunday.  Just wanted to put something up about what a huge success the weekend was.  Thanks to everyone for putting the time aside and joining with us.  You made it what it was!

You can help...

My cousin James' wife, Janet Holley, sent an email to get the word out about the upcoming parole hearing for the murderer of her sister, Sandy Dial.  I thought I would pass it along to all of you and ask you to take a moment to do the right thing.  We sang at Sandy's funeral and remember the devastating pain this senseless murder caused in Janet's family.  Janet spent countless hours to bring justice for this crime and it would be a shame for it to go to waste and possibly have this type of thing happen again.

Background
In May, 1991, DeEllen Bellah, along with co-conspirator Don Dial (Sandy's ex-brother in law), fraudulently obtained a $100,000 life insurance policy on Sandy Dial's life. On Friday, December 13, 1991 their murder plan was carried out in an effort to collect the insurance proceeds. Sandy Dial, 34 years old, was found dead in the back seat of her car with a single gunshot wound to the head.

In 1998, DeEllen Bellah was sentenced by a Hunt County jury to 50 years in prison for Conspiracy to Commit Capital Murder. Sandy left behind 2 young daughters, a devastated family and host of friends. It is clear that Bellah presents a continuing danger to society. Her crime was obviously premeditated; she had plenty of time (6 months) to plan this murder. Please help us keep DeEllen Bellah, the mastermind of the murder scheme, in prison where she belongs.

Bellah is currently up for Parole review. Please write ask that she be made to serve her entire sentence. In addition, to lessen the emotional trauma the parole review process has on the victim's family, please ask for the maximum set-off for any future parole reviews. 

Send letters, emails, or faxes protesting the parole of De Ellen Bellah. You can get all the information about sending in a protest of parole at:  www.paroleprotest.org/