Okay so since I haven't blogged in forever and we have a snow day, thought I'd jump on the survey bandwagon also......

Survey

Happy autumn afternoon to all my blogging friends!

We are looking for a new name for our church's midweek program for 3rd-5th graders......Currently we use the acronym K.I.C.K. (Kids in Christ Konnect).  The name was established before I came on board but we have decided that it is time for a change....Any ideas?  I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

Thank you all for your prayers!

Sorry for the delay in posting an update.  We left on June 23rd (the day Kaitlyn broke her hand) to go camping for two weeks.  We were going to just postpone our trip but the K-dog would have nothing to do with that.  She wanted to go camping!

The morning of her surgery was very nerve racking for us.  We picked out a pretty outfit for her to wear and everything seemed to be going along splendidly, until we got to the hospital.  The person doing the registration for surgery couldn't find any record of Kaitlyn at all.  Ugh!  Finally, after a very stressful 15 minutes it turned out that she was scheduled in the Lacks surgery center (a.k.a. surgery Taj Mahal) and everything was a breeze after that.  Kaitlyn's surgery went very well.  They were able to set the bones without the use of pins which saved us another surgery.  She was very brave with only a few tears of fear being shed when she had to put on "the gown".  Her nurse was awesome though.  She fixed up Kaitlyn's special stuffed dog Meg with a mask, surgery hat, and arm band so she could go into surgery with Kaitlyn.  The surgery itself only took about 3o minutes and she recovered pretty quickly after that.

She has to return to the hand surgeon today to make sure that everything is still where it is supposed to be.  I'll try and post a pic of her cute little (but filthy after 2 weeks of camping) cast soon.

Thank you again for all of your prayers, they definitely helped......

Friends, please forgive me for the length of this post.  I know it is long but I tried not to leave anything out.......

How many of you have heard the saying "the church is the people, not the building"? 

Well, although I've always believed this saying, I've had some trouble lately with the concept.  It seems that our fledging church could do so much more with a building.  I know that many in our congregation share my feelings on this issue also.  We want to grow so badly for Him and it is our sincere desire to reach out to the lost and introduce them to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  However, many of us have been saying (including myself) just think of what we could do if we had our own building?  If only we had a building we could........  If only we had a building we'd be able too.......When we have a building we can.......The list goes on and on. 

Well, this morning the big man upstairs had a neon sign and/or 2X4 for us this morning regarding our thinking.  So you want to hear the story right?  Here goes:

Our church is a very small church plant that meets in a local middle school cafeteria (because as I said above we don't have our own building yet.)  My husband is on the setup team (we have to have a setup team for chairs, music, sound, bibles, overhead, etc. because we don't have our building.)  As it turns out, he is out of town this weekend and didn't realize it was his weekend.  So steps in the dutiful wife.  I awakened my 3 beautiful little cherubs and summoned them out of bed at 7:15am this morning so we could be at church by 8:00am a full 2-hours prior to the service starting to unload the truck and setup (because we don't have our own building.)

We pulled into the parking lot at 8:08 am(which I thought was pretty good) armed with pop-tarts and water for my kiddies (I know, I know not my normal choice for a healthy breakfast but give me a break I had only 30 minutes to get them ready!) Amazingly, we were actually the first to arrive.  A few minutes later one of the other members of our setup crew arrived.  We said good morning and I waited with my kiddo's in the car for him to go and unlock the door.   Hmmmm......he seems to be having some trouble.  Doors are not unlocking.......he tries again.....doors still not unlocking.  Hmmph.......  So we await the arrival of the other team members and the truck with all of our church's wordly possessions.  A couple of minutes later the other members and the truck arrive.  Three men one electronic key still no open doors......again Hmmmm......Fearless setup crew leader arrives, phone calls made, fearless setup crew leader leaves....three men walk around the school still unable to gain access.  Do you see where this is going yet?

Three men return, fearless setup crew leader returns......other buildings have power...our building has power to box but transformer not transforming (does that make sense?)  which means no power and no power means nonworking electric locks.  Translation:  You are not getting in this building this morning!!!!!  HUGE thunderstorms rolled through on Saturday......definitely an act of God right?  We cannot get through to any of our emergency numbers and member of setup crew who also happens to be an electrician says 4-5 hours of work to fix........Okay God so what do you want us to do?  Okay we heard you loud and clear we'll have church outside under the overhang of the entrance to the school......members of setup team leave to retrieve generator for our praise team.......another member leaves to get hot coffee.......others get to retrieving chairs, blankets and umbrellas.

GOD IS AWESOME!!!!!!  I love my church and I am moved by at least part of the service each week but TODAY by far was the BEST!!!!!!!

Who needs a building?  Not me....Not our church........Each and every one of us (including babies and children because we had no nursery and no children's church) squeezed together under the overhang, pulled up cars with hatches, and/or stood under umbrellas in the rain and worshiped Our Lord Jesus Christ like we were in the biggest church ever built.....There was never a grumpy moment, never even a thought about canceling our service.   We sang Garments of Praise, Awesome is the Lord Most High, Everlasting God, and one of my favorites Arms of Love.  Many of us were weeping by the time this last one was sung........

I do not doubt that our church will have a building in time, but He so wonderfully reminded each of us this morning that we, His children are his church.....we don't need a building!!!!!!

Thank you Jesus for your wonderful message this morning........we are in your Arms of Love always whether or not we are in a church........

Arms Of Love
I sing a simple song of love
To my Savior, to my Jesus.
I'm grateful for the things You've done,
My loving Savior, my precious Jesus.
My heart is glad that You've called me Your own.
There's no place I'd rather be than
In Your arms of love,
In Your arms of love.
Holding me still, holding me near,
In Your arms of love.