Wow, What A Great Weekend!

We had a terrific weekend. Several of us have been busy recently, getting things ready for the twenty-fifth anniversary of our dear Pastor and his precious wife being at our church. It was a beautiful day, Sunday, and everything went great. The only thing Pastor asked for, is that we don't allow the special day to get in the way of old time worship. And that's exactly what happened. We had spectacular meetings, both services and it was a blessing to be a part of both of them.

One of the special things our church did, was to make a book of personal letters from the congregation to Pastor Goodman and Mrs. Ava. Along with those letters were pictures of some of the people that wrote letters. I tried to get everyone's pictures, but some of them just didn't make it in the book. We did, however, have a good many to add. We also had some that turned in old pictures, but I didn't add those to the video below. These are just the ones I took. You'll notice I titled the video "Koala Pictures." There's a story behind that.

We didn't want Pastor and Mrs. Ava to know what we were up to, so Brother Johnny asked the congregation to give him a code word, one Wednesday night when Pastor and Mrs. Ava were out of town. The word was "Koala" and given by one of our youth, Jordan L. Jordan's grandmother also came up with "Epistles." Both were great, but people loved using "Koala." So that one stuck.

We had Brother Preston Moore and his wife for the special services. I love hearing him preach. He is a good preacher! Brother Moore was the first Pastor that our own Pastor served under his first associate pastor's job. He learned a great deal about being an under-shepherd from Brother Moore and references him often when preaching. Pastor Goodman loves and respects Brother Moore very much.

I have more to tell and lots of pictures to share, that I'll post later. It was a busy and wonderful weekend! One I am trutly thankful to have taken part in.

SIGMA RUSH NIGHT!

Sigma Year 2011-2012 started this past Sunday night. It was a lot of fun. We really were in a RUSH to get things done since we only really had two days to work. But I was so impressed with the kids this year and how much effort they spent working on displays and getting things ready. They did a SUPERB job! Bruce and I are sponsors for the Pi Gamma Centurions. My contribution to the display was this Centurion in our colors of gold, silver, and blue. I love doing stuff like this.

Bruce has been working second shift so Saturday was the only day he was able to work. But when we finally got there Saturday afternoon, everything was pretty well done and all he had to do was use his air compressor tools to stabilize the walls around our display. He was proud of what the kids had done also. And was really, REALLY proud of them for freeing up his time to go home and watch some football. haha

Each team is suppose to have a banner with each team member's name on it. This is the one the kids did for our team.

A couple of the young men made this awesome chariot! They did such a fantastic job. They used an old wheel chair to construct it. Pretty creative, if you ask me!

And these were our centerpieces for the tables in front of our display. Lanterns, that the church has had for a long time, and then a small shield and sword that Bruce made. The kids painted the shields and swords and put the Pi Gamma letters on them.

Our theme was "...truly this man was the Son of God," taken from Mark 15:39, which was our theme verse, displayed on our background.

The next team sponsored by Brother Chris and Dana were the Nu Delta Fishmasters. Their display was great. A river bank with their team verse was their background. Their team verse was Matthew 4:29 "And He said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." I loved their dock and the big rocks they constructed from blown up trash bags, covered with gray paper.

This was the centerpiece they made for their tables. Cute. :)

The third team was the Chi Alpha Soldiers, sponsored by Brother Mark and Mrs. Jeannie. Their display was a boot camp with the theme, "Training up soldiers for the army of Christ. Their team verse was II Timothy 2:3 "Thou, therefore, endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

I loved the banner they made for their names. One of their team members free handed the army tank. I watched him work on it and was very impressed with his finished product. He did a great job. They displayed their names on "dog tags" and placed them all around the tank. I really did love the creativity from all three teams.

And this was the centerpieces for their tables.

I may be biased, but I thought our team showed great team spirit. Here are our team captains, Justin C and Jordan L raising the swords Bruce made for them. And a HUGE thanks to Mrs. Tammy, Brother Ken and Cheyenne for making our team shirts. We all LOVED them!

Hannah is on the Fishmasters team this year. Had to get a picture of her and her teammate, Taylor. I never did get a shot of their team together.

And these are the soldiers....

The best part of the night is hearing the teams taunt cheers at one another. Not sure which cheer the Centurions were doing here, but it was cracking them all up.

We had a lot of fun and I can't say enough how proud I am of all the kids that showed up to work. They worked, and they worked hard.

We're looking forward to a great year with these kids and praying for each one as they go about their daily lives.

This and That and Pictures

I have not forgotten about the prayer study. We've had several things going on and so I haven't really had time to post. But to give an update on what's happening recently...Brother Hill preached Sunday night. He and his family joined the church a few months ago and we have been so blessed by them! I've been wondering what kind of a preacher he was because he's out evangelising a lot. So I was really happy to hear he was preaching the evening service. It was so good!! And as I mentioned to others, he is a fiery preacher!

This past Sunday was also our promotion Sunday, so we had a several new faces in youth choir. It was so sweet to see them already know the songs and sing with all their heart.

After evening service, the Sigma had an afterglow. We enjoyed pizza, fellowship, a time of basketball in the gym, and a lot of good laughs!

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I had a photo shoot recently with this little cutie. She is so hilarious and makes some of the cutest faces you've ever seen. I posted a couple of my favorites from that day. Hope y'all had a great Labor Day. We sure did. I'll post about that another time.

Spiritual Refreshment

Wonderful services at FBC of Shelby yesterday. One man saved in the morning services and alters packed in the evening. Had another family join Wednesday night. That makes four families in the last month, to God be the glory. So happy they are all a part of our fellowship.
Last Thursday we had our first ladies fellowship in our new banquet room. The theme was A July of "Refreshment."

Mrs. Ava is having some issues with her arm so she wasn't able to put all she wanted to into decorating. However, Mrs. Amy is back in town, which meant there would be no lack of decoration! :)

Can you think of anything cuter than an ice cream theme for summer?

We certainly had a good time helping out with this one.

I got to help with the centerpieces. They were so easy to make. Corrugated bulletin board paper made the mugs, pollyfill for "foam", a decorated balloon to look like ice cream, and a painted wooden dowel for a straw. Cute, huh?

All set up and ready to fellowship!

Since our theme was ice cream, Mrs. Ava decided to have the fellowship a little later than usual. After supper, that is. So everyone who could, brought their homemade ice cream. And those that didn't bring ice cream brought some kind of dessert to go with the ice cream. Mander made the BEST cherry ice cream I have ever tasted. And with a little chocolate syrup added, it tasted just like a cherry cordial. Without the nasty goop.

We had a terrific turnout. I think about eighty ladies were able to attend. I know we planned for sixty and ended up getting more chairs. So that was a good thing. And I was pleased to have my friend, Amanda Jones, come visit with us. I hope she can make it to other meetings.

As you can see, our ladies have quite the sweet tooth. LOL

Mrs. Amy was our special speaker for the evening. She spoke on how we are all like different ice cream toppings and how we can add something special to someone else's life to bring them spiritual refreshment. She also did an acrostic on the word ice cream.

I cried off and on through her acrostic because, little did she know, I had just poured my heart and frustrations out on a friend of mine that afternoon and she hit on some areas that I really needed to hear. It never ceases to amaze me how God will give you exactly what your heart needs, just when you need it most!

I left feeling very much refreshed!

Senior Session and Harrison's Patch Bowl

I had a senior session with Raven last week. Raven goes to our church and is part of our SIGMA youth. She's a sweet girl and I had a good time with her that day.

Here are a few of her mom's favorite pictures from the session. They were all really good of her beautiful smile.

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Harrison's Patch class had their Patch Quiz Bowl and Awards Banquet this past Saturday. The Quiz Bowl is a time for the parents and students to compete for points after answering questions based on lessons the children have been studying throughout the Patch year. I think it was the best we've ever attended. Brother Johnathan, Mrs. Jennifer and Mrs. Kim do a fantastic job and it is very obvious how much the children love them. I appreciate them so much and the godly influence they have had over Harrison.

The judges for the quiz bowl were Brother Johnny, Nathaniel, and Justin. It wasn't too long ago that Justin and Nathaniel were in this class and participating in the quizzes. Now they're judges.

Harrison and Bruce went head to head on a multiple choice question. Harrison got his correct. I won't tell you about Bruce. haha

After the quiz bowl, it was time for the awards. Harrison and his classmate, "H", took top scorer for the boys and girls. This was "H's" first year in this class and she did GREAT!! Harrison was also awarded a trophy for saying the most verses this year.

The class was divided into two teams. This was the winning team! Congratulations to all of them.

The children were told to write about someone or something that has been a great influence in their life, how they got saved, or tell their favorite verse and why. These were written by two young men. I blacked out their names, but if you click on the picture you can read what they wrote. I thought it was sweet and they brought a tear to my eyes.

At the end of the night, the students leaving the class and moving up to SIGMA, were given an opportunity to say their goodbyes. It was a really sweet moment. I think they're all looking forward to SIGMA, but none of them wanted to leave their class.

Bruce and I are looking forward to each of them moving up and getting to know them better in SIGMA next year. They're all wonderful kids and I think they're going to do superb in the youth group.

Murfreesboro Trip, 2011

For the past several years we have taken our youth to the camp meeting held at Middle Tennessee Baptist Church, where Brother Tony Hutson is the Pastor. Every year it is always a blessing and our youth group comes home fired up. This year was no different. They brought back a sweet spirit and four people were saved in our Sunday morning service with one saved in our evening service. Praise the Lord! We left our church around 9:00 am Thursday morning and headed up the mountain. It took about all day in the bus. Around thirty-five of us were able to go with around ten coming up Friday on a van. We had a great group. The bus did not get there in time for the Thursday service so we checked into our hotel, had some free time, ate pizza for supper, and had devotions. Three of our preacher boys took turns bringing the devotions and did an excellent job.

After devotions, the kids gathered around for prayer, asking God to open their hearts and fill them up during the meetings.

We celebrated Caleb's birthday. He and his family just moved back here from Alabama just in time to go to the meeting. His birthday was Thursday, so his mom had a giant birthday cookie to enjoy.

After the birthday celebration they were given free time again. A couple of the kids sat at a table testifying to one another. Then a few more came around and joined in. And then a few more, until almost all of them were crying and testifying. It was a beautiful time and I was so proud of them. Dana and I were watching from a distance and had some private, one on one chats later with a couple of them. It was such a blessing.

The Friday morning service went until around 11:45 and we were dismissed. We had lunch at a mall where the kids could choose what they wanted, then back to the hotel for free time and naps, and back to evening services which let out around midnight. We were EXHAUSTED Saturday morning. But they were all up, packed, and had the bus loaded by 8:30 am. Services started at 10:00 and we left after lunch on the grounds to come back home. We had a scary moment on the bus when we found out there were storms ahead of us. We did go through hail, but the Lord helped Brother Chris get us through it! We heard Eleven preachers in that short amount of time we were there and it was worth every single minute! We heard some of the best sermons up there! So here's some pics from the services.

People praying before services began....

Brother Spears, Brother Thomas, and Brother Hutson laughing at Pastor Goodman while he was preaching on being "cool." It was hilarious.

There was a lot of praising the Lord!!

We also heard some fantastic singing while we were there, from the choir and other groups.

I was thrilled to find out the Simpson family was going to be there. We heard preaching from Brother Simpson and got to hear their family sing several songs.

The music was really good, but the preaching was the best part! I didn't get all the preacher's pictures, but here are a few of the ones we heard. And did I mention the sermons were really good!??!