Halloween Honeybee

Since you asked...

Emily Graff

Trick or Treat

So how did Trick or Treating go for everyone? Anything funny or especially memorable happen? You can add your child's picture to this blog if you want. This way, we can all enjoy your trick or treat stories while looking at them in their costumes. Just an idea.

I first thought about mentioning this next item on my personal blog page, but decided maybe it belonged here instead.

It seems that a preacher in Waco, Texas (click here for the story) was electrocuted this past Sunday while performing a baptisim when he grabbed a microphone while in the baptismal pool. It says they routinely use microphones during baptisms there, but apparently this one had a bad ground.

Something like this probably wouldn't be a problem at Sunshine since we use wireless mikes, but it's certainly something that any of our number that regularly do baptisms should remember in case they're called to do so at a different location.

Certainly a tragic event and my heart goes out to his family and the congregation there. I suppose it's ironic, but I don't suppose there would be a better time to go than while following the Lord's command to baptise.

One in need!

Terry Knicely is being released from Applachian Behavioral Healthcare this Thursday. He will come home and stay with Gretchen at Greenglen in Wheelersburg. Terry is being released due to a lack of a clear diagnosis. That is sensible given that the essence of his current struggles center around relational dynamics (conflict with his father). Gretchen will be severely taxed attempting to support herself, Luther, and Terry. The financial strain will ultimately be too great for her. Terry will have a medical card, which will take care of healthcare related expenses, but no SSI (at least at this time).

I'm asking you to sincerely pray for this situation, believing that God has real and significant purpose for Terry in His kingdom. I'm also asking for ideas regarding employment. If Terry could secure some income (benefits not needed-medical card), it would take some of the burden from Gretchen. Terry also needs friends. He needs to experience our fellowship.

Pray about it , think about it, pray some more, let me know if anything comes to you.

Toby Mac & Sister Marie

Monday morning is not usually a good time for me. Today, however, I feel good. I'm sitting here in the office listening to Toby Mac (Dewey gave me the cd yesterday) and visiting with Sister Marie. Sister is not yet a Toby Mac fan. She asked me if I was becoming a black person, to which I replied, "Toby Mac is white." Anyway, I think she's warming up to it.

I had a good weekend and I thank God for it. There were many things going on and I was on-call here at the hospital-it was a formula for disaster. By the grace of God, all went well, I even feel refreshed a renewed.

Four guys met Sunday morning prior to services and prayed for the work of the congregation plus various specific needs. This has been going on, off-and-on, for awhile, but yesterday it really seemed significant. I believe with all my heart that great things will come about amidst the Sunshine congregation, but it will depend on faithful people calling on the name of Jesus to carry us along. Next Sunday is the GYAT meeting, but the following week we'll be back at it (7:30-8:30am-upstairs office). Consider yourself invited.

Revised Home Group Material

If you read my post from last Sunday night (Thoughts On Adapting), you'll recall that I was somewhat dissatisfied with the materials provided for the home group studies due to the abundance of teens in our group. Marriage enrichment stuff doesn't get many comments from the peanut gallery.
With that in mind, I went over the material today and revised it to fit a broader audience while still keeping with the overall theme. If any of you need material for teens in your group, click here for a PDF file of the major part of this week's material. I'll try to do this for the remaining 3 sessions also...no promises though. It's also available for download from the church homepage, just click on the house icon near the bottom of the page.

Is Anybody Paying Attention?

I'm starting to wonder how many folks check the news scroll on the church website on a regular basis? I forgot to update it last week. The scroller ran the same news for 14 days straight without an update and I didn't hear a single comment. Most of the announced meetings and events were over and done with by the time I updated it this evening. Is it that nobody noticed, or you noticed and just didn't say anything? Just curious...

The BLOG is Growing

Our members are growing and there are several invitations pending-GREAT! The value of this endeavor will only increase as more and more of the family get involved. If you are new to blogging, jump right in. The best way to learn is to just click around and see what stuff does. Look at other blogs to see how many different ways they can be utilized. Don't feel like you have to write something profound, sincere participation is the best any of us can offer.

My hope is that we will develop many participants who share a tremendous desire to see our congregation grow spiritually as a dynamic family through whom God can work in increasing measures. Toward that end, we can share dreams, frustrations, ideas, needs, challenges, and most of all encouragement. We can build on one another's ideas and dreams, discover ways to address each other's needs and challenges, just simply share a little more of our lives with each other. More and more, I am realizing that God is poised to carry out great works within each of us as individuals but especially through us as a body of believers. The limiting factor is our faith (that God will truly do something great in my life and do it now).

I hope your having a good day!

Frustration

Imagine picking up a kitten (or some other helpless little critter) by the scruff of the neck and dangling it over some sort of perilous thing. Maybe a fire or a deep pit. You have a solid hold on it and have no plans to drop it...but the kitten doesn't know that.
Sometimes I feel sort of like that kitten. God has a firm grip on me and probably isn't going to let anything really bad happen...but that knowledge isn't extremely comforting when I look at the problems I sometimes face. Living life involves a lot of stress and I sometimes wish that things went a little bit smoother. Am I alone in this feeling? Sort of a frustration with why things always seem to go from bad to worse a lot easier than they do the other direction?
Jason...thanks for getting me hooked on blogging...I think. I've started my own private blog thanks to you. Check it out: Boogers For Brains.

Reflections

I really enjoyed reading Neal Whitlow's blog. Although, enjoyed probably isn't the best word to use since I felt his discouragment. Even though I'm not a minister myself, I could identify with him quite a bit. Don't get me wrong. I'm not wanting to quit being a Christian or quit going to church. I just feel the frustration that he also feels. I'm tired of the church not being THE CHURCH. We all end up being some kind of secret society/club/group who will allow people to be a part of our group if they behave a certain way or look a certain way or smell a certain way. All of this happens within the church because of one major reason....there are human beings in it. I long to be a part of a group of people who accept anyone just as they are and allow Jesus to set the standard for living according to the word of God. I'm tired of people setting the standards they think we must live by in order to be accepted into the kingdom of God. That's not "our" call. It's God's. The church as a whole has alot of maturing/growing to do and that includes myself. I truly am glad to be a part of the church simply because I need to be around other people who are going through the same things I am spiritually. I do find myself always searching for challenging, thought-provoking ideas presented by other Christians that will cause me to use my brain and use my faith in a more powerful way. So far, my greatest leap of faith has been the adoption process of getting Zoe from China. It's quite exillerating to think about how I as a new mom and Tim as a new dad will be challenged the powerful way that I wish to have. I want to have good "excuses" to use God more and more in mine, Tim's and Zoe's lives everyday. It also scares me to death to admit that in writing or even outloud because being challenged in my faith usually means something catastophic happening where I have no control over the situation. It's at that point that I want to use my faith in God to realize that I'm not suppose to have control over this situation and ask God to do "his thing". ;) There is no greater joy I receive than to see God working and to look back over the hours/days/months/years and see the whole plan unfolding up to that point. Then, to know that He is not even close to being finished makes me so excited because.... There's more! There's more!....and it comes everyday. We just need to look for it with our hearts as well as our eyes. There are alot of things that are more beautiful to look at with your heart than if you look at them with your eyes. I find that the older I get and the more time I spend doing things God's way instead of my own, (by saying "no" to myself) that I desire more and more that my living becomes more of HIM and less of ME.

Fascinating Blog

I hope to move as many people as possible to check out a particular blog. The guy's name is Neal Whitlow. He is a minister in Kansas somewhere. He a great writer and a deep thinker. He is currently considering quitting the job of preaching. Read through several of his past posts and particularly read the comments to his posts. I think this guy is seriously struggling to find an authentic ministry within an authentic congregation. If you've got some time, you will not find this a waste of it. Click here.

The Story Of My Conversion

I had posted this at an earlier date on the church website in reply to the question of "Why do you believe in God?" and I felt that there was a good enough message within it to post it on our blog as well. Please know that by posting my story, I am not boasting about myself. My intentions are to boast about Jesus. I pray that many people will read about the amazing things I have encountered in the journey to discover God and consider Jesus for themselves. Here is my story....


I can't remember ever thinking He wasn't there. I guess I take it for granted that I've always believed. Growing up, God was not obvious in my home. I remember always watching one of my dad's sisters (Kay) and his mom because they went to church. We lived next door to Kay for about 2 years and I spent alot of time at her house playing with my cousins. Kay would always make sure I would make it to church by taking me herself. My parents didn't go and neither did my sisters for some reason. I remember not wanting to go to my own bible class because I wanted to stay with the adults and just watch them. I remember asking alot of questions about things I heard and saw and the answers were always given in a very caring, loving manner. There was just something interesting to me about this God "person" or "thing" or whatever He was. As I grew into a teenager, I spent every weekend with my grandma (dad's mom). I remember her crying alot when she prayed beside her bed on her knees. This always made me somewhat uncomfortable because I had never heard or seen anything like that before and something was clearly bothering grandma. Most of the time, I would shrug it off and continue to watch television until one night I decided to listen in on what she was saying. It turns out that we were all lost somehow and needed saved from something. She was crying and asking God to save her family and she named each one of us. I had heard about Hell before but what I was told was pretty limited because you typically don't want to scare a child too much by the gory details of Hell. While listening to grandma pray every single night, I began to get more and more uncomfortable. During the days that I would spend with her, we would watch tv evangelists and it drove me nuts with all of there crying too. Why was everyone so stinkin' upset all the time? My grandma would always interrupt the tv program to talk to me about how I needed to be saved. Saved from what? I was fine. Wasn't I? It became very annoying and I just got to the point where I decided to at least respect my grandma by listening with some interest. One day, several years later, my mother told us that it was time to start going to church and that we were going to start tomorrow morning. I got nervous and my sisters weren't exactly happy about it either. This was ALL new to them since no one had ever taken them to church when they were little....people just took me. So, here I was in 11th grade and "just now starting church". My other grandma (mom's mom) had been going to a different church than what I had been use to going to with my dad's mom and my aunt Kay. This was apparently the congregation my mother had chosen to start taking us to since that's where some of her family was already going. Little did I know that a very few months after starting there, I would give my life to Jesus forever! I couldn't wait to tell my grandma what I had done. We went to her house right after my baptism that night and I told her. She didn't seem surprised one bit. This amazed me. There was a great deal of faith in that woman. She somehow knew God would save me. She died that same summer. God's timing is so incredibly perfect. At this new church there was a man named David Lewis at this church who was referred to as the preacher. I had been use to the name "pastor so and so". People at this new church just called him David. That made him seem like more of a friend than someone who you feared would see you mess up or something. Very quickly I decided that this man (David) was different than any man I had ever come in contact with. And quite a man he was! He was the most Jesus I had ever seen in a person throughout my entire life. He always smiled....always. He always had time to listen to everyone. It didn't matter who you were or how bad you stunk or what you looked like. He had a way of getting you to figure out the answer to your own questions about a problem you were having. He was well known for answering a question with a question....hahaha. When you would go away from talking with David, you would feel so much better. He never hounded anyone to become a Christian .....not exactly. He just invited you to go "fishing". Everyone knew that when you went fishing with David that you came back changed and ready to give your life to Jesus. Some people always refused David's invitation to go fishing because they were scared of becoming a Christian. They had heard and seen what happened to people who went on those trips.....hahaha. These same people, to this day, regret turning down David's invitation. You see, David was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver on Christmas Eve one year. He was ripped from our congregation but he left an impression that will never go away....because he left Jesus with us! It turns out that it wasn't David we all adored so much. It was the Lord. The man was gone but the Lord remained. Not only that, but the invitation to come as you are is still open. It's alot like a fishing trip with David. God is fishing and he's hoping to catch YOU. He loves us so much! Too much to let us continue swimming around without Him. God doesn't care what you smell like. He doesn't care how much money you have. He wants to hold conversations with you, be the dad you never had and be your best friend. How could I not believe?

Suggested reading

One reason why I enjoy this forum of blogging is that it provides opportunity to network through other blogs. You can join in other's conversations (by making a comment) or you can simply follow links from blogs to personal pages to web sites and on and on. In the process you'll find a vast array of resources of which previously you were not aware. I recently stumbled across the blog of John Mark Hicks. He is a theology professor at Lipscomb University and Harding Graduate School of Religion , as well as the Adult Education Minister at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, TN. His blog is located at www.professingprofessor.blogspot.com. I highly recommend his latest post. You might also check out another site of his- www.johnmarkhicks.faithsite.com. If you find some other good stuff out there, leave a link back here.

Jennifer's Home Group Insights

I chatted on the computer with Matt Hoskins after getting home from the home groups and he said he picked up alot of good stuff. Tim and I were concerned about the teens not picking up on what was being discussed but Matt apparently did. He said he was learning things that he could use in the future. I was thrilled to hear one of "our" teens thinking like that! That has been my argument throughout this session.....it's good for the teens to sit and listen to all of this happy marriage talk because where else are they gonna' hear it? Most teens don't want to hear their own parents yappin' about anything, let alone marriage. At this point, Tim and I have been married only 8 years and many of the teens know that we also dated for 6 years before getting married. Gee, for some unknown reason, they seem very interested in what Tim and I have to say. I guess it's because we are still young enough that we can appear to be cool in the eyes of a teenager simply because we are not the same age as their parents...hahaha! I do agree that we need to somehow get the teens talking and for that matter, get our single young adults talking. Maybe ask some questions like "So, how would this situation apply to your life today in the realm of looking for someone to date?" or "After hearing what was just discussed, how does this change the way you look at the opposite sex?" You could go on and on with these type of questions in the hopes of getting the teens and young adults talking. The classes could actually end up turning into advice sessions with someone other than their parents and grandparents. I personally think it's a great mix to have when your group is filled with varying age groups who have been married for many years or who have been married only a couple of years. This provides quite a broad spectrum of advice and wisdom that will give the unmarried percentage of our groups several different opinions to work with and apply to their own lives.

Well, that's just my two cents worth. Ok, it's a little lengthy so it's probably actually five cents. I just hope it makes SOME sense. ;)

Thoughts on Adapting

Ok, we just got back from the Sunday evening home group meeting. Those of you that attended the session know that the subject of this round of meetings is focused on marriage and our relationship with our spouse. As one of the discussion leaders, I was told that if there were teens and/or singles in our group to "adapt" the material to suit the situation.

Our group has an abundance of teen/singles in it and I found this week's material exceedingly difficult to adapt. As a result they sort of just sat there and looked a little bit uncomfortable during most of the discussion, and I was somewhat uncomfortable as a discussion leader as well. Did anyone else experience this? Gary Glispie (my co-leader) and I are going to look over next week's material and do some adapting, then compare notes Sunday morning on what we can do to better serve the non-marrieds in our group.

I think the next round of meetings needs to either have a separate group for the teen/single crowd or have a subject that is not so exclusive of them. I'd be interested in hearing comments on this.

Milk & God

Aurie was sitting on the potty yesterday, suffering from fairly severe constipation. Aurie loves milk and drinks it with nearly every meal. Milk may be good for the body, but in excess, it can be a little tough on the bowels. Anyway, Aurie was in tears and asked me to sit beside her while she was struggling with her business. Realizing that I had stumbled upon a teaching opportunity, I encouraged her to ask God to help her with her difficulty. She surprised me when she told me that she had already prayed for help. I felt joy and frustration simultaneously. Joy because my daughter is already looking to God for strength and help for her problems, and frustration, because I wasn't aware of the level of her spiritual development. I causes me to wonder about underestimating the spiritual potential of others, even myself.

A little later, Aurie experienced success in her endeavor. So I rushed back in to the potty (She had kicked me out when the moment was approaching), and exclaimed, "See how God will help you when you ask!" Aurie then informed me that God didn't help, she had to do this by herself. Now, from there, we did have a short talk about how God can help without us even knowing He's there. But, more importantly, I am thankful to watch my little girl begin a life-long process of understanding the work of God. We all struggle to understand when and how God works with us in dealing with our struggles. The only way to have any real and worthwhile understanding of how God work in your life is to simply experience it, again, and again. I pray that I will always be a good example to Aurie as she journeys.

Jumping In

Consider this both a new post and an experiment. I am attempting to acclimate myself to the world of blogging. Al, I appreciate your work here. I too hope that this will serve as community tool for members of Sunshine (as well as other friends), with internet access, of course. I envision having discussion regarding everything from the most recent sermon to prayer needs. This could serve as great place for people who are dedicated to Sunshine growing more in the image of Christ to hash out ideas for ministry, share successes, and generally encourage one another. I hope everyone will not hesitate but jump-in with me, into the wonderful world of blogging.

Getting Started

Just getting started here, so I guess it's time to give a little bit of philosophy on what we're trying to do here as well as some history about how this blog came to be.

We've had a message forum on our church website (www.sunshine-church.org) for quite a while, but the forum has never been as active as I would have liked. It has been semi-dormant for several months, 90% of the posts are by myself or Jennifer Gampp. It's time to take a fresh approach. That said, I want to say that this is not a replacement for the forum on our website. The fourm will remain online and announcements and discussions will continue there...this is just an alternative for folks who are not comfortable in that venue.

This blog is the brainchild of Jason Coriell who will be posting here as well. Hopefully we will have some interesting comments and discussions generated here. At this point we're just getting started and we haven't come up with a formal "mission statement" on what we're trying to do other than get folks at Sunshine more involved and active in the church as a whole.

If you're a member of Sunshine church of Christ and want to join as a blog team member (having the ability to post in the blog) contact Jason or Al.

Come back and visit often!

Al Graff