The Price is Right

I just got in from our weekly cup of coffee. Billy and I took some time to discuss this coming Sunday night. As customary here, Sunday nights are of a gospel nature. The format is designed for non-christians and the lessons are geared for them to want to become a Christian. It has really become apparent lately that the current format is not connecting with the current culture. The message is always impacting, but the format is not. It was decided some time ago to have on the third Sunday of each month to have a much more informal setting to make it much less threatening and confusing to those who are not accustomed to the traditional setting. We usually have a cup of tea afterwards so we can get to know each other better. There is no doubt that fellowship and encouragement is crucial to us as Christians! I remember growing up hearing from different people that we need to go to all the meetings that the church had and would quote Heb 10:25, but never finished the verse with the why. We need to meet together to encourage someone each other. I need to go to fellowship and encourage!

I spoke in my last post about about our plans for the next third Sunday. We had decided to have the normal worship setting and then have a time of fellowship afterwards. We really think that some of the youth (and other church members) will come along who hadn’t before. We are going to play the Price Is Right/Luck of the Cards. It will be structured as a mix between the two games. We will have a bidding round and then four games including Cliff Hangers (pictured above) and Hole-in-one (sorry, no Plinko. Maybe next time. The game was kicked about though). We are really hoping to bridge the gap between the congregation and the youth. Building relationships is the key. We are going to try to get the teens to make some of the things needed on Friday night. If they take some ownership of it, they will more likely come! For the worship time we are going to have two short lessons; one by Billy and one by me. I will talk about the Price is Right. Jesus paid the price. Billy is going to then say because of that, we need to play our cards right. Play not the way the world plays, but live the way God wants us to because of what he has done for us. The night will start off with a cup of tea and pieces which may or may not be made on Friday night. All in all it should be a great night. Please be praying it is a success! It has the potential to be a huge step forward for the congregation here. I am sure God is leading us here.

This Church Needs Coffee

It always amazes me how God works. It is apparent to me that God is really working through the times when we go and have coffee. I think that we may have the idea that the church really starts to move and grow while we are together as a body; whether through preaching, teaching, praying, singing, giving, etc. While that may be true to an extent, some of the real growth and movement happens in the planning stages that the leadership engages in, and for us, that is over a cup of coffee.

One can learn a lot by what another person drinks. Billy gets the same thing every time: Medium Vanilla Latte. John usually has Toasted Marshmallow. Angie gets coke because she doesn’t drink coffee. I like to mix it up and try every flavour. Billy and John get the same thing every time. They know what works and they stick with it. Angie doesn’t give into the peer pressure of having to do what everyone else is doing, and I am not hard to please; I am fine with just about anything (ask my parents what my response was when asked where I wanted to go to eat. It was almost always, “I don’t care).

These past couple weeks have been especially good. There have been a lot going on. I mentioned in my last blog how we are trying some new things. On Monday nights we are taking time with those who don’t want to play football to make cards for anyone who has a birthday. We realize there is a gap between the older and younger and we figure we can have the younger reach out to the older; take the first step if you will. How great would it be for anyone to get a shower of cards for any reason? It is nice knowing others are thinking about us.

The teens have really been coming on as well. A few of them have started throwing out some ideas of how to bring everyone together. A couple weeks ago, a few of the girls decided to maybe spend the time on Friday nights possibly doing some visiting or things of that sort. It is great to see people realizing things for themselves and being prepared to move with it!

Last weekend we took about 14 teens to the Aberdeen Youth Weekend. It was a blast. A lot of prayers went up for that weekend that it would be impacting on some who we were unsure about whether they cared about God or not. They rose to the occasion and on the whole were great. We spent the weekend at the Aberdeen YMCA. There were about 60 young folk there. I did a lot of the song leading led a discussion group. There was a hall to play football, a pool room and in the basement there was a snooker room. As Billy said, “Snooker is a man’s game, unlike Pool.” He is right. I didn’t get a chance to play cause the teens were on the tables the whole weekend which was brilliant! While we were away, I was responsible for the Saturday night meeting. I did something a little different. I will have to talk about it in the next post. It is hopefully a small step forward.

Yesterday we went for coffee again. We had a great discussion about what the church needs. We decided for the lesson at last night’s class to do something a bit different. We got into discussion groups and asked two questions: “Why don’t you want to come to church?” and “What could we do to make you want to come?” We got some great responses. We are going to look at those in the next while and make the 3rd Sunday night gospel meeting more of a full night. In the past we just had the normal service and then had a cup of tea. That is great, but we may add another element as well. We may have some sort of fellowship activity with it. We thought about playing Deal or No Deal or Millionaire. To be honest it is kinda boring to show up and not really get much fellowship. Fellowship is so key!

July Means Rejuvenation

Wow, I have totally neglected my blog for the past month. I am repenting here and now. Since it is the summer and schools are not in session, I am going to try to update the blog more since I am doing less. However, I will probably be talking about more random things than ministry. Some will be for humor and others interesting tid-bits i find. Here is where you can see the laid-back side of me instead of the ministry side of me.

This past month saw a lot happen. Of course the main thing that happened was my parents coming to visit for a fortnight. It was good to have them here to see first hand what I do and where I am. We got to do lots of things including going to London for a few days. It was amazing. Very busy, very expensive, but very cool. We went to the Abbey Road studios (and walked the famous crosswalk), saw Big Ben, and went to the British Museum. Everyone MUST see the British Museum if they get a chance. So much history. Any student of the Bible should see what is there. There are so many things that are related to the Bible there. Many things that people in the Bible saw, touched, or even made. We came back up through Edinburgh on the train and spend a day there as well. We toured the castle and came back home. It was pretty stressful since I had never driven to the train station or ridden a train before, but we made it through just fine!

We had a couple of end of year outings with the youth as well. We took the teens to Aberdeen to play indoor football (soccer), Pizza Hut, and a movie. They chose between Transformers and My Sister’s Keeper. I saw the girly film because an adult was needed. I don’t think I have ever heard so many sniffly noses in my life (and they went on through the whole film!!). It was good and the teens really enjoyed it. They needed something like that. There had been some major issues, but I think that is all past. We had nothing really happen while we were there. All smiles!

We took the Primary School class to see Ice Age 3 last week. They really enjoyed it; so did I. It was a lot of fun; and in 3-D! They all laughed so hard at things that weren’t that funny to me, but it is not supposed to be for me, but for them. The 3-D kept me interested for the whole time. The effect has come a long way. Anyone remember Muppets 3-D at Disney World?

Tomorrow I am going to see Harry Potter with Billy and his family. I am sure I will be having a subsequent movie review. If you have never experienced one of my reviews, hold on to your hats. lol

Which side of the road?

     It has been a busy week. I mentioned last week that I was living in the attic. This week has been completely different. I havent had a chance to hook up my computer to the internet to post on the blog. It has been at the least hectic. It has been good, however. I have stayed here at Billy’s and I stayed at his parents’ house over the weekend.

     I got a flat. I believe the number is 88 Prunier drive. I know for a fact, that is where the flat is. Yesterday, we went looking for a car. I needed an automatic since I have never driven a manual transmission car before. We found the perfect car almost instantaneously. It is a 2001 Ford Mondeo. It has only 25,000 miles on it. So, I committed to buy it today. I put down a down payment. To say that this process has been a smooth one would be the farthest from the truth. I went to pay with my credit card, and there was a 3% processing fee for that. It wouldnt be there with a debit card. Since I don’t have enough on my debit card, I just put down a 200 pound deposit. I will go to the bank tomorrow. I can get a cash advance with 2.5% (that saves 150 pounds). I will get all of this posted on here once I get it all squared away.

     I hope to move in to my flat here in the next week. It is hoped to be finished Friday. If I can get that and my car, I will be set for a while.

I'm Here

     I have a new website now. I am putting my blog on there now. I hopefully will be still putting in on there. But, check that site out for pictures, blogs, and occasional podcasts. 

     I arrived yesterday evening in Peterhead. My flights went just fine despite a winter storm in London.  Everyone was sure I would be stranded there, but God had other plans. The storm moved through the day before and cancelled all the flights. I met a guy who had to spend a lot of money to stay in a hotel for the night. My flight was right on time. In fact, we got to Aberdeen a bit early. God really provided. 

     I had three bags which was supposed to cost me $200 extra. After I checked my bags, I realized they never asked for my money, so I went back to the counter and asked them about it. Since the tags for all three bags printed, they couldn’t ask me for the money. God saved me $200.      

     There was a two hour layover in Chicago. My gate was easy to find. It was in the same area as the time I flew through there before. It was also right next to the food court. So, I had plenty of time for dinner. I was worried about it. I asked for a window seat on the plane so I wouldn’t have to worry about people climbing over me while i tried to sleep. I didn’t get a window seat. God gave me something better. I got a seat next to a small child. If he was going anywhere, It would be with his mom on the other side. I got immediate access to the isle. 

     The seven hour layover was not a big deal. Because I got in so early there was on a line anywhere to wait through. It was very nice. I had a ton of time to kill. I stopped to get some brunch and got a half hour nap to which I was totally disoriented. It was cool. I hadn’t slept that deeply in a long time. I dominated in a game on Monopoly (take that Penelope). I walked through the same path that I did when I went through there this past May. I even left out of the same gate (probably because I was going to the same place). God gave me a breeze of travel. 

     I slept last night for about 15 hours. I was very tired. I dreamt the craziest things. And I remember them. That rarely happens. Tonight we are going to Bible class and then I am hoping I can sleep some more. Also, the air is quite a bit heavier here.