Full of excitement

Mike's busy watching Battlestar Galactica so I'm taking this opportunity to blog. (hehehe.... I love you!)

So anyway... today has been a crazy day for sure! Wow... I arrived at church a little before 9 but didn't sit down for the service until about 10:20 and it starts at 9:30! I was pleasantly surprised that Mike had taken the DVD player upstairs for Childrens Church but sad to learn that our carpet for the little ones had been taken... (who in the world would take a carpet?) So I pull out the toys and organize things a bit and learn that our CD's are missing as well. :( So I head down to Children's Church a bit discouraged to set things up for Matt and leave some info for him. No big deal... Everything's set and I have some time left so I go downstairs and look again for the CD's. No luck. I go back up to the hall, find Izzy and take her up to nursery and then run again upstairs to let Tracy know we have no CD's. She was very flexible and understanding but she also let me know that the offerring box was missing so I make another trip downstairs to look for the box. No luck. I do find a little bag that will work just fine though so I head back upstairs to catch a bit of the music to find out that one of our children is in the wrong classroom so I head up to the nursery to get him and take him up to the 2/3 room... and I forgot the little bag. lol I come back down for about 3 minutes before the children are dismissed for CC and I walk up with them to give Matt a few more details. I get up there to learn he needs a cd player so I run back down, grab the cd player and run back upstairs. Whew... I'm sweating and tired and I think I got in all my required exercise for the day. LOL Finally I'm able to go down to the hall and enjoy the service and I'm so glad that I was able to attend the adult service this morning.

Pastor Ed's brother spoke this morning and he grabbed my attention immediately. He talked about how Devotion to God never guarantees bliss. That we often find ourselves experiencing demands that seem impossible to meet but how awesome is our God... He's here to meet our demands. He shared several amazing stories of how 'a little of something and God' allowed for some amazing things to happen... people making decisions to follow God, churches being established, etc... and it was so encouraging. I had to laugh though... he was talking about compassion and was about to tell us an illustration and went hunting in his Bible for the exact story and couldn't find it. After a few seconds he stopped and looked at us and said... 'Okay that was a test... some of you were thinking -I can't believe he wasn't prepared enough.- and others -were wanting to do anything they could to help me find my paper-. If you were thinking the latter... you were showing compassion... if you were thinking the first... maybe you need to work on compassion. It just really caught my attention and made me laugh to think about all the different thoughts running through the congregations mind. LOL I thought his presentation of the sermon was just fantastic too... his powerpoint was really powerful. It was simple but it really stuck out to me.

Sunday School was really fun too. I tried something new and all of us walked away understanding the first 6 chapters of Daniel a bit more and how we can apply the three major characteristics (Integrity, Wisdom, Courage) of these chapters in our own lives right now. I love taking the time (even if it means silence for a few minutes) to really think about how what the Bible says applies to us know. It's easy to understand the basics, it's easy to pull out themes, etc.. but it's not easy to think about what does this mean for me now... and not so much the typical SS answers (have more faith, be like Christ, Jesus... lol) but real answers like... when someone says something (like I want to take my child to the zoo to learn about the animals... since we came from them anyway) that I disagree with.. say so or don't shy away from the fact that I love God and am here in HK to share His love with others. And it was great to hear the girls open up and be honest about areas that they need to have more integrity, wisdom or courage. These girls rock! I just love'em.

Then we were blessed with an invitation from Betty to join her and Pastor Tom and family for dinner at our most favorite resturant ever! We had amazing food and enjoyed the fellowship as well. We came home about 3:30ish and all (well Mike tried anyway) took a 2hr nap! It was wonderful. Then we ran a few errands... gotta love the prices of toothbrushes here! The cool ones are about $1 US dollar!

Mike had a brief conference call about our Love Actually Retreat this weekend and while he chatted, I started reading Seeker Small Groups. Since moving, I've had a passion for starting a book/Bible study among the non-Christian moms in our area. It's been a slow process but over the past few months I've developed a few good relationships and am axious to reach out even more. This book just really motivated me to be more intentional in meeting people and got me thinking about a 'seekers group.' There are some amazing stories of how God worked and saved lives and I feel like a passion of mine has just been re-lit. I feel like I've been stuck in a rut lately but just the little I've read so far has put a spark, a glimmer of hope and excitement back into my (what seems stale) heart.

So first things first... meeting more ladies so I'm definitely going ahead with the Costume party on the 31st. I can think of about 6 ladies so far to invite and I'm hoping that they will bring some friends of their own. It would be so wonderful to connect with all of them and begin to build some more friendships and who knows what God will do. It's so exciting for me to think about! That's why I'm here in Hong Kong... that's why I'm here on earth... to share the love of Christ and introduce others to Him. Nothing makes me feel more fulfilled that when I'm doing what I know I'm here to do.

Now off do a bit more reading....

Have a wonderful Sunday! May you find yourself drawing closer to Him!