Good Weekend!

This weekend was busy, but busy is good. I'm doing considerably better but this bug just likes me a little to well, and seems to have made itself at home, but...the little by little it's being exterminated. Still a little congested, and my voice isn't totally back to normal, but it's getting there. Thanks for the prayers. As busy as I was this weekend, it was a good thing.

Saturday, we decided to go out for breakfast. I then went grocery shopping and after that came home and worked at putting the finishing touch on the youth service that God had on my heart for a very long time and the SS class that I was excited about. We then had our activity night and Jacob Grant was in charge, and we had game night at the church. We played Clue (Joleesa and I set out of that one) and then Cranium.

Sunday morning came and I felt the Lord in SS and in our our worship. My voice wasn't back full strength but the second song really spoke to my heart "More About Jesus" The 3rd verse really had a message, especially after our SS on wisdom; "More about Jesus in His Word, Holding communion with my lord, Hearing His voice in every line, Making each faithful saying mine." Think about those words...communion, His voice in EVERY line...Making each faithful saying mine. Anyway, not matter how much I croaked my heart was so full of desire. Then Brother Nowling preached on the tongue. It was very good.

Then no nap for me as it was PACKERS and the Giants. I'm not a big football fan. But when it comes to our team being in the play offs...well gotta watch it. Couple that with it being against Zay's team, it's a lot of fun. Anyway, several of the youth Matthew, Jackie, Josh, and Tim were over and we had friendly battles going on. Tim was the only Packer fan, so the bashing went on. But whoever was sitting next me (Jackie and then Matthew) got slugged when they bashed AND when Packers did great ~ they could take it. Then when the Giants kicker missed the kick before going into overtime...I felt so sorry for him and kept voicing it. I had to take it back quickly. I still like the Packers and I had a great time watching the game.

With only about 40 minutes between the adrenalin of the game to our youth service. I was really praying we could switch gears and get serious. "Clay in the Master's hand...vessels unto honour and dishonour" was my theme. For a week I had one batch of clay drying out, then I took another batch and put all kinds of junk it (aspirin, used coffee grounds, hair, lint, orange peels, plastic, tinfoil, dirt...I think you get the picture)it looked gross. The next batch looked nice on the outside but inside but inside was money, a little toy soldier, a little candle and peanut butter....you know the "white painted sepulchres". The last batch was just a batch of clay, nothing added. I called up Jacob, Jessa, Jackie and Joleesa to sit down at the potter's wheel (the clay was in plastic containers and they could only see colors). It was great fun watching them once they sat down and actually started looking at their clay. Jackie had the one with the garbage in it, Jessa the one with nothing in it, Jacob the hardened one, and Joleesa with the things inside that you couldn't see. (It was fun watching Jackie's face - it was pretty gross). They had to take their clay and make a vessel out of it. Jacob asked for water to soften his. Joleesa was pretty surprised as she got into hers and poor Jackie was a good sport and started pulling the stuff out that she could (both her and Jacob had pieces they couldn't use). Obviously Joleesa couldn't get the peanut butter out, but she made a nice vessel that had streaks of brown and she said she like the smell. You can get the comparison I'm sure (in our discussion Jenna mentioned that the peanut butter could represent scars). The one that really went differently then planned was Jessa's. It was too soft. She couldn't get the sides to stay up. It needed some "fire" to strengthen it. I then preached a short message about looking at what kind of clay we are, and what are we allowing HIM to do with what HE finds, or that we give Him. I then took one of the chairs and each youth took a turn in the chair as we all prayed for each other. I don't know what anyone else got out of it, but I really felt the Holy Ghost. It was too bad that Jeremy and Heather weren't there as Heather was sick and Larry was working, but we had prayer for them. It's been a while since we really felt the Spirit move like that, so I pray it did something in everyone.

Men's retreat is this weekend. Please pray for Brother Nowling, he got someone to cover his Friday night but he hasn't been able to get Saturday off. He's on to teach and preach. He really needs Saturday night off. Brother McMahon and Brother Terry Flora our their guests and Brother Nowling would like to be a part of it all. So pleeeease pray that he can go to all of it!!!