Wow!

WOW! Almost a year since my last entry. I guess my thoughts... or two are pretty sparse.

Attendance is down... but the work of God is evident. For the last few months our attendance has been below what has been the norm up till now. This is for good reason however. A group of our folk left to plant a church in a nearby town. It was a significant group and we immediately felt its impact. However, two things are evident: One, the Lord is going to use these folks for His glory in reaching a community that, although small, seems to be essentially unreached. Two, the Lord has been faithful to continue His good work among those of us who remain. Here are some examples.

In our second week of new adult morning Bible studies we saw a good number of ladies prepared and attending their study on Esther, the men were challenged and encouraged in their study of biblical self-confrontation, our auditorium Bible teacher, for the love of teaching God's Word showed up sick so that he wouldn't miss a week, one of our young men took on the task of heading up our technology team (PTL), our worship team this morning included two who had never been involved before, one of our young ladies "helping" with our childrens church taught for the first time today, in our evening service we were quized and challenged on the practical side of my message this morning, one of our young men preached, challenging and encouraging us from the scriptures toward "radical living, victory in the midst of persecution." And then of course, the fellowship among God's people that followed both services gives evidence of the love God's people have for one another.

The Lord is faithful, it is His church, and we have the privilege of being used of Him and of seeing Him at work. WOW!