Here are the pictures I said would be awesome if we had any!? I absolutely love what God is doing through this concept of multisite!? We had 366 people and the 2nd service was PACKED!!? That is the highest attendance we have had since the launch or Easter 2008–on a non holiday weekend!!
Enjoy from Stratton’s iPhone . . .
We had an awesome Sunday at Forest Park Carthage!? We had a record attendance of 366 (high attendance except for launch Sunday and Easter ’08)!? Amazing!? We had an Anniversary Celebration BBQ after church and it was really cool to see so many people stay and hang out with one another.
We finished up the Mythbusters series today with what I think was one of the best messages of the entire series called “We are here by accident.”? John did an awesome job teaching us what an amazing God we serve and that there is no way that we are here by accident.? One quote he used today was from Albert Einstein
“The probablility of life originating from accidet is comparable to the probablility of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.”? Albert Einstein
Reminded me a ton of the the Indescribable and Alive series of talks by Louie Giglio (one of my all-time heroes!)
Huge props go out to my whole team making this day successful!? My staff and lay volunteers are awesome and do such a great job helping people connect with each other and to connect to the Savior!? Thank you so much–all of you!!
Here are some pictures of the BBQ after our awesome day celebrating what God has done in Carthage in just one short year.? (Man, I wish we would have gotten some pictures of the auditorium during services today.? That place was packed!? Three services??? May be having to come soon!? What an awesome problem to have!!)
We have been looking for a good check-in system as well as Church Management Software.? The other day, Dinwiddie said, “too bad LifeChurch couldn’t just write some software and give it away for free!”? Well, they have done it!? I am really excited about what they are doing over at LifeChurch.? The best thing–it’s totally free, just like their online Bible software called YouVersion.? LifeChurch has been and continues to be a leader in open source church resources! Thank you LifeChurch!!
Ok, so you might live in the country if:
You have to get a riding lawn mower (there’s really no option).
Your water has little black particles in it because it’s a well. Well, we are “off the grid” with the water anyway!
Cable “doesn’t go that far. ”
DSL, therefore definitely “doesn’t go that far.” Are you kidding me? Dial up?!?! Say it isn’t so! That is so 1991.
You are “about twenty-five minutes” from everywhere.
You have more frogs, bugs, and algea than chlorine in your cheesy above ground pool. (definitely not a selling point for mom & dad!)
Did I mention there is no Internet out here?
You have one bar on your cell phone…if you’re lucky!
I’m pretty sure I mentioned we don’t have high speed Internet.
And finally, (drumroll please!) you are at least 10 minutes from “civilization”–AKA Wal-Mart! (thanks for the idea Jenny Long on my Facebook wall.)
There is a festival that is held here in Carthage each August called Marian Days. There are over 40,000 Vietnamese Catholics who pilgramage to Carthage for a festival in honor of Mary.
It has been a real eye-opening experience for me as I was heading home from church on Wednesday night and had to take a detour around the festival grounds on the main road out of Carthage to our house.? It is also amazing to see so many people waiting in line at Wal-Mart–at the normally less than busy times!? I’m not very good at math, but any time you can have four or five times the people in our city, it is going to be crazyiness!
Please be in prayer for a group that were making their pilgramage here to Missouri from Houston, Texas.? The bus they were traveling in was thought to have had a blowout and tragically turned over just north of Dallas early this morning.? There are thought to be 14 dead and 40 injured in the accident.? Here are some articles at CarthagePress.com and JoplinGlobe.com and it has been on CNN and the news channels.
It makes me think of all of the trips that we take to do missions all of the time.? We (Forest Park) have a group in Brazil this week.? I also know that many people are also trying to take those last minute trips before school starts next week.? So in other words . . . Be safe.