Egg Drop 2013

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Wow, what an awesome day for our church and the Glades community! Our first ever Easter Egg Drop was a HUGE success!

We had several hundred kids come through and EGGchange their plastic eggs for a big bag of candy at The Great EGGchange! (Get it, EGGchange?! Pretty pun-y, huh?) Our children’s pastor, Tim, says that by his best count, we gave out 1153 bags of candy! (That’s a LOT of candy!)

We think we had close to a thousand kiddos who attended the event for sure. (There may have been a few that made a couple of “EGGchanges,” if you know what I mean.)

A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped us pull off this massive event!

A HUGE thank you to Phil and Sugar Cane Golf Club hosting us.

A HUGE thank you to John Kandel and his piloting skills.

A HUGE thank you to our church staff who served for weeks in planning and implementing the vision for this community event.

A HUGE thank you to all of our volunteers who gave up their time and energy to show the love of God to our community!

YOU ALL are the BEST!!

Here are some pictures and a very short video taken by Chuck from the helicopter as they were dropping eggs.

[tentblogger-vimeo 63014700]

 

Stevie Johnson tweets his frustration to God…in ALL CAPS no less!

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I know I am a little late to the party on this one, but Buffalo Bills wide receiver, Stevie Johnson, dropped a game-winning touchdown pass on Sunday.

Stuff happens, right?? I mean, things don’t always happen the way we want them to happen.? I sometimes feel that I am living out the wilderness wanderings experience of the Israelites on a daily basis.? However, I don’t think I have ever thought about tweeting to God for my problems. But, then again, Twitter has created a sort of online journal of sorts for us all to share our joys and frustrations, ups and downs.

I wonder what David would have “tweeted” on his Twitter after his cycle of sin with Bathsheba?? Well, we don’t have the twitter feed, but we do have the storyline as well as a song that he wrote to God about the whole deal in Psalm 51.? I have been reading through the Scriptures using Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System, (which is awesome, by the way.)? One of the 10 “lists” that you read through each day is the Book of Psalms.? As I read Stevie Johnson’s tweet, I thought to myself, “This isn’t really that different than the Psalms where the psalmist was asking God “why” are bad things happening in my life?”

There are many out there in the blogging world who have jumped on Johnson’s back about “you can’t blame this on God.”? Interesting enough, this post was going to be another “one of those posts”…until I read Johnson’s twitter feed.? Here is THE TWEET that started the whirlwind…

I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…

But I had a change of heart when I looked at a few more of the tweets after he had time to “cool off” and get some perspective about whole thing.? Later the following day…

I learned A lot Within 24hrs. Saw Both Sides.(Ups&Dwns) I AM HAPPY & THANKFUL 4 YESTERDAY! w/out Sunday iWldnt have grew closer w/The Lord!!

And No I Did Not Blame God People! Seriously??!? CMon! I Simply Cried Out And Asked Why? Jus Like yal did wen sumthin went wrong n ur life!

And then, Kurt Warner chimes in to the feed in support of Johnson and says this to him…

@StevieJohnson13 all I can say, is I have been there many times… (while coughing) 100 yd INT ret 4 TD in SB 43 was most recent!

Wow, Kurt Warner, classy guy with a great perspective on winning, losing, and worshiping Jesus in BOTH!

Also reading through the Book of Job in my reading plan and it is interesting how similar the Psalms and Job are in how we react to difficult times in our lives.? We all have had those “friends” who want to help us out and say “just repent of your sin” and “get right with God.”? We are left asking the same questions that Job, David and the psalmists, and Stevie Johnson all ask…”why God?”? What I love (and hate at the same time) about the Bible is that we don’t hear a clear answer to those questions.? I do know this…that God invites us to ask as many questions as we want.? And He understands and cares for all His children.

So tell me, what is the last thing that left you asking God “why?”? I hope you wrote about it in your journal so you can look back on it and learn from the situation.

Here is the video of the play in case you missed it this Sunday night…

Sunday Night “Sum Up”–3.8.2009

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Each Sunday night I will be summing up the previous week’s events in a “numbered” list, along with the “sum total” of our attendance for the week…even though “I’m not very good with numbers.”

  1. Had good services today.
  2. 242 in attendance in two services
  3. …Seems rather petty (the numbers) in light of Pastor Fred Winters passing today.
  4. Here is a link to CNN for what happened…http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/08/church.shooting/index.html
  5. Pastor John went to seminary with Fred Winters…Also, Fred’s brother, Zack is a member at Forest Park.
  6. Pray for that family.
  7. Pray for that church.
  8. I am reminded so vividly of the shooting at Wedgewood BC in Fort Worth when we were at Southwestern Seminary.
  9. May God be glorified in this tragedy as He has been in the past!
  10. I am still loving the Kindle 2!? Becoming quite the Kindle evangelist…in line at the store…at the dentist…etc.
  11. Pretty sad that I am an evangelist about a stupid device and not my Savior.
  12. I was able to turn the conversation to Christ and our church though at the dentist office.
  13. I had two wisdom teeth taken out…drugged out for a couple of days…but doing good now.
  14. Had a birthday celebration on Saturday afternoon after Taylor’s basketball game…Strawberry cake–my favorite!
  15. Katie helped us tear off wallpaper…we are gaining on it…but very slowly though!

Here is a gallary of pictures that I posted on twitter and from my phone this week…

The Week In TwitPics….