Family fun starts early

I told you a few entries ago how I was looking forward to Melissa's sister and our brother-in-law Michael coming over with their three kids. Well they ended up coming a day early arriving on Monday night. We've already got three games of Catan under our belts, a cherry pie is hot and on the counter as I write and most of the gang is watching "Biggest Loser" right now. Kinda ironic.
We plan to relax around the house, maybe catch a movie, watch some football, eat lots of treats-n-turkey, and praise God for all He has so generously provided. We are so blessed!

Zach's school project and band concert

Today was a neat day to be a parent, especially with regards to my 12 year old son Zach. He's been working on a science project that has to do with forensics and I got to see him interview a detective at the Dublin police headquarters. My friend Mike Epperson is Dublin's Chief of Police and he helped set the meeting up. When we arrived at the Justice Center we first met with Mike for about ten minutes and then he brought us to Detective Gilleland. After Zach asked him a half dozen questions we headed to the crime lab. We were shown some pretty cool stuff but Det. Gilleland went out of his way to say that what we see on TV is bunk when it comes to CSI stuff.

Right after the interview Zach and I headed home and ate a quick supper and then I dropped him off at Scioto HS where his middle school band was going to put on a concert. He's part of the percussion section and therefore gets to play a number of instruments. If you look closely on the left hand side of the pic. Zach is the third guy standing up. After the 7th and 8th grade bands played we got the treat of hearing the Scioto High School band. They were fast, loud and accurate with their moves and music. The girls really enjoyed watching it.

This is not meant to be a really mean slam...but it looks as though my son may choose to be a "band nerd" over a football star when he gets to Scioto HS. Oh well, it's his life and not mine.

Any thoughts from the three of you who read this blog?:-)

Wednesday Wedding Bells

This afternoon I had the fun opportunity to officiate the wedding of my friends Ammar & Lina Salameh. It was a very simple ceremony done in their living room with Melissa and the near by neighbor Fariba Kazemi as witnesses.

Afterwards we had some cake and champagne while looking at recent pictures of the happy couple.
You may recall back in April I attended the swearing in ceremony of my volleyball friend Ammar becoming a United States citizen. Well now he and his sweetheart Lina are married and starting a new life together here in Columbus.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving

Most of the 14 years Melissa & I have been married we've spent Thanksgiving with the Wallenmeyer's. Her sister Marcie married one of our classmates named Michael from Moody Bible Institute and voila...we're family. Last year the entire Holman crew got together in West Virginia at a huge cabin in the woods. That's their family pic. from the weekend.
I look forward to seeing them partly b/c we have so much history together and partly b/c Michael is so stink'n funny. His funny is the dry type of humor. The kind where he can tell a joke or say something really funny and not even crack a smile himself. I think to most people Michael comes off initially as a more serious and studious guy but he's a real cut up. Anyway, they're coming here in 12 days and I can't wait.

Orphan Sunday follow-up and next week

Here's a couple things to note from this past Sunday's service:

*Sheila Persall spoke about God's heart for the orphan and updated us on the needs in Cruz Blanca, Guatemala for child sponsorship

*eight more children were chosen to be sponsored by Encounter Church people bringing our number 23

*Laurie Elsass let everyone know about our mission trip to Guatemala next July 20-27

*many people signed up for it

This coming Sunday we're back to our series in the book of Proverbs called, "Making Life Work". This week is titled, "Choose Friends Wisely".

We will also be commissioning our missionaries Mike & Emily McCaman to go to Mexico City. They are joining a team of people committed to planting churches in Mexico, and Central & South America.

These last few weeks have been quite exciting on Sunday mornings. Checkout the website for messages on loving people, being generous, and God's heart about orphans.

Orphan Sunday

Tomorrow is Orphan Sunday, a day to be challenged about what we as Christ followers are doing to defend and care for orphans.
During the service Sheila Persall is going to share about the children our people have already sponsored in the village of Cruz Blanca, Guatemala and others that still need sponsorship. Then Laurie Elsass is announcing the mission trip opportunity for next summer with VisionTrust. My good friend Matt Storer is the president of Vision Trust and preached at Encounter this past June. He sent a video greeting to our church this week while in Liberia. I'll be showing it and one or two other videos during the service.

Encounter Church gives

In yesterdays blog entry I said I'd tell you what our November 1st offering was b/c we're giving it all away to Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM).

Before I tell you I wanted to let you know how the morning went. As I told you yesterday my friend Rob Comfort was going to co-preach with me. As it turns out when we connected this morning before the service I saw how much he had prepared and felt like I should just hand over most of the service to him. So I opened the morning up with some verses out of Proverbs and some general statements about being generous and then brought Rob up to interview him. After five questions I sat down and Rob spoke humbly from his heart about how essential biblical giving is. You did a great job Rob! If you'd like to hear the message CLICK HERE.

Now before I tell you this amount I'd like to preface it with this:

*I'm not telling you to brag about how great Encounter Church is

*I'm not telling you so you can figure out how much our new church is bringing in weekly

*I'm not telling you so other partnering churches can feel better or worse depending on what they gave

I am telling you so that you can celebrate what God is doing through His people at Encounter.

To God's glory we are sending a check for $5,863.00 to GBIM.