Chuck Taylor preaches for 1st time

Two Sundays ago, Sept. 22, Chuck Taylor spoke from James 3 and did a super job. Our family was in Canada at a family reunion as you see in the blog entry just before this one.
You can listen to Chuck speak by CLICKING HERE or any of our Sunday morning messages by scrolling down a bit and clicking on the link to your right that says Encounter Sun. Service Messages.

A Canadian Family Reunion

This past weekend was the last hurray before school started, we all headed up to Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario for my mom and Henk's 24th wedding anniversary and Henk's 75th birthday. My mom asked if we could be part of this special family time together over six months ago. Friday night a bunch of us had a BBQ at my sister Sara and brother-in-law Trevor's house. They have six kids so there was lots of crazy cousin time for our four kids:-) Henk's youngest brother Harvey and his wife Ria came from the Netherlands. Seven years ago Zach and I visited them and had a great time. Henk's daughter Jennifer came from British Columbia (that's western Canada for those who don't know Canadian geography) as did my mom's youngest brother Henry and his wife Linda. I hadn't seen Jennifer in over 25 years and it was great to catch up with her. I also really enjoyed talking with Henry & Linda. They also have six children. Most are in their teens and twenties.


On Saturday night a group of about 30 of us went on a boat cruise which included a full course meal. We talked around our tables and a few of us gave speeches about what Henk means to us. Below is my mom Heidi and her brothers Jerry and Henry. You can also see Henk with his three brothers Cor, Jerry, and Harvey.

1st Day of School Fall 2010

Wow, it's actually here. My kids are already at their first day of school for the 2010-2011 school year. As usual we got individual pics. of them and one group shot too. It will be fun in years to come comparing the differences as they've grown.

Rachel turns 8 in less than two weeks and is going into the 2nd grade. Abby & Sara are 10 and are finishing elementary school this year in 5th grade. And Zach will be 14 before the year ends and is an eighth grader.

All of them really still enjoy being part of the church plant and have each made new friends there and kept good ties with the ones who came originally.

Athletically this Fall, Zach is playing in his second year of football, the twins will be giving volleyball a try (pray for their coach:-) and Rachel will begin weekly gymnastics classes.

I'm sure as the year progresses you'll see and hear all about these different activities in our families lives.

NBC @ the Harder's

Yesterday began the first day of our third and final NBC of the summer. It is in Dublinshire at the home of Brent & Susan Harder. As a fun side note, Brent was our son Zach's DYA baseball coach seven, five and three years ago:-) Last night we had approx. 25 kids show up with about 10 helpers. Here's a few pics.

Our friend KJ

Today KJ Davis is flying out to Washington State to begin attending the Moody Bible Institute extension school there. He has been a very faithful servant with our facilities team on Sunday mornings over the last year and a half. We sent him off with our blessing and prayed he will grow and be stretched as he trains to go into the
ministry. He will fly back to Columbus in December and I already told him he will be the testimony the Sunday he returns:-)

NBC Sunday

Yesterday morning was fun. Chrissy Jacobs was the service host and we started things off by having Joann Balliett read about how her husband Tom saved the life of a child that had drowned at their pool. From there my wife Melissa came up and spoke briefing about this years NBC and had different kids share about the crafts they did and what biblical truths they represented. After that we had kids and adults lead three songs from NBC and also give testimonies from the week.

Little Isabella Hill

This past Monday, on 8-9-10, another addition to the Encounter Church family was born. Jen Hill our 1st Impressions Coach and her hubby Phil welcome Isabella Rian Hill into the world. She weighed 6lbs. 13oz, and was 19in. long. She also has a full head of black silky hair:-)

Encounter NBC's

Today ended two of our three Neighborhood Bible Clubs. One was in Tartan Fields and the other in Muirfield. Some great women, men, and teens helped lead crafts, game time, and teach Bible stories. I'm so proud of what I saw these people do: love the kids that attended.
This coming Sunday in the service we'll have them sing the songs they learned and hear from some of those who led.



















Next week there will be one more NBC in Dublin. Maybe you'd like to help with it. If so you can contact my wife Melissa (spoelstras@wowway.com).

Taylor wedding rehearsal tonight

I have the pleasure of officiating the wedding of Chad Taylor and Chelsea Hande tomorrow afternoon. Tonight is the rehearsal downtown Columbus.

I've known the Taylor family for 12 years now and that means knowing Chad since he was about 11 years old. Recently I was looking through our family photo albums and saw the Taylor family sprinkled all throughout the years of our time here in Columbus. I'm so glad I get to play a part in their wedding and be in their first photo album as a new family.

Matt Storer preaches @ Encounter

This morning our Guatemala team got to share about our experiences from this past weeks trip as well as showed pictures and video.

As a team we really felt like the congregation was behind us in prayer and their finances made it possible for some to go on the trip.

I was also glad to have Matt Storer take us through both Old Testament and New Testament passages that highlighted the need for God's people to care for the poor, neglected, and widows.