Messages planned for 2010

Today was productive. With the help of my sweetheart and my buddy Kyle, the next year of messages has been planned. We'll be talking about our core values: Celebrate, Grow, Serve and Multiply. There will be a three week series in the month of love called, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Ten weeks will be spent teaching about our theological beliefs and will end with an opportunity for people to commit to Encounter for a year at a time. We will call it a Covenant Commitment. The details are on our website. We'll also spend some time in Nehemiah, Jonah, and James. In November we'll talk about our finances in a series titled, "Chasing the Almighty" and then finish off the year celebrating the "Advent" of our Savior.

A little winter weather fun at Leather Lips Park

Well we finally got some snow. Not much but enough to at least get the Spoelstra, Mielke and Kearney kids dressed, sans the moms and our twins, to go sledding. Here's the proof that we went.

The twins prayed for more snow tonight at bed time so they too might get the chance to go sledding with dad:-)

Christmas Day 2009

It finally came and went. Another Christmas. For the Spoelstra's it was quite simple and quiet: no one coming into town and we didn't go out of town. It was nice not even leaving the house today.
We told the kids not to wake us up until 8:45am. They were allowed to hunt for their stockings before then though and Melissa and I giggled in bed when we heard their glee over the silly trinkets they found.
After making our morning cup of tea we began the relatively orderly process of present opening. The kids really got excited about their gifts and my sweetheart got a new laptop she was hoping for but didn't really think she'd get:-)
It was nice to talk to my parents and sister and basically laze around the house all day. Most of us stayed in our pj's all day.

BTW - I found out we has 196 at the Christmas Eve service.

Christmas Eve

Well we did it. We had our very first Christmas Eve service. Thankfully we were able to use our normal location, Eli Pinney Elementary School, so we didn't have to redirect people. The evening started with a video reading from Luke 2 in four different languages, then a short kids pageant followed by three Christmas carols sung by children. Then the adults sang "O Holy Night". I spoke for just over 10 mins. about Christ being before time-Creator, stepping into time-Savior and being above time-King of Kings. After a short time of reflection we lit candles while singing, "Silent Night". When the service ended many people stuck around to have a cookie and connect. I met about a dozen new families and still wasn't able to meet every visitor. I don't know yet how many we had but with the children in the room and all the visitors, we were getting chairs out of the library for people to sit on!
Once we got home it was time to open sibling presents. Ever year we let the kids open the gifts they got for each other and for Melissa and I. They're always so excited to see the reactions of everyone receiving their gifts.
Then after that we headed over to our good friends, Jeff & Lynette Woda, where we met up with about a dozen other families, none of whom attend Encounter. Some we've known for a decade and others we met that night. We had a great time reconnecting.
Once home we rushed the kids to bed so we could fill and hide the stockings and put all the gifts under the tree. After Melissa did most of that we sat down and watched "White Christmas" until 2:00am.
8:45am came early but I'll tell you about that in the next entry.

Home with the family over Christmas Break

Christmas break has begun and fun times with the kids too. Monday was a total family day. After the kids got their chores done we played a 3 1/2 hr. game RISK, they played outside in the snow, had lunch and supper together, watched a movie downstairs and made a ginger bread house. We even turned the phone off for most of the day:-)