Once again, God gave us a great day last Sunday! The morning worship was powerful and His Word was, as it always is, precious. We had a great number of visitors and a GREAT, great, great concert Sunday night. Wow, what a great time it was. The music and testimonies were clear, powerful, beautiful, both breaking our hearts and lifting them up to God. Pastor Frank said the recording turned out great, so if you want to get it check with the bookstore on Sunday to order it.

Looking ahead to this Sunday, I was reminded of the powerful impact that my first visit behind the old “Iron Curtain”, former Soviet controlled Eastern Europe, back in 1992. The spiritual impact at that time was profound, but it’s also enduring to this day. In a good way, I have never been the same since then and neither has our church. What a grand and great door of spiritual opportunity was opened to us by God’s intervention into the kingdoms of men. Again in 2003 God opened another great door of opportunity to us as we visited China for the first time. That visit has also had an immeasurable impact on my life, the life of my family, and the life of our church. It was an extraordinarily powerful reminder of God’s ongoing supernatural work in the world. He is building His church and the gates of hell are not, will not, and cannot stop Him. We are looking forward to a great day again this Lord’s Day as Pastor Troy, along with a passionate team of men and woman, has planned a full day of services and fellowship to inform and transform our hearts and minds with God’s Word and work in the world. God calls each of us as individuals and all of us as a church to partner with Him in His great work of taking His gospel to the world. Don’t forget to prepare to stay for lunch and the “evening” service to follow right after lunch.

I would also like to ask you to pray for Mary Van Dame. She is one of the most senior of our saints and suffered a stroke this week. I just visited her in the hospital. I prayed with her and read a favorite Psalm. She was able to speak well enough to thank me for coming. That was both a surprise and a blessing. See you Sunday, the Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

This has been a week of answered prayer. The truth is every week is, but this has been a week that God has answered many serious prayers in direct and positive ways. Obviously I always find it easier to enjoy the “yes” answers, especially if they have followed many “wait, wait, wait!” answers (one of my least favorite answers!). Ted Hampton almost went to heaven a couple of times this past weekend, but God graciously intervened to get him to the hospital for one reason to discover and treat him for much more serious reasons. I certainly praise the Lord he is out of the ICU and recovering nicely in the hospital. God clearly personally intervened on behalf of the Hamptons. God answered very specific prayer with Jim Szakacs getting a new job, which is a wonderful answer to prayer for him and his family that has been on many of our hearts. God provided some very specific answers at the “11^th hour” for direction in pressing and serious decisions that needed to be made. It never ceases to amaze me that as we humbly seek His direction in difficult situations that somehow we apparently stumble through life’s “mine fields” and end up safely on the other side, not because we are so clever, but because He is so present in our lives and immeasurably kind.

As (almost) always, I am really looking forward to worshipping together this next Sunday. We are getting close to the end of the section in Hebrews dealing with living by faith. This study has been a delight and encouragement to me personally. THEN, Sunday evening we are having our men’s group do a special concert! I LOVE their ministry in music. I can’t wait to hear them sing and share testimonies Sunday. You shouldn’t miss it. You can always get a recording of it, but it’s always better in person, being right there in the middle of the blessing! See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

This week has been quite a blur, lots of stuff packed into less than enough time, but I’m sure I’m not alone in this. I did want to take time to “publically” praise God for such a glorious Easter day. Obviously the truth of the resurrection is beyond human description in its glory, but even our personal celebration was close to being beyond description. Starting early in the morning with a great group of men, singing, hearing His Word, praying, and of course coffee and donuts was a great start to our day. Then a church full of people, a good number of unbelievers hearing the gospel, the joyous fellowship in sacred music, the power of His Word, and fellowship of all ages and flavors of brothers and sisters in Christ was beyond words. Only by adding exclamatory sounds and dramatic hand gestures can you get even close to describing His blessing to us last Sunday. Add to that the profound personal joy of a family dinner with children and grandchildren and my head and heart were about to explode. It was a great day, because of that great day that He conquered sin and death for us.

Well, I’m really looking forward to Sunday. We are continuing in our study of Hebrews 11, focusing our attention on the life and testimony of Rahab. Then in the evening service we will have the joy of a great number of our teens singing, leading in music, sharing testimonies, as Pastor Tim II leads in worship. You won’t want to miss either of these great opportunities for growth, fellowship, and worship. See you there, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

Here are some short videos to remind you of what you heard this morning!

Easter Elements

This is the video that was playing as we came in to the Sunrise Men’s Service this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHU6TZZ1ICY

That’s my king

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE&feature=player_embedded

Children’s Animated “He is Risen!”

Starting with part 2 of 3, these videos go through the tomb being sealed to . These are excellent for those homes with children.

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7qjJl-aDc&feature=related

Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQiyVgNchs&feature=related

***Parents, we would encourage you to review all of the videos before you show them to your children, but particularly these two, as some of the footage may be too graphic for them.

3 days later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-xryMXpBm0&feature=related

Were You There

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J8PBY04gTU&feature=related