Wow! What a great weekend! Redeemer Church had its official launch yesterday, and it was FANTASTIC! Seventeen months after our arrival in town, thirteen months after the start of core team development, nine months after our first Sunday gathering, and one week after the start of the new semester at the University of Illinois, Redeemer Church is off the ground! Chet, Ladan and I were some of the last people to walk in to find our seats, and as I looked around, I think I said out loud, "Oh, wow." It was humbling and exciting! Jim's welcome was enthusiastic, Chet's sermon was excellent (no bias involved... it really was great), and Caleb's very intentional design of the order of worship was super!
There was much activity leading up to yesterday's service, and so many things went on behind the scenes before and during the service that I can't possibly list them all. I'm guessing Chet probably has that list somewhere on his computer, but checklists aren't the point really. The point is that many people stepped out, took risks, were forced to trust the Lord to provide help when they didn't know what to do, and relied on the Holy Spirit to speak through them when they didn't know exactly what to say. As a result, I'm assuming that these people are the ones who noticed the most joy and satisfaction yesterday morning. Joy that is not based on their own efforts, but the shear joy that comes from participating in the LORD's work as He unfolds His plan. There's nothing like it!
We're not super-focused on numbers, so I don't think anyone took an official count. However, somewhere along the way, someone counted 81 present. Here's the great part about that. At the end of the service, Chet took a poll and asked people how many came because they received a door hanger at their home. Answer: ZERO. He then asked how many came because they saw the Facebook ad. Answer: TWO. He then asked how many came because they received a personal invitation from someone they knew. Answer: HALF THE ROOM.
The lesson is this.... Most of the time, people come to church or demonstrate interest in things of the Lord because a PERSON shows an interest in them and invites them. Let this be an encouragement to all of us to build relationships with others, share the Gospel, and INVITE them to join us in our pursuit of the Lord. Don't get hung up on whether or not they're rejecting or accepting you. It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with God. They're rejecting or accepting Him. If they accept the invitation, praise God (not yourself). If they reject the invitation, pray for them, knowing that they are not ultimately rejecting you, but the Holy God who created them and who offers the only lasting joy and salvation they can find. And don't be afraid to invite them again just because they said no one time.
It will be exciting to see how God decides to use Redeemer over the course of the next weeks, months and years! To those of you who have participated in bringing this body of believers together (either from a short or long distance), THANK YOU!
Hopefully some photos will follow shortly.
Showing posts with label Redeemer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Redeemer. Show all posts
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Well, Look at You!
Gabe has been hilarious lately! This morning I had on an old t-shirt that my dad got me YEARS ago to wear as pajamas. It's basically an extra-large t-shirt with dolphins on it. When I got up from feeding Claire, I helped Gabe go to the bathroom. He was standing on the toilet while I washed my hands. He suddenly looked over at me and said in his very expressive voice, "Well, look at you! You got whales all over your shirt!" If you know Gabe's voice, you'll know how funny this was... and if you don't know his voice, I wish I had a recording for you.
When he doesn't like something that someone else says--like when you tell him to eat the chip in his mouth before he gets another one--he puts on his best stern face, points quickly to the stairs, and says in his best stern voice, "Go to yo' bed!" Today I told him that he wasn't going to be able to watch Tom and Jerry, and he promptly told me to go to my bed. If only I could have obeyed him! I needed a nap!
Other updates....
I took Claire to her one-month appointment last Friday, and she weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and measured 21.5 inches long. Still lighter than both the boys at birth with an extra half inch compared to their birth measurements. She's a skinny little peanut. She's growing just fine though, and the doctor didn't even mention her size as an issue at all. She had a lot of catching up to do after she lost nearly a pound in the hospital.
She's starting to lose the hair on the top of her head. We'll see if she loses the rest. She's gripping things pretty well and held her first toy today and waved it around all by herself for quite a few minutes. I can tell she's about ready to start smiling here in the next week or two. She's got these huge bright eyes when she gets excited, and today she was starting to move her mouth in the direction of a big fat grin... but it's not there quite yet.
Ladan is doing really well with school. Handwriting is not his favorite or best thing at all, but many of his lessons require quite a bit of writing practice. He's getting loads better, but we were both tired of spending so much time on this every day. So he does all the writing associated with his math every day. However, I decided to only do parts of the assignments in his phonics curriculum so that we could skip ahead to the parts where he's reading. Since he's already a reader, I felt like he wasn't being challenged in this way, was getting bored, and was getting a bit discouraged as well. According to my projections, it was going to take us through the end of October to get to read a book that he's already read on his own, which seemed crazy to me. So I'm going to rearrange the order of quite a few assignments in order to spread out the handwriting stuff and pull the reading stuff forward. It's working MUCH BETTER so far. I guess that's the cool thing about homeschooling... I can totally rearrange things to keep pressing ahead in areas where he's very strong and give him more time to work on the things where he needs more work.
I'd say that homeschooling is going very well so far. But there is not yet a pattern to our days. I'm so thankful that I didn't expect any kind of routine at this stage of Claire's life. I look forward to the day when things are just a little bit more predictable... and for now, I'm just fine with the fact that I may not get a whole lot done other than school, feeding my infant, playing with the kids, communicating with my husband, keeping the clothes and cloth diapers clean, washing dishes, buying groceries, preparing meals, paying bills, spending time with Redeemer folks, and reading the Word... oh, and sleeping occasionally.
Chet's been working like a mad man getting all manner of things prepared for when Redeemer starts having services every Sunday. We will finish up core team development by the end of October and begin weekly services on November 1. There is much to be done between now and then, but we have an excellent team, and things seem to be trucking along. While there's some work left to be done on our website, it is live now. Check it out at http://www.redeemerchurchcu.com when you get a second.
Exciting things are also happening with His Voice for Sudan, the ministry that my brother and Amber started several years ago!!!! Their blog is in transition, so they have two right now: http://www.sudanskids.blogspot.com and http://www.hisvoiceforsudan.blogspot.com.
Well, my bed is screaming my name, so I'm going to try to get there before my infant is screaming my name again.
When he doesn't like something that someone else says--like when you tell him to eat the chip in his mouth before he gets another one--he puts on his best stern face, points quickly to the stairs, and says in his best stern voice, "Go to yo' bed!" Today I told him that he wasn't going to be able to watch Tom and Jerry, and he promptly told me to go to my bed. If only I could have obeyed him! I needed a nap!
Other updates....
I took Claire to her one-month appointment last Friday, and she weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and measured 21.5 inches long. Still lighter than both the boys at birth with an extra half inch compared to their birth measurements. She's a skinny little peanut. She's growing just fine though, and the doctor didn't even mention her size as an issue at all. She had a lot of catching up to do after she lost nearly a pound in the hospital.
She's starting to lose the hair on the top of her head. We'll see if she loses the rest. She's gripping things pretty well and held her first toy today and waved it around all by herself for quite a few minutes. I can tell she's about ready to start smiling here in the next week or two. She's got these huge bright eyes when she gets excited, and today she was starting to move her mouth in the direction of a big fat grin... but it's not there quite yet.
Ladan is doing really well with school. Handwriting is not his favorite or best thing at all, but many of his lessons require quite a bit of writing practice. He's getting loads better, but we were both tired of spending so much time on this every day. So he does all the writing associated with his math every day. However, I decided to only do parts of the assignments in his phonics curriculum so that we could skip ahead to the parts where he's reading. Since he's already a reader, I felt like he wasn't being challenged in this way, was getting bored, and was getting a bit discouraged as well. According to my projections, it was going to take us through the end of October to get to read a book that he's already read on his own, which seemed crazy to me. So I'm going to rearrange the order of quite a few assignments in order to spread out the handwriting stuff and pull the reading stuff forward. It's working MUCH BETTER so far. I guess that's the cool thing about homeschooling... I can totally rearrange things to keep pressing ahead in areas where he's very strong and give him more time to work on the things where he needs more work.
I'd say that homeschooling is going very well so far. But there is not yet a pattern to our days. I'm so thankful that I didn't expect any kind of routine at this stage of Claire's life. I look forward to the day when things are just a little bit more predictable... and for now, I'm just fine with the fact that I may not get a whole lot done other than school, feeding my infant, playing with the kids, communicating with my husband, keeping the clothes and cloth diapers clean, washing dishes, buying groceries, preparing meals, paying bills, spending time with Redeemer folks, and reading the Word... oh, and sleeping occasionally.
Chet's been working like a mad man getting all manner of things prepared for when Redeemer starts having services every Sunday. We will finish up core team development by the end of October and begin weekly services on November 1. There is much to be done between now and then, but we have an excellent team, and things seem to be trucking along. While there's some work left to be done on our website, it is live now. Check it out at http://www.redeemerchurchcu.com when you get a second.
Exciting things are also happening with His Voice for Sudan, the ministry that my brother and Amber started several years ago!!!! Their blog is in transition, so they have two right now: http://www.sudanskids.blogspot.com and http://www.hisvoiceforsudan.blogspot.com.
Well, my bed is screaming my name, so I'm going to try to get there before my infant is screaming my name again.
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