This year C-Squared decided that we wanted to adopt a family for the Holidays! We all pitched in some money as as previously posted we went on a Wednesday night during Life Night to purchase and wrap the gifts that we got. A couple of us went on Tuesday night (Christmas Eve Eve lol) to deliver the gifts to our family. When we got to their house we were welcomed with big smiling faces! They were SO excited and SO grateful that we came! We told them MERRY CHRISTMAS!! And the mom (Julie) kept telling us over and over how thankful she was. She told us, "We usually put the tree up every year, but we never are able to have any presents under it." I wanted to cry but at the same time I was so excited because it felt so good to know that we were helping this family out in their time of need!
This year C-Squared (College and Career Ministry) decided to adopt a family. We’ve been talking about doing this for quite some time but we actual took the step and adopted a family this year, through the Don Bosco Center. When I called and told them that we wanted a family of 4 or 5, she was SO excited because she had a family of 5 that still needed to be adopted for the Holidays. Our family is a single parent home with four children. The mom, Julie, is going to school full time and working through a temp agency. There are four children; one girl, Carhmah-Age 3 and three boys; Wallace-Age 6, Wallace-Age 8, and Wallace-age 15. I have been very excited about this but at the same time just a little unsure, since I've never done anything like this before. This past Wednesday for Life Group, Ragen and I were trying to figure out a way for everyone in C-Squared to be involved. We decided that we were going to load up and head to Wal-Mart. I was nervous how everyone would respond, but everyone was SO excited about getting presents for our "family"!!! We all loaded up and headed out to WalMart to find gifts! Everyone was scurrying around the place all excited about trying to find things! It warmed my heart and made me feel so good that people were excited about GIVING to others!! After we finished at WalMart, we headed back to the church and we wrapped the gifts!
Last night, I called Julie (the mom of our "family"). I was nervous at first because I didn't know what to say and I was secretly hoping that it would be a family that would be grateful. I told her who I was and that I was with The Life Church and that we had adopted her family for the Holidays. She instantly was SOOO estatic!!!!!! She kept telling me over and over and over how excited and thankful she was that we adopted them!! She kept telling me that times were just tough and she couldn't do it. I knew from the moment I spoke to her how grateful she was.
I can't explain to you what that did to my heart. It felt so GOOD!!! It felt so amazing that we were helping someone that was in NEED. Sometimes we forget all the real importance in life. It's not about the things we receive but its about helping others. Helping others that have greater needs than ourselves.
I know this is getting to be a long post, but we will be delivering the gifts to Julie's home the first part of next week! Stay tuned!
What a wonderful presence of the Lord visited our group on Wednesday, July 30. The intensity of His presence was tangible. We were missing several people yet still had 26 in attendance. While we gathered in our basement, I could sense that this woud be a special evening. Bro. Larmie, who normally leads us in worship, was unable to attend so I was prepared to have someone else lead when I realized that what we were about to talk about would need no worship song.
We began to talk about hearing the voice of God and then acting upon what we heard. We dealt with the several times that Jesus said, "He that hath an ear, let him hear." It is all too often that while we have ears, we tend not to use them. In our conversation we came to a verse in Zephaniah 3 that declared that the Almighty would save, rejoice over us and then will joy over thee with singing. At the close of our discussion, the anointing of the Holy Ghost was very near, and we began to pray. As we prayed I felt that God was beginning to speak, and yet some were not hearing. As we calmed our prayers I challenged the group with what I thought God was wanting to take place - He was wanting to sing. He was wanting to take care of the song that night. We began to pray for one another and while that was blessed and anointed, it didn't seem to break into a dimension where God desired us to walk.
Then all of us in unison raised our hands and lifted our voices to heaven and there was a breaking of the Spirit that began to sweep over us. Tears had already been flowing, but added to those tears was a strength of God that could physically be felt. All of a sudden Andrea Blaszyk began to speak in tongues in the most authoritative, powerful voice I had ever heard her pray in (and I have heard her a lot through the years!). It was one of those moments that you thought would be followed by an interpretaion, but after about four minutes of Andrea speaking like this, the Holy Ghost prompted me to tell the group, that this is not for interpretation, it was God singing!! He was singing and rejoicing over us just as Zephaniah promised!! Andrea went for another five minutes before she calmed down. When we realized that the God of glory was rejoicing and singing over us, we all broke forth in tears and wonder and amazement came across the room because we truly had an encounter with the Almighty. Thank God He likes to sing!
We had a BLAST in Branson!!! This trip was full of memories and wish more people could have gone. But we had a great time and this will be a trip we will never forget!!!
We left Thursday evening and headed to Branson…when we got there we went to eat at Applebee’s because that was pretty much all that was open! Thank God for ½ price appetizers! Haha On Friday morning we got up and had good ole Cracker Barrel for breakfast!! We then went shopping for a few hours at the Tanger Outlet Mall! After our shopping experience some of the group went to the Arcade and the rest of us went mini golfing. Lets just say that we had quite the experience on ‘the greens’!! For those of you that golfed, can I get an Amen?? Haha Complete with getting rained on! We then headed to TJ Max and Target before heading to Lamberts! Home of the Throwed Rolls! We all squished into the table and had the best meal ever!! After we ate, we went back to the cabins and played games! On Saturday morning we got up and spent all day at Silver Dollar City, then came home late Saturday evening. We had a BLAST and we can’t wait to go again!!!
Just a few memories to sum up this trip….
*Need a car seat?? *Fighting for ½ price appetizers *Where’s Byron? *Ragen’s dodging experience at the outlet mall *Prayer on the ‘Greens’ *11 people sitting in a 6 person table at Lamberts *Entertain for Entertainment…come on guys!! *Catch Phrase…the guys lost!! *Round 2?! *Popsicles anyone? *Krista’s shoes *Won the fat people’s Olympics *Walking through the woods…everyone got wet and muddy… *Where’s Tara?....WHERES TARA? *Well folks, we’re going to stop the ride for a moment to pick up someone’s shoes *The cave *You better not take a picture of that bat! Leave that alone! *No licking!! *Stopping at QT *Chris and Thunderation *Krista trying to get Branson on 411 *Children of Uganda
God has really been doing some awesome things in the ‘United’ group. The past few weeks during Life Night, God has spoken to Bro Sanders and we have gone back to the basics. God has really been moving and we have been having great prayer time and great discussions! We are well on our way to the next level!!
A couple of weeks ago, Bro Sanders preached during the main service about Apostolic Deliverance. Towards the end of the service he called the ‘United’ group to the front and God really moved in our group and did some awesome stuff for each individual person! God is so awesome!!!
