Ministry Marches On

Last week I sent out a brief message asking for help for a couple of youth who were wanting to go to Winter Blast in Greenlake, WI. One of those particular youth come from a home with parents who are professed atheists. In less than an hour, we received enough responses to cover the necessary expenses for those youth, and have received further donations to cover other incidental expenses for this trip.

On Sunday, we had our third young man come forward to accept Christ as his personal Savior and request baptism. Other children are also asking more questions and I believe more decisions will be forthcoming...

This Sunday we will present our Christmas S.O.C.C.E.R. Team musical which is a collaboration of the children and adults choruses. I can not say enough about all of the hard work put into this musical by the kids and adults and their leaders, Chris Finley, Vicky Thompson, Cindy Gandy, Jessica Bartley, and Missy Adams, as well as our adult choir leader, Lois Roberts.

The church is also hard at work preparing for our Manna program which will feature Morning Manna, a hot breakfast free of charge to our local community, and Manna on the Move, which is a grocery kit each visitor will receive that will provide them with enough food for the rest of the day. Lots of volunteer hours are already being poured into this ministry and it is exciting to see the opportunities that are developing with this outreach.

The church building looks beautiful thanks to the hard work of so many people who have decorated for Christmas. I am grateful to all of the hard work that has gone into, and continues to be made for our Christmas season.

I feel blessed to be a part of a church such as this and to be able to participate alongside such wonderful servants of Jesus Christ. There is so much to be thankful for around here and I praise God for these people who make up our church!

Tom Bartley
Pastor