CCC Gainesville | Blog
Bulgaria is lucky; they get to experience the Spirit of Christ in Julie Stout that we enjoy on a regular basis.
Julie recently taught a ballet class Monday afternoons here at the church. Their end of class recital had 50+ family and friends turn out last month. Her missional living continues as Julie will depart on July 7 for two weeks in Bulgaria. Here are her words:
I will be serving in Bulgaria July 7th-21st. I am heavily praying about moving to Bulgaria long term to partner with the MTW team working in their Daughters of Bulgaria program. This program helps prevent and raise awareness of prostitution/human trafficking and rescue of those involved by demonstrating the love of Christ to those being lured into and caught within the sex industry. For more information on this program go to: www.mtwbg.com.
I would love prayer from Christ Community Church to help me learn and absorb as much culture and understanding as I can so that I can clearly see the path the Lord has for me in making my decision on moving there. Also, please pray that my focus will remain on my reasons for being in Bulgaria and that many lives would be saved for eternity with Christ.
Please subscribe to my blog to follow me during my trip:
Hey Everyone!
Thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts last week as we were in Mississippi at the Palmer Home. It was such an awesome week of bonding and growing in realization of God’s presence and blessings in our lives. We were given various jobs throughout the week such as landscaping, painting, cleaning and sorting the Palmer thrift store, scraping paint off of fences, mowing, weeding, and pretty much whatever else they needed around the campus. Temperatures were above 100 degrees for most of the week, making it very easy for us to feel exhausted and questioning how our little jobs could possibly be helping the Palmer Home, but God provided encouragement at the right time from various staff around Palmer Home who came up to us on the site and at dinner telling us how we might be there for a week, but they will enjoy our work for the next year. Our youth really did an amazing job with not only working, but loving the Palmer Home kids as well. By the end of the week it was awesome to see the relationships that were formed, and to hear our students wishing we could have stayed another week. Hopefully y’all have been able to talk to them about what they learned or what they thought about the week, I was so encouraged by them last week, and thankful for each of them that went.
This week!
–No D Groups because of 4th of July.
– No event on the 6th: I know it says on the magnet schedule that we were planning on having an event on Friday the 6th, but due to the holiday this week, and the amount of volunteers that will be out of town, we will not be having that event this week! So no event on Friday the 6th.
-Sunday July 8th: Sunday Night youth group will return as usual from 6-8 pm.
– Youth Sunday morning classes are also going on right now, every sunday at 9am in the Multipurpose room of the office complex. Hope to see all youth there!
Finally,:
– VBS (Vacation Bible School) sign-ups are happening now, meaning that we need to also get youth signed up to help. Our Local Missions Week is an awesome time to serve the church and our community, as well as continue to grow and build relationships as a youth group community. Our youth will serve at VBS in the morning, eat lunch here at the church, at 1 we will depart from the church and go out into the community each day doing various pre-organized jobs each day. We will be doing some yard work at Arbor House, visiting Emeritus Assisted living center, and various other places each week. After our work that day, at about 4:30 or 5 we will reconvene at a house for dinner, games, swimming, and debrief time, and will be done at 8pm. Everyone that has been involved in a Local Missions week in the past few years has nothing but great things to say about the week, we are really looking forward to this week!
– Email me ( ddonovan AT christcommunitychurch DOT COM ) to get signed up for the week, we will need to have some idea of numbers so that they can get placed into a group for VBS, as well as arrangements for our service activities each day!
– Drivers are still needed if you are able to be involved that week. Thank you!
Drew
1.) Mark Sheplak was unanimously elected to serve this church family in the office of elder. He will be ordained Sunday.
2.) Joseph Kibbewot has returned. Christ Community’s favorite Kenyan was in our worship service yesterday!
More to come on both of these great acts of God.
Carry The Torch! VBS 2012 is just around the corner. Many volunteers from CCC have been preparing and helping get ready for our big week of Olympic fun. One of the aspects that makes VBS so fun is not just the games, not just the snacks, not just the friends your kids will make, but learning about God’s truths in an engaging, non-threatening, developmentally appropriate and fun way. Each year at VBS we work really hard to give kids the gospel in ways that pop out of the pages of the bible and right into their imagination and life experience.
While children will be learning about Paul’s race in the book of Acts during the week of VBS we know that each lesson is much deeper than what we can talk about during each day. To get the most out of VBS we want to encourage parents to check out the blog posts in the weeks leading up to VBS for devotionals on each lesson. This will give you the materials on what your kids were taught each day, memory verses, and questions for continuing the conversation beyond VBS.
See you at Opening Ceremonies on July 16th!
A few weeks ago in a sermon I mentioned a story of a Texas QB whose worst day was his best day. The point was that God can be mightily at work during times when we feel the most “down”. Stephen Addcox told me the principle of God working in our darkness reminded him of a poem by Milton. Then he (Stephen, not Milton) sent me this:
From a very young age John Milton was convinced that he would one day write a
great epic poem. He was mostly involved in politics until he went
blind, and as you can imagine, it’s not easy to write in 17th c.
England when you’re completely blind. Ultimately he composed the
entirety of Paradise Lost in sections that he would memorize and then
recite to a transcriptionist. But before that he despaired that God
had robbed him of the opportunity for greatness; this poem is an
expression of his doubt and struggle with his blindness.
Patience here is personified as a voice speaking to Milton’s
distress.
“On his blindness”
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
‘Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?’
I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, ‘God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.’
