Gotta Blog...

Just got to blog for a few minutes. It was such a great weekend. It started with the opportunity to play in a golf tournament to benefit Maywood Christian Camp. This was their first such tournament and it resulted in a profit of $3200 for the camp. I'm not a golfer but I got to spend the morning with my son Andrew and nephew Ren. It was a delight!

Then Sunday. What a day! We had a record crowd any way you slice it. There were 136 present. That's doubly neat because we seat exactly 136 when you combine both auditoriums (that'd be our small one and our smaller one!). There were about 7 in the nursery and a few parents held their kids, so we did have a handful of open seats. We had 5 families of 18 people gone Sunday which could have put us over the 150 mark in worship. Thanks to all who invited folks.

Following the morning services we had a great picnic! It was awesome! What a crowd. I'd estimate about 150 were at the picnic. Several came over who went to services elsewhere. We had a blowup balloon (we called them "moonwalks" when I was a kid) and the kids had a ball. We had it catered by Famous Dave's, so the adults had a ball too :)!

At about 1:15 we had our afternoon service. We had 100 on the dot stay for the service (a record crowd for our evening service), the previous record set the week before was 92! People stayed around till about 3:45.

Then we had the evening devo service at 5 at the building. There were 11 there. Five Spring Meadows folks and as the service got going some of my dearest friends stopped in to surprise me. They ended up being the ones surprised. Chuck and Susan Terry and their wonderful kids. I've known Chuck for nearly 40 years and his wonderful wife Susan has helped him become so well rounded. They are super parents - I am proud of them and their children. The kids are sharp and well behaved. Their oldest is now a young man - Jacob is as tall as I am and can carry on a comfortable and enjoyable conversation with an adult. Their daughter Jessica is growing into a beautiful young lady (who'd ever have thought Chuck could have a beautiful daughter). Their youngest Joshua will keep them on their toes...he's in first grade (I think) and is playing football! Wow. And. Jonathan well, he's obviously mature beyond his years. Enough about them - but it is my blog and I wanted to talk about a good friend for a minute.

In addition to all that Sunday we "officially" took possession of the hardware store - though much of the "building" out is already done. I'm told there'll be a great paint party Saturday! I can hardly wait.

Everybody also got to see the big sign for Spring Meadows on US31. How exciting!

Then Monday seemed just as great:
I got to be a part of giving out copies of our new book to the area preachers at the 21st luncheon and then drove to Spring Hill where we made some great visits (we had 6 show up for Monday night "no-guilt" v - a record). I also got to meet with a good friend who made recommendations for sound issues and other technical equipment for the new building.

Well, life is good and I just wanted to share.

November 5th is going to be a great day - unless the Lord returns first and that will be the best day. I hope you're inviting people to be in the right place for both those days :).

Love,
dale