Game Day Is Finally Here!

Last night we had our Awana registration and game night. It is what I lovingly refer to as controlled chaos or herding cats! It was so loud and crazy and yours truly got to lead the games. I say got to because the guy who led games last year moved up to leading the 7-8 grade group for Awana, called Trek. So i took note of what our "greatest need" was, leading games, and I jumped in. You may be surprised to know this about me, but I really don't like game time. I like games of course, basketball, soccer, and of course football, but these crazy games and me... It's good that there are kids in jr. high that are a part of Awana, and I'm glad the John's heart is all for them, it's very exciting. But it also means we need more volunteers! Sound familiar? The church is always looking for people to love on kids and small Blackfoot Christian Fellowship is no different than big churches. To some degree Awana for us is like VBS in Anacortes. We have a really nice facility and families and churches from all over the community send their kids here. In fact, our three kids are the only kids from this church involved, for now. There are two other kids that are part of the church, but they are 4 and 18 months old respectively. I'm hoping to have a couple of child dedications soon! FYI, we've got 41 kids registered for Awana after last night's registration event, but there are more to come. You may be wondering how our concert of prayer went last Sunday night, well, it was really cool. Karl, the worship pastor from Pocatello FBC, came up to play the piano for us and lead our singing. We had between 15-18 people show up including some folks who were in real need of prayer. There were some folks who don't attend church regularly, but someone invited them to come and pray with us. We went through the ACTS format. Adoration: We adored God for who he is and what he has done. Confession: We confessed where we have fallen short in our lives. Thanksgiving: We thanked God for his blessings, including the trails that we are facing or have faced. Supplication: We asked God to give us our daily bread, to give us what we need to advance his kingdom here in Blackfoot, and for boldness. It was a good night. A funny thing happened when we got home. As we were trying to get the animals fed and the kids in bed, the doorbell rang and guess who was at the door... If you guessed it was the Publishers Clearing House folks to tell me that we are now millionaires, then you'd be wrong. Yup, it was the wonderful sisters front he LDS church. Two young ladies and a mama bear to guard them. There was a lot of small talk as I waited for them to get to the point. Right after I told them that I was the pastor of the Blackfoot Christian Fellowship, one of them asked me if I had ever met with Mormon missionaries before. I said yes and she asked how it went. I told them that we had to agree to disagree. She then asked me if I ever met with one again and believed their testimony, would I get baptized. I told her that my understanding of our beliefs were pretty far off from theirs and the likelihood of me doing that was nonexistent. I think she was a little taken back, but said, at least you're honest. I told here I didn't want to give her false hope and I really needed to get in for bedtime prayers. Hindsight is 20/20 and there are so many things I wish I would have said, but in the moment that's what came out. Next subject: The floors in our house should be finished today! That means that we can finally move our furniture to a set place and get set up for school and everyday life. I will need to put new baseboards on, but at least we'll have our furniture in place. The guys working on our floor are Mormons and today I plan to invite them to church this Sunday. Pray that the Holy Spirit would move them to come. Those of you who know me, know that I what I really really meant in today's title is that Aggie Football officially begins tonight! The first game of the season is on ESPN at 4 PM MST. We're having a football pizza party and we're dressed in our Aggie gear. The Ag's aren't picked to win, but that'll never change how we root for them. I pray that my heart and your will get as or more excited for church on Sunday and for the things that God is doing in our midst. That's a real prayer request for me. Well friends, this Sunday we complete our Strategy series with Serve - For the glory of God. The scripture passage is John 13:1-17 and the big idea is that hearts and lives are transformed when we humbly serve like Jesus. The Southern Baptist group is still with us and is still trying to figure out what they need/want to do. You can pray for them as well. In September we begin Spark: The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church. In this series we'll take a look at the book of Acts and the way God via the Holy Spirit transformed a bunch of scared guys to fearless and bold leaders of a movement for Christ. Thanks for reading and praying for us. We love and miss y'all.