What a great weekend!  Not only was the weather nice, but the service was just Spirit-led from start to finish.  Long story short, I kept praying and praying about whether or not my sermon was going to strike the right tone, and I was still deep in prayer about it when we began our worship time...

Welcome to the Fall!  I just mowed my lawn today, and it was nice to be able to do it without sweating, since it was in the 60s this morning.  Now, if we can just get some more overcast days rolling in, Pastor Kevin will be a happy man...

I hope that this Update finds you doing well, wherever you are.  I know that several of our FCCers are experiencing some complicated issues in their lives right now (two people struggling with eye problems, one with serious kidney stone issues, another with post-surgical rehabilitation, etc.), so if you’re having a hard week, you’re in good company...

What a busy day we had here at FCC this week!  First off, we rushed through a lot of information in Sunday School, so we’ll have to start next week off right with talking about those pirates...

So the Pumpkin Festival has come and gone, and I ate my requisite annual corn dog (and it was delicious, thank you).  Only another 51 weeks until the next Pumpkin Festival begins -- mark your calendars now...

I can’t help but be excited -- it’s Pumpkin Festival week, and that’s the social event of the year in Central Illinois.  Well, some people would point to the Turkey Festival in Tremont, or the Heart of Illinois Fair in Peoria... but it’s really the Pumpkin Festival in Morton (I mean, can you get pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin chili at those other fairs?)....

This has been a crazy week.  It’s been a good one, but a crazy one.  Hopefully, this Sunday Morning Update finds you well-rested after your three-day weekend...

I know that you’re probably reading this in September, so welcome to Autumn!  I say that with my tongue firmly in my cheek, since our thermometer says that it’s currently 97 degrees outside...

More than one person noted that my first Sunday back from vacation had overcast weather outside and Irish music in the prelude inside.  It’s like God was saying, “Hey, it’s good to have you back...”

Okay, technically, I haven’t been at First Covenant for the past two weeks (because we’ve been on vacation), so I can’t really give you too much of an Update on what’s been going on here.  I know that the Teen Challenge guys came on the 9th and shared about how God has impacted men who are working through drug and alcohol addictions, and I know that Floyd Huebner spoke on the 16th about the Gideons and their ministry of sharing the Bible with people around the world -- so check out their websites for more information about those ministries...

I hope that this Sunday Morning Update finds you healthy and happy, wherever you may be.  We had a great day of worship this week here at First Covenant, so I hope that you were able to take the time to worship with people as well.  You may be reading this a bit early this week, because I’m writing it early this week.  See, I just finished up teaching my Logic and Critical Thinking class at Spoon River College this week, so I’m going off on a two-week vacation, starting Monday... and I wanted to get this written and posted before we left....

So this Sunday saw a lot of emotional teenaged girls in attendance, here at First Covenant Church...

Before I forget, let me thank all of you for all of your hard work and prayer on behalf of our annual Vacation Bible School last week.  We had several children make a commitment to the Lord (whether in accepting Him as their Saviour or simply rededicating themselves to a genuine relationship with Him) -- including some of the teens who were serving as volunteers during the week...

As I write this, our church family is smack-dab in the middle of this year’s Mount Everest-themed Vacation Bible School.  That means that every day, I’m wearing a parka... on days with heat advisories... in a room filled with active, energetic children.  Suffice it to say that I’ve probably lost about 417 pounds of water weight this week...

I wish I could just leave things where they lay in my last Update, but to truly begin to heal the wounds in our country -- and in our world -- our work needs to be an ongoing activity.  It’s just such an up-hill battle sometimes...