I recognize that for some of you, this unseasonably cool and overcast weather is a downer --  rest assured, it’s supposed to warm up a bit this weekend, and even more so next week.  But for those of us who enjoy this sort of weather, it’s been glorious!  My dog has loved just standing out on the back porch, facing into the wind...

Okay, this was a fun Sunday, full of lots of focus on lots of different ministries of our church family. First off, Caleb Bruhn shared a big “Praise God!” and a hearty “Thank you!” to all of you who participated in our Neighborhood Garage Sale this past weekend (whether in setting it up, donating items, or purchasing items on Saturday).  Thanks to all of you, we were able to raise over $2,000 to help support the Missions Trip to Haiti coming up next month! 

And let me start of this week by making sure that I wish everyone a very Happy Resurrection Sunday!  Man, what a busy week!  (Note: I mean that in the very best of ways).  In-between all sorts of family engagements in our own family, our church family was able to spend quality time together in lots of different venues.  Obviously, we observed Palm Sunday last weekend...

Before I forget (and since I already preached on it last week), lemme say Happy Palm Sunday!  I hope that if it’s at all possible, you’ll be able to join us for the special times coming up in Holy Week.  As always, we’ll have our weekly community prayer time on Wednesday evening, but we’ll also have our annual Good Friday evening service at 6:30 at the end of the week, and then a special Resurrection Sunday morning service at 10:30 -- preceded by our annual Easter breakfast together as a church family, starting at 9:00...

Okay, I had to apologize to everyone this week because I ended up talking about Palm Sunday a week early.  Palm Sunday lands on April 9 this year, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to actually cover that in Mark and then cover Resurrection Sunday the next week, since there are four whole chapters between the two events in Mark’s Gospel record, and we’ve been trying to conscientiously follow the narrative flow of the story. So... we talked about Palm Sunday this week in our service, even though it wasn’t Palm Sunday yet...

We had a wonderful day of ministry this Sunday morning!  Mark Andrews and Erika Agans shared about the upcoming Missions Trip to Haiti, and what it meant to them personally to be a part of the team.  It’s not about “showing people that we have everything all together up here,” but rather being willing to serve brothers and sisters that we haven’t even met yet, serving those whom we pray will become brothers and sisters, and watching God working in a totally new and different culture than our own.  Please be praying that the Lord would be preparing the hearts of our team members as well as the hearts of the people of Haiti even now, two months before the team is scheduled to head out.

Before I forget, thank you to everyone who joined us for the very special potluck for the Leagues that we hosted this weekend.  As they prepare to head out West to be a blessing to some new congregation, we just wanted to be able to spend a moment letting them know how much of a blessing they’ve all been to our own congregation over the nearly three decades that they’ve been part of our First Covenant family.  Make sure to ask Richard why he got a box of instant mashed potatoes as a gift...

This Sunday Morning Update is more than an Update.  It’s also an invitation to our Farewell Potluck for Richard, Vanessa, and Donna League...

Wow, what a busy Sunday we had here this week!  We had a bunch of bonus announcements from people, and those were in addition to all of the other announcements that we had to share...

I’m back from my mini-vacation, and boy, was it a busy work week...

I am going to take a vacation for a week, and I’m really looking forward to it.  I think I’ll go to Borneo, or maybe Cleveland, or some other exotic locale.  But no matter what I do, I’m gonna make sure that I take a couple of good books, some good movies, my pretty wife, and lose myself for a while...

The groundhog is not normal.  It was warm, then it got really cold, then it was foggy and overcast, and as I write this Sunday Morning Update, the ground is covered in snow.  I don’t understand what the groundhog is up to, but the little guy is clearly disturbed...

Every once in a while, you have a weekend where God’s all about showing you His plans and patterns.  This was one of those weekends...

Hopefully, you’re not sick.  I say that because it seems like 2/3 of the population of Central Illinois is sick right now.  In fact, I took someone into the Emergency Room and it took 3 1/2 hours to get her even looked at (because, as the admitting doctor finally told us, “You’re fairly sick, but there are just a lot of people sicker than you here tonight”).  Apparently, all of the hospitals around here are filled with sick people and are thus having to send their overflows to other hospitals in the area.  Yikes!

Ya gotta love those Sundays where nothing goes the way that anyone planned for it to go -- and yet everything goes the way that God planned it to go.  Those are fun roller coaster rides to go on...