Pastor Dan checked in Saturday morning with this report:
We had a good day yesterday; we got one of the four units completely cleaned out, and then finished up a little early (around 3:30). After we got back to the church and cleaned up, Brad took us sightseeing down to the French Quarter. We had dinner at the Gumbo Shack, and were able to visit Preservation Hall (an important site in the development and history of New Orleans jazz). We had a good time, and were home and in bed by 11 pm.
Now we're back at the site bright and early trying to get all the work finished up today. Please continue to pray for Darrell (the owner of the building), that he would show fruits of repentance. We've had several good opportunities to talk with him over the past couple of days.
This is our last day of work...Lord willing, we'll be on the plane Sunday morning and back to Springfield mid-afternoon. Thanks for lifting us up in prayer!
We left this morning around 8:30 am, and followed one of the guys from the church with a trailer full of tools and equipment. It was around 9:15 when we arrived at the site. We are working at a building with four units in two stories (kind of like two duplexes). The man whose family owns it, Darrell Caruso, was around for a lot of the day and we were able to have some good conversations with him. His grandmother lived in one of the units and drowned during Katrina. After the storm, the water level was around ten feet (a foot deep in the second story). Darrell lives in Mississippi now, a little over an hour away. Pray for him as we continue to interact with him over the next few days.
I thought it worked out well to have a building with four units. The ten of us (Carolyn stayed behind to work on food, etc.) split up, 2 or 3 to each unit. That way we didn't have to all "fight over" one doorway, and were able to get a lot done. I think we have the first floor pretty much cleaned out. We didn't see any snakes, but did encounter several dead rats and a lot of live cockroaches. Johnathon said the building wasn't quite as mucky and wet as some of the others he had worked on during past trips.
We were at the worksite all day, stopping just for a short lunch break. We finally left around 4:30 pm, headed back to the church to clean up, and then enjoyed pizza at Brad and Julie's house tonight. We will most likely be working just at the one building for the rest of the week, and covet your continued prayers.
We need your help! Check out www.SpringfieldChristmas.com, our all-new website for this year's Christmas musical. If you click on "Play and Win", you can help us name the bakery for the show. Enter our contest as many times as you want; if you have the most creative name, you could win a gift card to Schuler's Bakery in Springfield! The deadline is November 26, so hurry over to SpringfieldChristmas.com and enter soon!
It's not too early to start mentioning the musical to your friends; send them to the website to find out all about "The Christmas Post". 44 days and counting...
We've had a great day; everything has gone very smoothly. This evening, we're at Brad and Julie's house; they were gracious enough to host us for dinner. We just had dessert and now people are sitting around chatting.
All of our travel arrangements went fine; we flew out of Columbus at 7 am and had a two-hour layover in Atlanta - just enough time to get a bite to eat. Our flight from Atlanta to New Orleans was just over an hour. When we arrived in New Orleans, we squeezed all of us and our luggage into our two rental minivans and headed to the church to meet Brad and Julie.
After lunch at Popeye's, we headed to a school and worked for a couple hours. They had a lot of books and educational materials FEMA had provided, and we helped unload and organize these boxes. (The assistant principal of the school attends Berean.)
Another afternoon project was shopping for a lot of the things we'll need this week. Once we got everything back to the church, it was time to shower, change and head to the Davis' house.
Pray for us tomorrow as we start work at a house here in New Orleans. We'll be headed out around 8:15 am (9:15 your time). Check back tomorrow for another update, Lord willing!
Do you like routines? I do. Something that's comfortable and works well, I'll do over and over again. For example, I get up exactly 36 minutes before I plan to be at work every day. It's a random time, but 40 minutes is too long and 35 is too short. So 36 is the number.
The subject of today's blog is my lunch routine. When I don't have other plans, I eat lunch at my friendly neighborhood Subway. I enjoy this time to get away from the office and relax a little bit. I park halfway between the Speedway gas station and the Subway restaurant, then walk over to the gas station to get my copy of USA TODAY. I like to know what's going on in the world. I walk back past my car to the Subway and go inside, newspaper in hand. I order the same "meal deal" every day:
6 in. meatball sub on wheat bread with American cheese and Parmesan cheese Diet Coke Two cookies
After doing this 3 or 4 times a week for the last few months, I don't even have to order most of the time. I just walk in and they start making my sandwich. It's nice to be recognized :)
Now it IS important to have a LITTLE bit of variety in my routine; otherwise life would be boring. So...I make sure to not order the same flavor of cookies every day (though the dark ones with Reese's Pieces inside are AMAZING), and I don't go at the same time each day. I usually make my Speedway/Subway trek whenever I've reached a good stopping point in work...sometimes that's 10:50 am...sometimes 1:20 pm...so at least I'm not a COMPLETE creature of habit :)
There really isn't a point to this story; just a random anecdote that hopefully helps you get to know me better...and it's also a chance for me to publicly thank the great people at Subway I get to know a little bit each day. Who knows if they'll ever read this (I'll mention it to them while I'm paying for my sandwich tomorrow), but they make my lunch enjoyable every day!
And if you ever feel like eating lunch with Pastor Tim, now you know where to find me ;)
Please be in prayer for our team of 11 adults as they leave for New Orleans on Wednesday. We will post updates right here each day if possible.
The team is:
HEATHER ALBERTSON CRYSTAL BOWERS JOHNATHON BOWERS DAVE CAVE SCOTT CROSBY GREG FAIRBANKS DAN FITZGERALD DEB HEISLER DARRELL MESSER (Jason's dad) JASON MESSER CAROLYN PERKS
Check back this week for the latest news from our team to help you pray more specifically. Thanks!
My last entry was an "ode" to my wife. It is wonderful having her back. As I am sitting here typing and thinking of what to write, I thought I would share my heart concerning the church. There is a connection between the two. In Ephesians chapter 5, while Paul gives instruction about the marriage relationship, he keeps returning to the topic of the church. Paul loved the institution of marriage, because it was designed by God to mirror another institution: the church! But I want to share my heart not just for the church in general, but for the particular church the Lord has brought me and my family to just over a year ago. I am so thankful to God for bringing us to such a dear group of saints. God has placed a special affection in my heart for each and every person. It has been a joy getting to know everyone. So, I want to take this opportunity to say how much I love all of you! May the Lord richly bless you this week (and the weeks to come) according to His riches (which are inexhaustible) in glory!
What happens when you combine the office of a Christmas musical producer, the workspace of a worship pastor, the church music library, and the platform storage area into one small room near the front of the sanctuary?
My office!
Some of you may have never been in my office before...it's a great place with a lot of character. Let me tell you a little about this special room. For example, if you were to walk in today, you could find all of these random things:
The head of a bear (with a Cubs hat on top) Handicapped parking signs (no jokes here please) Some fancy looking pillar A Peanuts cartoon A giant crayon bank A thousand different choir songs to choose from Ballet shoes (they're actually for playing organ, but they look like ballet shoes) Autographs from random people like Bill Gaither and Dusty Baker A big audio speaker A lot of CDs and DVDs...some of them are even in the right cases so I can find them when I need to :) The bearskin rug that goes with the head of the bear A bobblehead A bunch of sports hats Pictures of all my touring teams from college Pictures of our guest artists from Spring Celebration the last two years Bright-colored fake birds Mugs full of candy A tupperware tub full of three years of music mailings (CDs and books in Ziploc bags) A fog machine Lots of important papers scattered all over
And the list goes on...the problem becomes the "important papers scattered all over". Whenever I work on the Christmas musical, plan a Sunday service, take a phone message, scribble an idea...it all gets written down or typed on that elusive "important piece of paper". This important paper then goes on a quick journey to the nearest empty space in the room, to hopefully be found when required.
It usually doesn't work that way.
Every few months (*few = six, nine or twelve, depending on the depth of clutter :) I figure it's time to clean my office. I employ my trusted cleaning assistant, who wishes to remain anonymous, and we start digging. The goal? Discovering whether the bearskin rug is still on the floor or not. Sometimes it takes hours to find the rug, sometimes minutes...but it's always a worthwhile project. The important papers are all shuffled, sorted, picked up, and promptly placed in different areas of the room. The CDs and DVDs are returned to their cases and sorted accordingly. Four-month-old orders of service are thrown away, four-month-old two-liter bottles are thrown away, and the dumpster overflows for the week.
But the bearskin is finally uncovered. This is important.
When the project is completed, the office stays clean for a day...or two...or one. Then the cycle begins anew. If you wish to see the bearskin, make sure you come look sometime Sunday. The Christmas musical turns my office into a backstage area/platform storage place, so the time to see my floor is now. Come one come all! :)
Seriously, though, I like my office. I like being next to the piano. I like having our music library at my fingertips. I like working with piles of paper and CDs.
One of the lines from this year's musical is "The Christmas rush is on again, it's high in overdrive"... how true! The choir and cast are hard at work learning their lines and notes, and now we need your help! Costumes, building, props, publicity, decorating, anything else you can think of. A lot of the work that needs to be done is just finding props; maybe you have something in an attic, or your neighbor does, or your third cousin twice removed...who knows! Anyway, plan to join us on Wednesday night, October 25 at 7:07 pm for an important "Creating Christmas meeting". No special skills required, just dividing up lists of all the projects that need to be taken care of! Yours might be "call the newspaper"...or maybe just "bring a hockey stick". Many hands make light work!
In honor of the Christmas musical (can you believe it's less than two months away?!), here's a lighthearted "Top 11 Things to Do in Preparation for Christmas"...I didn't write it, but I laughed as I read it. (I'm glad our productions aren't quite this complex yet!)
Tim
Top 11 Things to Do In Preparation for Christmas BY: DAVE WILLIAMSON
11. Rent Camels, Sheep, and Cows 10. Rent enclosures to house Camels, Sheep and Cows 9. Buy barrels of food for Camels, Sheep, and Cows 8. Rent shovels to clean up after Camels, Sheep, and Cows 7. Appoint 'sanitary engineer' to walk purposefully behind Camels, Sheep, and Cows 6. Procure, attach, and test sturdy cables to suspend live, 'flying angels' over sanctuary 5. Take out 'flying angel' insurance. 4. Make mental note to avoid feeding 'flying angels' same food as Camels, Sheep, and Cows. 3. Warn choir members not to stand under 'flying angels'. 2. Rehearse diligently and perform passionately to standing-room-only congregation. 1. Worship the Father in spirit and truth by honoring His Son.
Sundays can be crazy! Lots of great things happen at Cornerstone every Sunday; but it makes for long days sometimes. Here's my rundown of what I did yesterday at church:
7:58 am Arrive at the building, set up the computer/projectors/sanctuary 8:15 am Staff prayer meeting 8:45 am Get ready for choir rehearsal 9:00 am Choir and band warmup 9:30 am Sunday school time 10:30 am Morning service 12:00 pm Sound check for Venture 12:34 pm Leave church
3:25 pm Back to church 3:30 pm Board meeting 5:45 pm Small groups 6:45 pm Lead music in small groups 7:00 pm Set up for Venture 7:30 pm Venture 8:45 pm Venture snacks/fellowship 8:52 pm Rehearsal for next week's Venture 9:22 pm Leave church
In a lot of ways, Sundays are the hardest day of the week for me. In other ways, Sunday is the best day of the week for me. Here's a few of the things that encouraged me yesterday at church:
I feel like I have learned so much from Pastor Dan's series on the book of John. I don't know how many times in the past few months I've said "I never thought of that before" as Dan pointed out something in a passage I'd read literally dozens or even hundreds of times. His messages are always an encouragement to me. How powerful to hear the words of Christ in John 8 yesterday: "Before Abraham was, I AM." Amen!
Someone coming up to me in the lobby and saying "I really enjoy the music each week" was a great encouragement to me.
Venture last night was great. Gillis talked about the theological basis of a Christian worldview, and how God doesn't feel the need to defend His existence. In the beginning God... He always has been. We also had a good time sharing prayer requests with each other, and the music was great. It's nice for me to be able to sit back and be led in worship by someone else, and Jason Flesch does a great job putting together the music time each week. Board meeting was an encouragement to me yesterday! We as a church are privileged to have great deacons who care about the people and the programs here at Cornerstone and faithfully serve the Lord in that position. Even when hard decisions need to be made, and difficult issues arise, it's great to know that this group of men will prayerfully approach each situation as it comes. The Lord gives wisdom (James 1) to those who ask, and I appreciate the way Gillis, Paul, Jon, and Gene continually ask and seek Him. Their insights were an encouragement to me in a long day!
Listening to you all sing was an encouragement to me. I love the new chorus to "Amazing Grace" that we sang in the morning service yesterday. What Christ has done for us on the cross should never cease to AMAZE us. I also especially enjoyed the music time in the evening; listening to some of you talk about your small group discussions and what hymns that brought to your minds, and then getting to sing those together. Music is such a powerful tool in worshipping our Lord.
What a blessing that the "hardest" day of the week can also be one of the greatest days of the week. Praise the Lord for the ways He works at Cornerstone!
Tim
Amazing Grace (additional words by Chris Tomlin, CCLI 184080)
My chains are gone, I've been set free! My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy reigns! Unending love, amazing grace.
My wife Michelle is visiting her family in Washington state this week, so I have been playing Mr. Mom while she is away. One particular Scripture has been running through my little brain all this week: "It is not good that man should be alone." First of all, we tend to get ourselves into more trouble, our clothes do not match and our eating habits go down the drain. It is true that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." But in the end, I do not love my wife because of all the wonderful things she does for me and our boys, but I love her because I love her. In the end I can't explain my love for her, because if I love her for some reason, than I am actually loving the reason(s) and not her. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly praise my excellent wife. I can honestly say, with everything in my heart and with every fiber of my being, that I am the most blessed man on the earth. Some of you may argue that point with me and that's fine.
So men, be thankful for the wives God has given you and tell them regularly that you love them and appreciate them. Not only will she be blessed, but you will be too, for Ephesians 5:28b says, "He who loves his own wife, loves himself."
The next few weeks will most likely be slow ones on our pastors' blog. Lots going on in the office for Dan and Tim, including preparing for the upcoming New Orleans trip and the Christmas Post. Sam is on sabbatical for the month of October, so you probably won't hear much from him either. We'll try to post occasionally through October, and then make sure you check back for in-depth coverage and updates from the New Orleans trip (October 25-29).
One note to pass along in regards to the Christmas musical: we are looking for a prop director for the program. This person wouldn't have any rehearsal time commitment; they would just be responsible for working with the props committee to locate all the props needed for the show. If you are interested in serving in this way, please see Pastor Tim.
As part of this year's Most Wanted List campaign, we're hoping to invite 1,000 friends to attend our Christmas program, The Richest Family in Town, in the 1,000 hours before the first performance. You can find more information about our production at: SpringfieldChristmas.com
Pastor Dan checked in Saturday morning with this report:
