This past Saturday we had another family from the community over for a BBQ. They have three kids (13, 8 and 5) and our goldendoodle puppy Lewis (now five months and 43 pounds!) counldn't contain his excitement. He was a bit jumpy for the first half-hour or so but then calmed down and played nice for the most part. Although when I went to check on the BBQ, he inadvertently pulled my wife right out of her lawn chair! We had a great time hanging out with them and by the time they left nearly three hours later, Lewis was dead tired. He fell asleep as soon as they left and essentially didn't wake up until 6:45 Sunday morning (an hour later than usual). Even then I think it took him a few days to fully regain his energy (which he has now!).
Our church had our first "Community Group" this past Wednesday. In a sense this small group ministry is nothing different than what we've been doing during Wednesday night prayer and Bible study except with a greater emphasis on why we're meeting together and what we want to accomplish. We didn't finish talking about the purposes and goals but that was because we had such great discussion. Even people who normally don't say too much participated. I am excited as we continue pursuing life together by building community with us and God (spiritual maturity), with each other (fellowship) and with those around us (service and evangelism). Please pray for us to be open and honest with one another thus fostering authentic community.
I am extremely excited about a potential upcoming outreach event. Ever since we moved to Underwood I have noticed that there is nothing for families on Halloween besides the traditional trick-or-treating. In the Chicago-area numerous churches hosted outreach events around the end of October that were very successful. I've thought at different times about how our church could serve and love our community around this time of year. We've had a guy in-town visiting in-laws who's worshiped with us the last couple weeks. In addition to being very encouraging, he mentioned a carnival that his daughter's church in Bismarck hosts each Halloween as an outreach event. Ever since that conversation the wheels in my mind have been spinning. I presented the idea of us hosting a community carnival on Halloween at our Elder meeting on Sunday and am going to pitch it at our Community Group tonight. Please pray for wisdom.
By God's Grace, Jeff
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