Encounter 11 16 05 / Recap
Thursday, November 17, 2005
So tonight was great. It felt so good to be back at church. I had been gone for an entire week. Amazing how time flies. I just love all of our kids and being around them is the most fun ever. I love Wednesdays!
On my health situation, I am feeling about 1,000% better, if thats even possible. Today was the first day I had no soreness in my throat at all and my neck is doing much, much better. Thanks to all who have been praying for me. I truly have been healed.
So tonight we had about 8-10 first time guests to CGEN. Good stuff. A lot of kids who have been coming to CGEN for a while went out and got their friends for the first time. Our BRING drive is really paying off. I'm sure the free iPod has something to do with it too.
The Café was a big hit tonight. Amanda Rodz is doing such a top notch job. It's great. Here are some pics of what the lounge area looks like after the re-model.
It's funny. I have gotten so many compliments on how good it looks, and even offers from people for me to come decorate their homes! But the funniest part is that I've never done an ounce of decorating in my life. I was praying to God that when I bought all this furniture, rugs, chairs and all the stuff that it just didn't come out looking like garbage. Haha, whatever works I guess. Amanda and Cassaundra helped me out a bunch too, so I can't take all the credit. But it's just something that I find amusing.
So in my message tonight I used my recent illness as an illustration and talked about How to be a "Stiff Necked" Christian. I used 1 Corinthians 15:58 as my main text (Steadfast / Unmovable = Stiff necked) . I brought 10 students on stage and spring the question on them "What do you believe?" Before we can be stiff necked, we need to know what we believe. If we don't, what are we going to be standing for? What are we going to be stiff necked about? I had a lot of fun with the students and their answers. I gave them 30 seconds to think and we played the "Think Music" from Jeopardy while they were coming up with their answers. Good times. Tonight is one of those nights I wish we had on video because, while the audio is great, it would just be that much greater seeing it live and in living color.
We had a total of 86 in the house tonight. A fine group of students thats for sure. I hope to see all of you next week!
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Technorati Tags: CGEN Café, Encounter, iPod
posted by MATTHEW JOHN BELL @ 11/17/2005 01:16:00 AM,
