Summer Picnic Highlights

Thank you to everyone who came and participated!! We had great community picnics this summer!!

Parktacular 2010

going to the zoo zoo zoo

how about you you you. you can come too too too. we're going to the zoo zoo zoo.

Nothing like a little raffi to start out the day!

FAMILY FUN DAY at the Como Zoo!!

Meet at church at 9:15 this Saturday (the 22nd) to catch the bus

Please bring a picnic lunch.

The bus will return back at church around 2 pm.

Invite your friends and neighbors!!

prayer stations

National Day of Prayer was a great success! Thanks to all who helped put it on. Here are some pictures of the prayer stations that were set up around the sanctuary. Aren't they beautiful?









The prayer stations will be set up until Thursday, so if you have an opportunity, I encourage you to go in and pray. If not, Larry Trester has created little prayer books with a picture of each station and instructions so you can be praying at home. They will be available this Sunday.



And don't forget to sign up on the SLP map for small groups starting soon!

Family Fun Night - Skating

It was a beautiful night for skating/sledding at Oak Hill Park. It would have been nice to have the warming house open for the little ones though. Don't they realize it's still winter??



Everyone still had a fun time zooming around the ice.











Please join us for the next Family Fun Night on March 27th! CRAFT NIGHT!

Treasure Chest (Rubies)

Family Activities and Saturday Play Group

There are all kinds of opportunities in the next few months to build community, both with each other and with the community of St. Louis Park!

Here's a list of family activities to put on your calendar:

Saturday, January 30th - Movie Night
Saturday, February 27th - sledding/skating (weather permitting)
Saturday, March 27th - family craft night
Saturday, April 24th - family game night

More details to follow.

Also - Saturday mornings in the winter, the church gym is open for kids to come and get their wiggles out! Please invite friends and neighbors to come and run around.

Play Group from 10:00-12:00 on the following dates:

Saturday, February 6th
Saturday, February 20th
Saturday, March 6th
Saturday, March 20th

Come and join in!

Christmas Day

Christmas 2009

Thanksgiving

Do you want to know something? God answers prayer! We prayed for very specific things going into our Thanksgiving meal for the homeless and God was faithful like He always is! There were attitudes and hearts changed that morning as we fellowshipped with our new friends.

Didn't the gym look wonderful and festive? Thanks to those that came early to set everything up!





Thanks also to those that cooked, prepared, and served the meal!





God saw to it that just the right people were in attendance that morning.









This was our first attempt at a dinner like this, and I think it was a great success! A few of the guys who came even gave us suggestions on how to make it better next time.

Thank you God for your never ending faithfulness!

Calling all bloggers

This blog has been a bit neglected recently, so I thought I'd try to revive it.

It would be wonderful to use this blog as a way to communicate what God is talking to us about.

And since I brought it up, I might as well start:

One area that God has been talking to me about is prayer and how to do it more intentionally and continuously. Pastor Bob has mentioned the 24/7 prayer of the church in Herrnhut, Germany and I am very interested in exploring that some more. If God's presence is what we want, we need to get serious about it, perhaps start our own 24/7 prayer.

I'm excited t0 see what God is going to do with this...

Picnic and Pyrotechnics

4th of July picnic!

It looks like there will be a casual picnic at Oak Hill somewhere around 6:00 or 6:30 (or after). Bring your own food and maybe something to share. After that, those who want to can go over to Aquila to watch fireworks. Remember to bring chairs and/or blanket incase of no available tables.
See y'all there!!

The Big Day!

A very successful sale on a most beautiful day! Thank yous to all who donated, set-up, sold, purchased, and cleaned up! Over $1300 was raised and will be given to the Saint Louis Park Emergency Program.

STEP Benefit Garage Sale

Keeping it light on church work night!

Conflicted

I have been quite conflicted by the sermon I heard on Sunday and have been trying to put my thoughts into words, but have come to a bad case of writers block. Fortunately I found this article, which pretty well describes my thoughts. Here is a link to the article: http://www.kevindhendricks.com/2002/09/01/christianity-and-patriotism/
Any thoughts?

Garage Sale for STEP

A church garage sale will be held on Saturday May 30th, 8 am to 4 pm. All proceeds will go to the St. Louis Park Emergency Program. If you have donations, please make arrangements with Becky Martin or Laurie Amos for drop-off.

Work Night, May 26, 3-9 pm

There is a long list of items to work on and many wiulling hands are needed! There are jobs that can be done independently from the work day, as well (window washing, flowerbed cleaning, etc.) Please let me know your availability. Karlene Keuning 952-920-4991. Food will be offered during the dinner hour.

Opportunity for Service

We would like to have a volunteer who would like to help us with graphic design and Power Point to do fliers, advertisements, etc. on a weekly/project basis according to our needs. Please contact Pat in the office at 952-929-3815.

Ice Cream Social--Sunday, May 18th

Please visit the Children First Blog for details about the 15th Annual Ice Cream Social...lots of family fun!

http://childrenfirst-slp.blogspot.com/2008/05/children-first-ice-cream-social.html

God Talking

I can't remember which pastor I heard say that when he heard the Holy Spirit speak, it usually sounded like his wife's voice...  Well, the Holy Spirit sounds a lot like Mark in my experience.  Recently, the Holy Spirit was nudging me not-so-gently to develop a little discipline and open his word.  I meet with two accountability groups and in neither one are we good at asking one another, "Are you in the Word?  What is God saying to you in your devotions?"  

So, Mark suggested that he and I pick a book of the Bible to work through and just plan to have a little conversation once a week or so to talk about it.  We chose Isaiah.  We aren't too far in yet, but just knowing that he was going to be asking me about it made me read.  I wish I were more devout, like Mary.  But I'm Martha.  My faith is something I like TO DO.  I'm not trying to earn my salvation or anything, but I guess I like to worship in deed.  It is a temperament thing.  You know...

Anyway, when Bob asked last night what God was speaking about to us, it was the first time in weeks that I could have shared something.  He is talking to me about Mary by way of Isaiah.  I'm reading The Message and my paraphrase of the paraphrase is, "Meetings, meetings, meetings, you wear me out with all your meetings!"  This is God speaking.  The original text talks about "feasts" and "appointed days" and the like.  So, God is sick of my meetings and events.  But I like meetings.  (There, I said it!)  I like something that I can plug into the iTouch and it will beep to remind me about.  It just isn't the same to type in, "sit at Jesus' feet," but I might have to try it.  Anyway, that was one small thing that God talked about with me this week. I was also reminded that he is perfectly happy to invert the society we live in to accomplish his goals...flip it over, mix it up.  Why am I always surprised, then, when he does just that?  

I want to encourage, exhort even, all of us to be prepared to share something in the next weeks.  It seems obvious, but we have to be with God regularly in order to hear him.  I want you to keep me accountable for my time with him and I'll bet it would help others, too.