Resurrection Day!

I love Easter! Everyone dresses up and special programs and music are done at church and there are lots of new people to meet. We're celebrating something only we Christians can celebrate fully! Jesus rose from the grave and is in heaven waiting for us! It's the cornerstone of our faith. It's very encouraging and I really enjoyed it yesterday. We had a thank-you breakfast at church, so I didn't have to make breakfast (or clean up afterwards). Then Phillip and I got to sit together in church service (which rarely happens on a Sunday morning). We think we may have had 5,000 people total for the weekend, so that's exciting. Then I taught my 3 year old class with 4 visitors (yea!). We went home for the kids to "open" their Easter baskets (books, a cute chocolate candy in the form of snail, frog, and turtle, markers for Liz, toys for Jon and Phoebes, and music DVDs from CedarMont kids) and grab the coleslaw I made. Then we went to some friends' for a late lunch and egg hunt for the kids. It was a great day!


Saturday night curling of the hair for the special coming Day. This is the first time I've curled Phoebe's hair and she sat really still for me. Please excuse my dirty bathroom mirror. I did clean it last night. :-)


Beautiful clothes all around!

Tablecloths for church

Phillip needed two tablecloths for two odd shaped tables at church (small, but tall). So he and I made them. I can't believe how much material costs! It was over $100 for the material (well, I did make one mistake that took another trip to Joann Fabrics for another yard). But we got two of them done. The first one (pictured) is much nicer than the second, in my opinion, but they both look nice standing in the hall next to the Growth Group rooms at church.






While I was sewing Elizabeth would ask "Can I have some material to make something?"

Jonathan would ask, "How does the needle move? Why do you have to do that? What does this knob do?"

Phoebe would grab my measuring tape and run around the house pretending it was a fishing pole or belt.

Baby Shower for Grandma

We did the funnest thing in small group tonight. One of the ladies in our small group has had us praying for her son and daughter-in-law who were pregnant. This is their third, and the first two pregnancies were hard and the girl had to stay in bed for most of them. So we prayed all along for this one, and she had the baby last week right on time (not early like the first two)! Everyone's healthy and happy. So we had a little baby shower for the grandma tonight. She brought the cake and we had punch and everyone gave boy gifts (their first boy!). I love showers, but I've never been to one for grandma. It was fun!

Happy Father's Day, Phillip!

Even though Phillip thinks Father's Day is a made-up holiday, the kids still like to celebrate it! They kept asking if Daddy was going to give them anything for Father's Day (like share his chocolates they gave him ~ or will he give us something to tell us "Thank you"?). Jonathan colored some chairs for him. Elizabeth made a card with some "Dick and Jane" printed inside (Dick said, "Come Father. Watch Jane jump." or something like that) and a drawn iPod. She also gave him some money from her treasure box. Phoebe is tired and maybe sick today, so she's mostly cried and cuddled with Dad. On a side note, Phillip's been getting requests for his Marriage sermon series on CD. A lady emailed today (and I think several have said) that they would be willing to pay for them! He finished the series today, and you can listen online at the church website: ccflemingisland.com.

Easter Day!

Easter Day was much more exciting than the easter egg hunt (see post below). We had 1,167 people in church (which is about twice as many as usual)! Good sermon (you can listen online, by the way, at http://ccflemingisland.com/), good music, and several kids in my class want to become Christians! Our kids are fun and lovely as usual.

Tea Time and Small Group

I'm trying my hand at leading a women's small group for the first time. We meet here at my home on Wednesday evenings when my kids have gone to bed and Phillip is gone for his small group. I'm loving it so far! I've had several wonderful examples to learn from in the past few years (Katherine in Iowa, Francine in Florida). There are six of us meeting right now, but I hope for it to grow! We're studying the book of James. This tea set is what I use for our refreshment. The tea pot holds a whole pot of hot water and we take turns making a snack: decadent brownies, chocolate dipped strawberries, miniature muffins are the treats enjoyed so far. Aunt Mary gave this tea set to my family years ago (I believe she bought it in Vietnam); my mom is graciously lending it to me right now. I love it because it's just a little fancy, but very useful for our small group.

Phillip's Sermons Online

Just wanted readers to know that you can listen to Phillip's sermons online at the following web address:

http://ccflemingisland.com/index.php?id=8

It's the Media page of Christ's Church Fleming Island website and his sermons are under the title "Audio".

Blitz Day

Our church did a Faith in Action Campaign culminating in Blitz Day. Blitz Day, which happened today, had the slogan "Don't go to Church, Be the Church". So we had a short 15 minute church service this morning, and then we all went out to do service projects in the community (some also happened at the church building). Phillip went with his small group to do landscaping for a safe house in town for abused women. I worked on putting together advertisement pieces for another abused women's and children's shelter (or hotline or something). Then the kids and I helped carve pumpkins with handicapped children. Some of the other projects were sorting clothing for people in Honduras, sorting furniture and household items for the women's shelters, collecting and delivering food for a local food pantry, working on a Christmas for Kids project, working in elderly people's homes and yards, and laying sod at a new children's home. We hoped to have 3,000 people involved with Blitz Day with the three campuses working together. I was glad to be involved with serving others and teaching our kids to love others more than they love themselves.

What's a snowball?

A funny thing about living in Florida ~ those kids who have grown up here have never seen snow. During the main lesson for the kids at church this last Sunday, the director was talking about the snowball effect and then had to ask, "How many of you have seen snow?". Most of the kids hadn't. So she had to explain what happens when a snowball rolls and how it gathers snow. I thought this was hilarious, so I wanted to share it will all you Northern folks.

And a Child Shall Lead Them...

The kids wanted to hold a church service one evening. Elizabeth had been planning it for two days! Elizabeth passed the offering bowl and then gave us some tortilla for communion (Phoebe was really into the tortilla and kept following it around!). Jonathan was supposed to be up front helping with the service, but he was too shy, so he stayed in the "pews" (Tot Spot chairs) with Dad and Mom. Phoebe took his seat and showed us her Bible. Elizabeth told the story of baby Jesus. Then we sang two songs: Jesus Loves Me and another song from her old VBS Safari CD. A winning service overall!

Church Pictures Continued

Here's also a picture of the church building.

Church Pictures

Finally, we have some pictures of our family at church. Phillip preaches every Sunday (two services); he contacts/ works with visitors; he's working on the church website; he does the visual aids for each of his sermons; he goes to lots of meetings (his favorite part ~ NOT!); and does whatever else they ask him to do. We are at Christ's Church -Fleming Island (there are two other church sites: one in Mandarin (Jacksonville) and one in Camden County, GA). I teach the 4th graders during the second church service. We do some activities, then go to large group with all the other age groups and have the lesson and sing, then come back to class and do more activities and explanation of the lesson. Picture explanations: Jonathan, Phoebe and Elizabeth in their respective classes (Jonathan is the only kid right now because he's early). Phillip sitting in the atrium cafe talking with someone. Phillip (with our music minister behind him) doing announcements during the church service. Some of the kids in my class shaping a treasure out of play-dough (I usually have 10-16 kids). The stage used for our large group time for teaching the kids.