Time to Tour?

Last Tuesday I left Family Camp @ Mohaven to host the Toledo Area Ministries Summer Houses of Worship Tour. About 150 people who visited Toledo First Seventh-day Adventist Church on Tuesday left with new insights and understanding of the denomination as well as a "kindness to go" goody bag. Aside from bragging about our church and answering questions, it gave us time to sign people up for our next community book discussion Hurt People Hurt People. A reporter and photographer from the The Blade was there too and did a good job covering the event on the front page of the Religion Section in last Saturday's edition. Click either pic to read the article.

Photo courtesy The Blade / Amy E. Voight

A Delightful Picnic with Purpose?

BIG thank you and WTG to all of you able to spend some time at the park last week during our Picnic with Purpose. Aside from a fantastic meal, we enjoyed Corn Hole, Ladder Ball, and new this year: Water Tic Tac Toe. Additionally, we gave away over 160 cups of lemonade with connection cards and invitations to visit us at church. Reactions overheard include: "This is so cool!!!" "Thank you so much for doing this!!!" "Can I have another one?" "Who are you guys?" "What's this all about?"
There weren't as many canines this time [it was pretty hot], but we managed to give away quite a few doggie biscuits anyway too. Some friends from Parkwood Church joined us giving away free blood pressures. And the mostly musical Connections service in the park did in fact connect us with a guy named Vince. Who wandered up to our pavilion with his guitar and, playing by ear, started playing all the songs with us even though he'd never hear them before!!!

Afterward, he introduced us to his friends at the table nearby all of whom are music students in Toledo and unconnected to any church. Of course we invited Vince to play in the praise team next week at church too [he's really good!!!] so please pray for him and all his friends. Thank you for making last Sabbath a delightful day. And setting aside AUG 14 for our next and final 2010 Picnic with Purpose.

Who Can't God Redeem?

This video by Jonathan Reed was created for the AARP U@50 video contest and placed second. It is based on the Argentinian Political Advertisement "The Truth" by RECREAR. I'm using it in church this week to illustrate there's nothing God can't reverse, fix, or change and no one God can't redeem. What does it make you think about?