Great Big Thanks and other blips of info

I have one thing to say. Well, I actually have a few things to say. But the first thing is:  WOW—Thank you for making this past Sunday so special. In spite of a rainy dreary Sunday morning, our worship services were great. And then to have so many of you come to the first worship service in our new multi-purpose facility.  It was a high and sacred moment. Thank you for helping make this happen. I can't wait to see all God has in store for us.

Next week VBS and 120 little ones all gathered in our new space. What a treat! But I wanted to especially thank Ken Cheshire, Keith Hargrave, and all the members of Redeemed who helped, physically helped with the installation of sound system. I can't wait to see it when it is fully tweaked and installed. It does take a team effort. Thank You, again.

Three other items:
First, a child's pink purse and a library book were left at church. Come by the office to claim.

Second, If you had left plates from the Fifth Sunday potluck dinner, you need to claim them asap from our new kitchen.

Finally, Susie and I have had our land line phone disconnected - tired of only getting Solicitation calls. So if you need me after hours, call my cell at 591-0580.

Weekend News

First Sunday in our new multi-purpose facility for worship at long last. We are able to move our 11am Contemporary Praise Service into our new space. You might want to come to both services to be a part of the First Worship Service as we Praise God and offer thanks to our generous congregation. Come help us  pack it out. Our praise band, Redeemed, and Keith Hargrave can't wait to break in our new sound system. I doubt it will make the preacher sound any better or smarter but it can't work miracles.

But it is also the first Sunday of the month, which means both our services will  have Holy Communion. And when we gather for Holy Communion, we also bring our ICAN food offering to go to UCO Food Pantry.

Did I mention that we will have our 11am worship in our new building? See you tomorrow, as we use the freedom to Worship won by our men and women who have protected our nation.

Sincerely,

Together, Shaping the Future

What a great week. Sunday we had the beginning of a Super Youth Week: pool party, bowling, Houston ballgame, with more to come, and Craig and Melissa Hartwell and Sheri Hester doing super job and together, they are helping to shape the future of our church.

Then, Sunday afternoon, a group of interested people met to discuss the future of the Covenant Pumpkin Patch. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Mason Family for the great foundation of our patch, and while it will be different, the Patch will go on. Be on the lookout for future reports and pray how you can help make the Pumpkin Patch 2013 a success. Together, we can help shape the future of this important ministry to our community.

We had included a wish list in last week bulletin, and Praise Be To God, many of those items were underwritten already. How blessed we are. Be on the look out for additional opportunities to help shape the future, together.

Last but not least, this Sunday - Fifth Sunday Potluck Dinner - Butch Lewis will be cooking his world famous homemade hamburgers and hot dogs. We need you to help provide side dishes and desert. Lunch will be served in our new multipurpose facility (tables and chairs are already set up). First seating will be a little after 11:00am with the finish of Sunday school. The first church wide function. Come enjoy what the Lord through your generosity provided.

And why not go ahead and bring your ICAN food offering early, while we sit down to eat, we can also provide food for those in need. And while you are preparing for Sunday, the choir is wearing Hawaiian type shirts. Wear yours too!

Men's Fellowship "Christens" the New Kitchen with Monthly Breakfast

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The goal for the first Worship Service is Sunday, June 30th, 11:00am.

Update, Prayer Request, and Volunteers Needed

9:25am

Philippians says:  
In all my prayers for all of you, i always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

What an amazing day yesterday, well over 50 people, of all ages showed up to make an investment in the Life of the church by planting 29 trees. We pray each will take root and thrive and prosper, just as this church does. Thank You for all your hard work. I am anticipating a quick response from Metrocode and soon to have a Certificate in our hands. As we move towards being able to move into the facility, we will have other needs that you may want to help us financially with: more chairs, Holy Communion Table, etc. Will have a wish list in this coming Sunday bulletin.

Speaking of new trees and growing, we too, must water our soul.With so much on the program Sunday, I forgot to mention our Mid Month Summer Solace service. A brief time of prayer, of devotion, of song, and of Holy Communion. This Wednesday at 6:00pm. I certainly need a drink of God's refreshing Spirit. How about you? If so, come out for this casual but engaging service.

In case you missed, and several of you did, we missed you. You may not have heard we have had two babies born to the Covenant church family this past week. Natalie Louise Horton born to Aimee and Stuart Horton and Dexter Alexander Smith born to Emily Desormeaux Smith and Leif Smith. Congrats to the families.

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7:30pm

After waiting all day we finally heard from the Metrocode Landscape person. She will be here in the morning to inspect our tree planting. I can't imagine anything other then "Wow, what a great job! The trees look great, Okay you pass!" But pray for such a flowing report.

Secondly, those newly planted trees need a good drink of water every day for several weeks. More water then our little showers provide, so if you would like to be a part of volunteers who come out in the evening or early morning to provide a drink to our plants, please RSVP and I will add you to the list. Many hands make lighter work. Most of the trees are reachable with water hoses. Only the front three need water delivered in buckets.

Wednesday
First Summer Solace - come drink of the Living Water of Christ - Holy Communion, Prayer, Singing, and Devotional by Brother Byron.

Saturday
8:00am - Men's breakfast. We are hoping that this will be in the new building, eating breakfast from our new kitchen.

Sunday
Let's beat the statistics (come to church on Father's Day in crowds normally seen on Mother's Day) and join others as we Worship Our Heavenly Father, and hear how God's wisdom helps provide just the right tools to living in His principles, and of course there will be a gift for each male present.

Occupy the Church!

If we remember some of the events of the last year, we saw protests around the nation expressing the unrest with the economy and political systems inability to answer all the “needs” of the people, so we saw “Occupy Wall Street”, “Occupy San Francisco”, etal. That's not what I am talking about now.....nope; just this past week we were given the verbal okay for Covenant family to occupy our new multipurpose facility. At last, Thank God at last, our building program is almost over.....we still have odds and ends to tie together before we have our first function, but we are so happy. Cannot thank you enough for all your support and prayers and generous giving. At our June 23rd Council meeting, we should be able to take action on just how much our debt will be and how much funds we will keep in reserve. Occupy the building! Yeaaaa!

But, that's not really why we built it. Oh, yes, we will have covered dish dinners there, we will have our worship services for our Praise and Worship Service, we will have VBS programs there, we will have Pumpkin Patch field trips there, we will have recreation ther...we will be happy to occupy the space, but the church is not measured by how well we occupy the space but how well we represent Christ to the world. So once again, our facility is only to help us go out and share the gospel, to invite people to join us in our journey, and to make a difference in our world. Occupy yes, but sit and squat and not be moved, never!

On the same subject, we do wish to name our new facility. As I said, I would probably call it the “new” building, until we build another new building. But there are some who believe this new building deserves a name. Larry Tylock and a few others will serve to narrow the choices down, and then it will be presented to the Council for a vote. This is your building, and I hope you will prayerfully consider making a suggestion. We will leave the nomination open through the month of June. Find the box in the church foyer and make your nomination known.

Finally, I write this at the first evening of Annual Conference. Unless I hear anything to the contrary, it is my pleasure to announce to you that both Rev. Byron Aucoin and I will be returning to Covenant as our appointment for the 2013-2014 year. We could not be more pleased, and know that we have the majority of your love and support. We thank you for that and look forward to all God will continue to do in our midst.

See you in your place of worship real soon....I hope you will worship every chance you have this summer. My sermon series for the summer is: “Summer School, Wisdom from the Proverbs”.

June Newsletter Available for Download

June Newsletter

The June 2013 Covenant Newsletter is ready to download and pick up.

1. You can pick up a paper copy in the church narthex the next time you are at church.
or
2. You can download it directly from our website – www.CovenantUM.org. Just look for the "Downloads" section in the right hand column of the first page and click on "Current Newsletter". It looks like this:

You will need to have the free Adobe Reader on your computer. If you don't have it, you can get it here.

See you Sunday,