Tim and Ruth's Commissioning Service

A few shots of the service and lunch.
There were 115 people (by the end!!) in the auditorium and 15 in the nursery, so it was definitely one of our higher attendance Sundays. We seated 84 in the fellowship hall with all children outside--all told about 20 of them! So, the majority stayed for lunch. It was a very nice service. Click here to see more pictures, and here to see the bulletin--if I'm intelligent enough to do that! (The only way I could figure out how to do it was as a JPEG. At least it will give you an idea!)

Some special friends and family who came to show their love and support.
(Obviously this is only a sampling!)

On a Mission of Love

This afternoon, Viviane and I took a heart shaped CCC cake over to each of our college students and to Jonathan and Maria Baker and Grant Christy. We didn't get to see everyone, but we did get to see the Foster girls, and Henry, and Maria! I was soooooo excited to see Maria. She hasn't changed at all except for being a little bit older. Same sweet sweet Maria! (Sorry, I was so excited to see her that I forgot to take her picture!) Viviane was a little apprehensive about the act of showing love to "strangers", but being the good MK that she is, she jumped right in and did her part! It was fun!

Family Fun Fest!

"My" Girls

I had the teen girls over for lunch today. We are reading Lies Young Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Dannah Gresh. It is excellent so far--we're only on chapter one! :-) We had a great time together. We then started getting prizes, etc. ready for our Family Fun Fest coming up on June 14. They were a huge help and got a lot of work done--a big load off my shoulders.

Aren't they cute?

Sunday Dinner with the Teens

Jo asked for pictures, so...: I had the teen girls over for lunch on Sunday. We joked that I was the "youth pastor," since we have only girls and no real youth pastor! We had a fun time together. I love my girls!!

Micaiah's children's choir debut

Not exactly the Vienna Choir Boys, but it's a start. There are several things to watch. Notice Micaiah on the high note ("a-FFORD") and then the smiles on the adults listening from behind.
It was fun watching Micaiah develop in his musical understanding. When we started practicing a couple months ago, he basically knew high and low and didn't spend much time trying to figure out anything in between. But he has really progressed a lot through this experience. We were proud of all the kids. After many admonitions to "sing out", we were pleased when they actually did. ;-) On our way home tonight, as we were complimenting Micaiah on a job well done, he said, "And no one even did this!", as he cupped his hand behind his ear.

Cafe' Bixby

Saturday morning I hosted a CPBC ladies "Book Brunch" at 7 Hampshire. My husband helped me transform our dining room into a cafe' that would seat 16 ladies. We had an enjoyable time of fellowship over our brunch, and then gathered in a circle for a jam session over the book we have been reading as a group this summer: Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur. We then enjoyed a sweet time of spiritual fellowship as we shared the lessons God has been teaching us through this summer-long study of several women of the Bible who were exemplary for their faith in Christ.

More on "Amore Festa!"

Since Donna already told you the menu, I'll tell you the fancy-schmancy program names I came up with for the menu items (with the help of an Internet-driven Italian-English dictionary).

The food courses were as follows:
La zuppa: Minestrone alla salsiccia
La portata principale: Insalata di pollo e spinaci
Il dessert: Gelato alla pera

If anybody out there knows more about Italian than I do (and that should be about everyone out there), just ignore my prepositions and articles, OK? ;-)

Judy Hurst & Donna did an excellent job with the food. In picture #3, you can see some of the items on display for one of our games, "Test Your Italiano". Two of our ladies, Deyna Dodd & Pam Christy, have some Italian heritage in their backgrounds and were able to supply us with these Italian items which people had to match to the corresponding Italian word. I got 10 out of the 15 (by sheer luck--and maybe just a little common sense). You see in picture #4 that Donna was finally able to display some prints she purchased in Venice several years ago. Picture #6: Our teen/college girls did a super job as servers. Picture #7: Liz Cole was pretty much the woman in charge who expertly delegated to make sure that today happened. Picture #9: Jeanine Aumiller, who served as one of the chief decorators, brought her mom all the way from the hills of N.C. It was good to finally meet her.

Our other three unpictured games included: Italian Trivia, "Come up with as many Italian foods as you can" (how do you like that title?)--sort-of Boggle style, and the purse scavenger hunt (good one, gals! You'll have to try it!). A number of our ladies contributed door prizes that we were able to award to the winners. Our theme verse for the event was Matthew 6:33 ("But seek ye first the kingdom of God"). Jennifer Cox did do an excellent job in graciously, yet unapologetically, proclaiming the Gospel. As Donna said, we were very pleased with everything except the number of visitors. But even for that, we remind ourselves of the hand of God, and trust that it will be used for the profit of the Kingdom for those who were present, and perhaps even in the building of relationships with those who were invited but did not attend.