SAC Happiness

SAC stands for Summerland Alliance Church and Happiness stands for happiness.

There are a lot of cool things happening within our church family these days.

I haven't mentioned anything about it here yet but I have an intern working for me. He started in January and is around until the end of April. He's a guy that was in my youth group when we first started serving here. He is in his third year at Briercrest Bible College. And he is a close personal friend.

This internship is a really great thing. He's not sure what kind of ministry heading he's going to take but he sure has options. He is great with kids and young people so it's awesome to have help with our youth ministry. He's developing into a good worship leader and it has been my pleasure to have him play and sing with me and a pleasure for me to play, sing and worship under his leadership. He's passionate about drama and is getting our church family passionate about it too. And he's great with seniors. I believe he was going to learn to knit this afternoon as a matter of fact.

Anyhow, he preached in our service today. His first sermon ever in front of a church congregation. He did really well. I never grew up hearing the phrase "good word" but I heard it many time today: "David, that was a good word!" "David, thanks for that good word." Anyway. I was proud of him. He sure made me think and that kinda ticks me off cause I know I have some changes to make in my life. This is, however, how I know the Spirit used David to speak to me.

And speaking of our service and "first ever's", I conducted my first baby dedication today. I have to admit it was fun. I did put quite a bit of effort into preparation, practically rewriting the pastor's handbook, but that was a pleasure cause the son I dedicated was the son of friends. Very special.

Another cool thing is that we axed our 4-year-old prelude. Yeah, we do anywhere from 7 to 10 songs in a service. I think that is more than average. I mean, doing a 3 or 4 song prelude has been cool but practicing 10 songs in a short amount of time is hard even for pro musicians. Now we do 6 songs which allows us to do more than just make sure we know how to play the songs. We can actually work towards a great tight sound and be creative within it. I'm enjoying music and leading worship a little more now.

I was at a PK (Promise Keepers) breakfast yesterday. I only went because a friend of mine was going to go. I didn't really want to go but I did. It was interesting. The major thrust of the discussion was on "the call of God" or rather "what the heck am I supposed to do with my life?" I weighed in on this one more so than usual. I am usually the youngest one at these things (that was until David, my intern, came along) and so I approach life, God, faith, church etc. rather differently than these men. I usually keep my mouth shut. Not so yesterday. Rather than get into what I said, I'll just say that I was quite alone in my views on the matter of calling and deciding what we should do for careers and stuff. I put myself out there. I was thinking for the rest of the day that I should have just kept my mouth shut but two of the men approached me later to share their appreciation for what I said. I made them think, so they said, and I tell ya, it was good to hear. Anyways, my challenge has always been to work up enough courage to speak my mind/heart and I'm starting to speak up more and more, with favorable results.

I've seen a lot of people struggling with marriages lately but some are taking a positive turn and you could never know how excited I am to see it.

Angela's Caterpillar Club is doing well and she has new moms showing up every Friday. We've seen some of them in church since. I have a feeling this thing is going to grow.

There was some drama with one of my sponsors and myself about my philosophy of doing youth ministry and this actually caused me a lot of stress. I hate strained relationships like this but we're working it out and I am quite happy that we can restore our tattered friendship. I think the incident will turn out to be merely a bump in the road of our friendship.

So I felt like writing this post to kinda count my blessings. And even though I haven't said it, the goodness I see in our church family these days (there is more than I just typed) really shows that we have found favor with God. I am thankful that He is using our church to reach our community. I am thankful that we are an "alive" church family and that we are passionate about striving for holiness, reaching our community for the sake of His kingdom and seeing His kingdom come in the whole world. Yeah, to God be the glory, now and forever.