IT'S RALLY TIME!!!

I suppose the Hawkeyes are thinking the same thing ... rally time!!!  For all you Cyclone fans, I humbly offer my white towel and feeble smile.  I just can't understand why the Hawks don't buy a team that can win convincingly!  How they can drive the ball up and down the field and leave themselves with only a field goal or less ... how they can ... oh well, I digress.  It was a tough Saturday, last Saturday, because I DVRed the game and was so looking forward to watching - I even made sure I didn't hear any sports reports before I could watch the game ... which I did at 7:00 Saturday evening.  Looks like I won't have to be thinking about purchasing Rose Bowl tickets ... again!

BUT - how about them Beavers!!!  They were so good they even cost Wisconsin an offensive line coach - as I understand, he got fired!  College football - the season is here.  There's usually only two teams that I don't like to miss -  the Hawks and the Beavs - (I still can't stand the Ducks) - so once again, I think mediocrity will define my teams.  (Though OSU won, the Badgers - ranked 13th - were highly over-rated!)

Enough Rah rah rah and Blah blah blah.

We got into a new season with school staring up again, as well as the educational ministry beginning anew after a summer's dormancy.  Had a great time celebrating RALLY DAY! at PoP, and once again the WACs - Worship Arts Committee - came through.  The Sunday School theme for the year is "Journey of Faith" -  and the classes spend about a month learning about Bible personalities (one character per month, I mean).  But Sunday we started off the rally with a special worship - I chose three of the "faithfuls" and developed a 3 part sermon around them - kind of "Strength for the Journey" ideas.  We had all the kids come forward and made commitments to be faithful to their Lord and to their attendance to the classes.  Never done that before, but proved very effective.  Also had the parents (who came forward with their kids) commit themselves to their kids to see that they have the opportunity to participate.  We had made "Journey of Faith" bookmarks for the parents to give to their kids as a "seal" of their promise.  

      But back to the WACs.  As people entered the building there were footsteps with the names of all the

                                       personalities the SS would be studying for the coming year ...

as they approached the sanctuary they were greeted with the following sign -

as they entered the sanctuary the footprints changed color and had no names (signifying that the footprints are now 'our' journey - 

and finally as they went out they were greeted with the last banner - 

all in all it was a great day.  I posted the message already - some of it is a bit hard to hear (the readings, especially) but I had fun telling the stories (Max Lucado style)!  I hope that they are beneficial to your "walk" should you choose to listen.  

Just got back from a day of communion calls, so am writing this cuz' I don't feel like doing anything else!  The home-bound are always such a blessing to visit!

Have a great week!

God's blessings from the left coast.

Lova ya'

Karina and Dan