Idolatry and witchcraft

I was just listening to mark Driscoll sermon on Galatians. He gave a healthy reminder of what each of these are.

Idolatry- having a substitute for God, or THINKING GOD IS LESS THAN HE SAYS HE IS. (that is the thing that struck me......how many times do i do this?)

Witchcraft- incantations we make towards God to get HIM/Her to do what we want. Another way to put it is....doing something to get a good result from God. EG. praying harder, fasting for God to answer us, doing good so we are in God's good books- these are all more or less.....witchcraft.

check out more of mark at

www.marshillchurch.org

RE-pentance

In yesterday's service, people were asked, 'how many like the word 'repentance''. In both services no one admitted to liking the word. What's up with that?? I actually think the word is a very healthy word and we should welcome it. But then again...how many of us like the words 'healthy', 'exercise', 'discipline'...exactly! I was looking at the word and thinking of other words that begin with 're' - repair, restore, redo, relax, rerun, release. I was focusing on the second part of the word (pair, store, do, lax...) and trying to figure out 'pentance' - no such word. However, it is very closely related to penitent, which is feeling sorry for wrongs or sin. But then I thought about 're'. 'Re' means going back, doing something again and again, a backwards motion.

Repentance is a great word! I mess up all the time and God says to me, I can go back again and again. That when I get caught up in sin, and wake up to the reality that I am offending God and feeling full of regrets, there is an allowance for a backwards motion. I can turn around again and again and REturn to him. What's bad about that??

A Little Bird Came to Play...

So I was mowing the lawn behind the Admin building the other day. I noticed that everytime I circled around and out on to the open field in the back corner there was a little black/metalic blue coloured bird that would fly around me. I didn't pay it much attention at first, but as the majority of my grass cutting was ending up in the back corner, I found this neat little bird keeping me company.

It was as if it was just playing. It wasn't flying in any particular pattern, it just kept swerving and diving towards the grass and then shooting straight up in the air. It would twist and turn all around the area that I was mowing, then swoop towards me and swiftly dash up and around me, as if it was saying, "Look at me. Look at what I can do!" It was very intriguing and difficult to try and get a glimpse of the shiny blue feathers this bird was clothed with. When I finished cutting the lawn, I decided I would stop and turn the mower off and just watch the bird for a couple minutes. As I turned the key and the mower went silent, I looked up and the field was still. No little bird.... Strange.

Spring Cleaning

It was a perfect day for Spring clean-up. We had about 30 people show up ready to work. The property looked beautiful by the end of the day thanks to everyone's hard work.

I think lunch was the favourite time of the day for most people. Everyone really enjoyed eating and hanging out with each other in between the work time.
Thank You very much to David and Sarah Sparks for providing an awesome lunch and for helping Jeanne Hill out with cleaning up the Storehouse afterward.

Below are some chronicles of the days events.

Whoo Hoo to Luke Brunskill for fixing the hole in the roof that the raccoon's have been using as an entrance.

True brilliance done by Carl Lilley in the down stairs Admin Bathroom. He fixed the major whole in the ceiling and the peeling plaster on the wall and window. He even recreated the original technique. Brilliant!

Great job Rob for fixing up the wall at the top of the stairs and for...

creating another project.

Steve and Judy

Rob Merrick

Terry Black

These trimmers were intense and persistent. As a team they clipped the rough edges all around the front walls of the church, around the Admin, Aud and Cottage and also around all the trees and hard to get places. You folks ROCK!!

Terry Black is crazy!!

Beautiful work done by our very own Joe Braga. He cleaned out the prayer room and cleared the driveway and walk ways of all the loose grass and leaf shavings. Thanks Joe!

Kylie Portaccio did an amazing job cleaning the Auditorium with 4 children constantly flocking to the drum kit. You are amazing and brave Kylie thank-you. Helen and Kathy finished putting the screens in the windows after Josh Portaccio's great job of hosing them down.

Thanks Les Joaquin for doing almost all of the windows on the outside of the Administration Building... That's a lot of windows!!

"Might as well while I'm at it."

Fantastic job to Heinz , Scott Roe, Lori McLean, Helen Snyder and Kathy for cleaning up the parking lot's of the leaves and going around the rest of the property weeding and clearing the fence lines of leaves and debris. Abbigail and Katrina had lot's of fun riding around in the Gator all day.

Props to Phil Snell for helping supervise the day as well as pushing around the hand mower for a bit. You da best brother!!

Wonderful thanks to Len Runstedler for spending the day mowing the massive amount of lawn we have. Thank you also to Luke Brunskill for finishing up the job... even through the rain.

Great job to Tim Lewis, Art and Joel Webster, Tim McLean and Isaac Maw for clearing out the barn of old appliances and other unneeded odds and ends.

Thank You to Bruce Snyder, Stewart Mauer, Danette and Leah Webster and Brett Evans for making our gardens beautiful and filling them with colour.

A full bin of junk/garbage metal and a full bin plus of household garbage cleared out the barn and other places on the property.

One more chance to ride the Gator... look who's fighting.

Tim dumping Phil after he lost the battle.

Way to go Julie for braving the second bathroom storage space. We have two usable washrooms in the cottage now.

Cortney used her great organizational skills cleaning up the Party Zone.

The cottage smells soooo good now thanks to Rhonda and Cortney Davison,
Isaac Maw and Julie Lewis.

No Rain or Hail kept us down.

Some final shots of the property.

Wow that's purrty.

How picturesque.