What God Did in You

My heart is overflowing with thanks to God for you. You took up the challenge with such great success! I mean the challenge to invite people to the Easter Celebration at Bethel. So many of you labored and prayed to make it happen.

Thanks to Joan Lovestrand and her 30+ lovers of children. They sacrificed their attendance at the service so that hundreds of parents could be there.

Thanks to Liane Laurion and all who helped make the front of the room look beautiful with life and color.

Thanks to Buzz Sawyer and all the ushers and greeters who met people with a smile (and a ten page worship booklet!). They seemed to be everywhere. You were great.

Thanks to David Livingston and all who made the books available after the service and prayed with people seeking help after the service.

Thanks to Kurt Bowerman and all who helped set up the chairs and risers and helped take them down. What a sweat some of you worked up for Easter Sunday. (What would the Pharisees say!)

Thanks to Leah and the choir and the worship team and the instrumentalists. The extra rehearsals. The long Sunday mornings recently. The Thursday evening service. O how beautifully you all worked together!

And thanks for Dean! O Lord, thanks for the gifts you have given to Dean. None of us realizes what goes into making a service like that happen—all the Bethel arrangements, the set up, the music selection, the order of service, the printing, the decorations, the instrumentalist and choir recruitment, the rehearsals, the sound system, the usher organization, the response cards, the spiritual warfare, and only God and Dean know what else. Dean, we love you. What an impact your life is having for the kingdom. Don’t grow weary brother. We shall reap!

Thanks for you—hundreds of you who prayed for and invited people to come. Every morning last week there was a good group of earnest praying people. And the prayer time before the service was a true meeting with God. I thank God for you all.

What God Did Through You

Only eternity will show us fully what God did. But here are some indications. 11 people checked on their cards that they had prayed to receive Christ as living Savior and Lord! I was thrilled to pray with one of these after the service myself. 10 checked that they would be interested in a “Christianity Explained” class. 19 checked that they would like more guidance on what it means to be a Christian. 25 asked for more information about our church. (There is overlap on these four questions.)

Please don’t stop praying now. Remember the parable of the four soils: Satan is trying this very day to pluck the word out of those people’s lives. The temptations and cares and riches and pleasures of life are threatening to choke the seed. So let your prayers be the “scarecrows” and the fertilizers and the water and the thorn cutters to protect these new tender shoots. May they and we continue to bear fruit 30, 60, 100-fold.

Overflowing with thanks,

Pastor John