Reflections from Sunday

Good morning everyone!

I have been reading, praying, and pondering (or to make it really spiritual I guess I should say meditating :) ) regarding the lack of motivation in our churches today and the shortage of visitors joining us for worship services.  What I have been challenged to consider/correct personally, and that which I have challenged my congregation to consider/correct, is the idea of having a passionate and intimate relationship with Christ.  A book that I have been reading recently, “Igniting Passion in Your Church”, (disclaimer:  I do not accept/condone everything contained in this book, but have read with thoughtful comparison to scripture/biblical principles in mind and where there was a difference the Bible always was/is the correct standard) compared the stages of an earthly marital relationship to our relationship with Christ, as does Ephesians 5 and other passages.  The catalyst for thought is this question: “Does my life/church make others want to have a relationship with Christ?”.  If it doesn’t, maybe instead of telling others, even Christ, what church is we should be asking Christ to show us what church is so that others will want to “flirt (be interested), date (faith takes a step forward), get engaged (make a commitment), and eventually marry (faith that conquers – celebration)” Christ.

Consider whether you are passionate about your faith.  Do others want what you have, or do they see a depressed, complaining, stick in the mud (self-righteous), or pessimistic person?  If you are exhibiting the latter adjectives/emotions, then why do you think someone will accept your invitation to be in that same relationship with you?  They’ve already got that without the accountability/responsibility that they fear.  It’s time that we Christians, the Church, the Bride of Christ, get passionate about our personal relationship with Him.  Time that we wholeheartedly accept that we are His, transfer ownership to Christ, and ask Him what church is and what He wants us to do instead of carrying out our business meetings based on what WE like or want or think we need.  Christ has been locked out of the church far too long! 

New Year at Calais

Well…it has been a while since we last updated our blog.  Life has been pretty busy with both the adult and children’s cantatas and Christmas Eve Candlelight service and everything else that goes along with the wonderful time of the year, Christmas.  Sorry for the delay, but here is our latest update.

To catch you up since the last post, I guess we should begin with our Live Nativity.  This year we were able to present our live nativity in downtown Woodsfield in conjunction with their Christmas Festival.  We also had a float in their Christmas Parade that evening.  It was a great outreach opportunity as well as a privilege for our church folks to serve and minister.  We followed this activity with two more weekends of our annual live nativity in the usual spot just off the highway.  We had several stop in the check things out and get some homemade cookies and cocoa at the “Inn”.  This all led up to the weekend of December 19th, which was the weekend for both our Children’s and Adult Christmas Cantatas.  What a great job everyone did as the services went very well and we had record numbers in attendance for 2 out of the 3 services that Sunday.  We wrapped up the month of December’s special services celebrating the birth of our Savior by having a Christmas Eve Candlelight service which was attended by 55+ from our Church, their families and community.  Whew…what a wonderfully busy month in the ministry here at Calais.

New Years Eve was rather quiet as we just hung out around the house and rang the new year in by sleeping soundly in our bed :).  Just couldn’t stay up as late this year. 

Our First Sunday of 2011 at Calais was spent, after the previous week’s reflecting, reviewing and refocusing, challenging the congregation with God’s message for the future of Calais Independent Baptist Church and specifically what I felt God leading us to do for 2011.  I’m sure that we were not unlike many of your churches in doing so.  Please pray for us, as we do for you, in our prayerful efforts to challenge each other to do more this year for God and the church than we ever have before. 

As I am writing this post, we have many exciting things to look forward to, event his month!  My, Brandon’s, parents are coming up in another week and will spend an entire week here with us (which we are very excited about), I will be starting weekly Discipleship classes at the church on January 15th, Kim began our weekly Children’s ministry on Sunday nights last Sunday, I have premarital counseling sessions to get underway for a young couple in the church, and my in-laws, Kim’s parents, are talking about coming up sometime for a visit.  What an exciting time to be in the ministry and for us personally, to be in the will of God!

Hopefully won’t be as long before the next post, and it will be a shorter one (no promises though).

Have a great week/month as you strive to serve Christ faithfully in whatever capacity, and location He has called you.

Pastor Brandon and Kim Ward

I will never leave thee nor forsake thee!

What an eventful and emotional last two weeks.  I will just have to start at the beginning to fill everyone in.  Two weeks ago, Thursday, Brandon woke up having a gallbladder attack.  At the time we didn’t know that it was his gallbladder.  After 5 hours of pain I finally got Brandon in the truck and headed for the closest emergency room.  Thank God it was only 12 miles from the house.  Brandon could not stand any more pain.  He gets ushered into the emergency room and I get sent to Registration.  Word of advice, have a cheat sheet with you at all times with all information that you would need already on it so you can just hand the registrar your paper and you won’t forget any valuable information.  I was so flustered I was thankful I had it all written down. 

I sit in waiting room for a little over an hour before they roll him past me lying on a hospital bed in a hospital gown and all they say is, “We are taking him to this room on the left to run some test.”  TEST?  What kind of test?  What are you looking for?  I am really nervous by this time so I start making phone calls.  So after another 30 or so minutes they come out with him and roll him back to the emergency room.  They then come tell me I can come back and see him.  They ran an ultra-sound of his stomach and found that he had many gallstones and they were calling the on call surgeon.  We then find out that he has to have his gallbladder removed and is scheduled for the following day.  We do all the pre-op stuff and head home for the night with some really good pain pills.

Friday morning arrives and we get to the hospital around 10.  Two of our faithful church members come to sit with me during the surgery.  Praise God!  During which I get the phone call that Brandon’s Grandpa Luther is fading fast and Hospice says it will only be hours before he passes away.  Surgeon meets with me after the surgery is complete and says that it is such a good thing that we took the gallbladder out that day because it was dying and Brandon could have gotten much much worse really quick.  He snapped back from the anestesa pretty well and we were able to return home that evening.

That night we got the call that Grandpa Luther went home to be with the Lord at 12:20.  Got permission from surgeon and hit the road Saturday.  Broke the 8 hour trip into two days but with stopping every 1 to 1 1/2 hours to make Brandon walk and trying to take it easy it turned into an 11 hour trip.

Grandpa Luther’s funeral was a wonderful home going celebration!  Uncle Jim started it off with a few kind words.  Brandon and Uncle Jim sang a wonderful duet ‘There is No Secret’!  Very powerful!  Brandon then took a few moments to reflect on his granddaddy's life and what he has taught all of us!  Then Pastor Cutshaw finished the ceremony off with a great message!

The grave side was precious also!  Each daughter had a rose that they lay on their Daddy’s casket!  All the grandchildren and great grandchildren then sang “Amazing Grace”!  That also was very powerful and a tear jerker.

It was great to see family and friends!  We made it back home to Batesville, OH on Friday.  Just in time to see the snow.  It snowed a lot but never stuck to the ground.  It was beautiful and very calming.

It has been a trying two weeks but very thankful for my God who is always with me and will never leave me and has gone before me.

Calais Church Fall Festival

Well, well, well!  What a night!!!

Last night was amazing!  It was the first Fall Festival for us at Calais!  We had a final count of 90 in attendance!  What a great way to reach out to the community and have fun as a church family!  Lots of planning went into this event.  The ladies of Calais are amazing and have such a wonderful spirit!  They all stepped up to the plate and helped make the Festival a HUGE success!  There were lots of games to be enjoyed by children of all ages!  Of course there were lots and lots of bags of candy to give out as prizes.  Some adults, children at heart, dipped unto those bags also.

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Since we are Baptist, no event would be complete without food.  You know, since that’s the way Fellowship is really spelled!  Pastor and I were both introduced to Hot Chicken Sandwiches this year!  Judy, they were delish!  Man was there a lot of food to eat!  Hot Chicken Sandwiches and Sloppy Joes, 5 different soups and Hotdogs!  Not to mention all the desserts! 

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We ended the night off with a campfire and singing!  First to perform was our Junior Hand Bell Choir with “Praise Him Praise Him All Ye Little Children”.  During the campfire we had a visitor show up.  No one yet knows who the guest was.  It is definitely the talk of Calais.  This visitor would not talk, had a mask on, and sat down beside of Pastor on the hay bale for the singing.  After 15 minutes or so our guest casually gets up and walks down the road.  He, or she, obviously didn’t want anyone to know who they were because they got in their gray Jeep Liberty and backed down the road, almost hit a buggy and ran into the ditch, they turned around and continued to drive home!  If anyone knows the identity of this individual Please reveal yourself.  I am baffled and your picture made it into this blog!

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After finally coming down from our sugar rush we finally made it to bed late last night, still wondering who that person was, and thinking about all those parents who had the PLEASURE of getting those sugar high children to bed.  I think they were still bouncing off the walls this morning at church!

Thank you again Calais family for your hard work in helping making the Fall Festival a HUGE success!

Go Buckeye’s!!!!

Brandon and I had the opportunity to attend the Ohio State vs. Ohio football game last weekend!  What we didn’t realize to begin with is that the Marching Band has a Skull Session 1 1/2 hours before the game.  The Skull Session is a concert/pep rally with more than 10,000 fans attending before the game.  It is not unusual for dedicated fans to arrive up to two hours before the band.  Of course we HAD to be at that.  Especially since I am, what Brandon likes to call me, a band nerd.  I was completely amazed at how many showed up for the Skull Session!  The gymnasium was packed full as you can see below!

Ohio State has a 192 member, all brass Marching Band!  They are also known as “The Pride of the Buckeyes'!”  Their drum line is huge!  12 Snares, 4 Basses, 4 cymbals, and 4 quads!

We enjoyed the football game too!  By half-time we knew Ohio State was going to win!  They slaughtered Ohio.  I made sure to take my camera and take lots of pictures to show you’s but unfortunately if you are a football fan I only have a few pictures that actually have football players in them! :)  So, for all you football fans, here are the few pictures of the football teams.

There’s a New Name Written Down in Glory

Since our last update we had one family join Calais Church and last Sunday one of our little ones came forward to share with the congregation that she asked Jesus to come into her heart!  AMEN!!!

We are continuing to reach out to the community, working on our Fall Festival on Oct. 23, Christmas Cantata and working on next years calendar of events!  Busy, busy, busy!

We enjoyed the Summerfield Fireman’s Festival last weekend with a parade, chicken dinners and an auction!  Of course we got involved in the action.  Brandon now has the task of mounting my 2 foot tall blue star on the side of the house! 

The weather has been absolutely beautiful!  We can’t wait until the leaves start changing and fall sets in!  Also looking forward to some family visiting to see the Fall Colors around here!

New Grace Baptist Church

Last Friday we had the privilege of attending the dedication service for New Grace Baptist Church, South Portsmouth, KY!  The picture above is of Pastor (cousin) Todd and his son Haddon ringing the church bell.  It is the first time the bell has been heard in six years. 

There was an amazing turnout of support of 150+ people! 

Amanda asked Brandon if he would prepare a solo to share during the service.  And yes he is Smiling while he is singing.  It is possible choir members.  *hint *hint

Please pray for Todd, Amanda, and Haddon Lockyer and New Grace Baptist Church!  They are a wonderful family who truly have a heart for God!