Surprise Visitor 9/29/13

Good Morning,

Not hunting this morning. Not too unusual for opening weekend. I will go for and evening hunt tonight. I am starting today with some sweet Door County Chocolate Melt Down Coffee.

Last night at our Saturday Evening Church Service a visitor arrived. Attendance was down due to a big wedding within the church family. So it was nice to add a another number to the group. I would like to thank the visitor who had come home from Alaska for family reasons but stopped in at our church to say hi. You see Bob (visitor ) and I went to the same high school a thousand years ago. I can't even say if we had classes together or not. Some how and it escapes me now, but Bob looked me up on the Internet and saw that I professed to be a Christian. I received a phone call a few years ago from Alaska and we connected. Bob was checking to see if I was really a Christian. Since then he has taken every opportunity to encourage me through email and phone calls to keep "going and not quit" in my ministry. I must confess that there are times that I wonder if all the work is worth it. I have been discouraged from time to time. Bob is in tune with the Holy Spirit and Bango! a phone call or email comes saying "Don't Quit".

I want to publicly thank Bob for being a stand up man of prayer and support for me and others. What he does, he doesn't have to do. He goes that extra mile. Do you go an extra mile for someone in ministry? Do you compliment your pastor and thank him for the message? Do you send your missionaries an encouraging email or note and brighten their day? Do you thank those in lay ministries such as nursery duty, janitorial, teen workers, children's leaders and Sunday School teachers? Do you pray for all of them?

You might be just the person that stops them from quitting when the hours are long and the fruit is far and few between. Stop today, and write a note, send and email, pray for your ministry leaders, professional or volunteer.

So as I close let me tell you how I feel about all of you in the Words of Paul to the Philippians in chapter one. It is important to know that all of you are loved and for me to encourage you too.

Thanksgiving and Prayer Philippians 1:3-11

³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
⁷ It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. ⁸ God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
God bless,
Marty