Sunday morning, Oct. 19

This morning our church held its annual Missions Sunday. This is the day when we get to see a presentation of who all our church supports around the world...missionaries, ministries, church plants, etc. It was a really awesome time. In the years that Larry & I have been at Rose Heights (www.roseheights.org) I've always enjoyed the Missions service.

It began with a song (sorry, David...I can't remember the title) about mission work...going into all the world to tell the gospel....you get the idea. It was a moving song with swelling music & poignant lyrics. As the soloist was joined by the choir, Savannah and I along with about 50 others, filed into the church carrying flags to represent each of the countries where there is a missionary/mission group our denomination supports. This is the first time I've carried a flag in the service but watching all those flags being marched in has always been something that gives me goosebumps & makes me tear up. I'm a very visual learner, so seeing all the flags, knowing that behind each one there is a story, a ministry, a person who is living their life only to serve Jesus and reach the lost....well, WOW.

After the flag service, we filed out & put our flags up & re-joined the service as regular folks. Nathan (see my blogroll--Nateland) gave a report on the trip to Romania that he & Larry (and 14 others) went on a few weeks ago. Representatives from a couple of other ministries joined the list of speakers, sharing what they do & how our church has helped them. There were video presentations, a drama (similar to this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ), a song by the kids' choir and more. At the end, they collected pledge cards from the church body for the coming year.

(By the way, if you've never watched the video I linked to above, watch it now...it's a beautiful presentation of the testimonies of those in a church where the video was produced, all showing the beauty of God's grace & mercy on their lives....and don't stop it before the end of the video. The ending is so very powerful.)

The rest of our day was spent resting & gearing up for the coming week.

Monday, here I come!