Kids compete in the sack race at Family Fun Fest.
Thank you to everyone at The Sanctuary for all your hard work in making Sunday a wonderful day for so many people. I am blessed and amazed to work alongside such talented, generous people. The weather was just incredible. God granted us a gorgeous day. And every time I turned around, people seemed to be having a great time.
I wanted to share with you a few things I observed, as well as hear YOUR stories and experiences. I encourage you to share some of those on the blog this week. Just leave your story in the comments section below or send me a personal e-mail.
Fun in the game tent.
Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard in the game tent. You did an AMAZING job with what turned out to be the heart of the fun fest. I loved that children were given a place to interact. Thanks to the Crossfire crew for manning all the team games.
While Pastor Ronn was preaching, one person from the clinic noticed that a patient of hers was talking with her family and then actually stepped away from her conversation and walked over to hear better what Ronn was saying. This woman happened to be someone who Ronn prayed for in the hospital at Christmas time. These are the types of life-changing relational connections we were hoping for!
Bingo!
I walked by the Spanish Bingo table and saw children from The Sanctuary sitting alongside children from the health clinic, trying to figure out the pictures in Spanish. Talk about equipping our children to leave safety for adventure!
And we managed to match up everyone’s name with their back-to-school supplies. Thank you to our volunteers who tirelessly set up a great system and blessed SO many kids. Many thanks as well to each and everyone who filled those packs and for the generous donations of so many.
We were able to provide school supplies for 180 children.
So thank you all. I could spend another few pages delineating how each person made this event special. But just know that this ministry is alive and well because of you. May you be filled as you pour out, may you be blessed as you bless others and may the love and peace of God sustain you this week.
Please tell us how you were blessed by Family Fun Fest. Was it harder or easier than you thought to leave safety for adventure? How did God meet you when you were lost in translation? What did you learn when you took the leap? We would love to hear your stories!
Peace!
Cheryl Lynn
(Please visit our Facebook page for more photos: http://facebook.com/cometothesanctuary)
Comment on 8/15/10 sermon, Torn:Distracted or Alert
When Ronn first gave us the carbon monoxide story, at first I thought, “wow—he should have checked into it more”. However, upon reflection, I’ve done the very same thing with the same warning. I do remember finding the original instructions that came with the CO detector and seeing if an explanation was attached to the flashing number code. There was an explanation but it was more confusing than the flashing numbers! In my case, changing the batteries seemed to help.
Why we don’t pay attention more to clear warnings? Many reasons given at the sermon. For me, “it won’t happen to me” is my mantra.
And important with God’s Word…..lesson learned (embarrassingly for me, again) that God’s Word is final. In 1 King 13, the man makes the mistake that I can fall into. I clearly know what God tells me to do in some areas, but somebody says something to me and I listen to them. The key I need to remember is to be aware of messages from the world. I should always pit them against God’s Word and if the message doesn’t align with His Word, reject that message. Just like the prophet in 1 KIngs 13, I can get derailed by what the world tells me. It’s amazing—-I can’t think of one single time in my life where I did follow God’s Word and trust Him on an issue and it didn’t work out.
I ask and pray to God that He help me to remember this and grant me wisdom and patience to assess what is going on in my life and compare it with His Word.