Monday, September 11, 2006

Men's retreat and Sunday services


The traditional summer is over and the weather is doing its part to convince us that fall is quickly approaching. It was a busy weekend for many from our church as on Friday a group of men headed to Camp Fairwood in Wisconsin for a men's retreat. Those who attended came back with glowing reports of how they enjoyed the food and fellowship, and the spiritual challenges brought by the speaker.

On Saturday Board of Global Grace met to discuss the status of current projects and to make plans for future projects with this important ministry of our church. Sunday night the church was able to learn even more about this ministry as we highlighted the expanded role that Chris Metras is taking on with respect to both the church and Global Grace. While Pastor Bixby has mentioned it several times over the past few weeks, we were able to see and hear first hand from Chris how excited and enthused he is about his involvement in this ministry. As a church we appreciate the deep personal commitment that Chris has demonstrated with his time, efforts, and personal sacrifice to put himself in a position to be more effectively used in whatever ways God might lead.

After the evening service we were able to meet together in the fellowship area for a time of refreshments as we honored the Metras family and recognized Chris' expanded roles at Morning Star Baptist Church and with Global Grace. We praise God for the generous offering that evening that will allow us not only to send Chris to a conference next month, but also will allow Pastor and Mark to purchase some books for Chris' library.

This Thursday Chris, along with Ben Walsh and John Iverson, will head down to Bay Saint Louis, MS, as a part of Global Grace's continuing outreach efforts to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Along with providing assistance in rebuilding a home of an elderly Christian lady, Chris will be surveying the area and meeting with other pastors to find additional opportunities for Global Grace to minister in the area. Please remember to pray for these men as they travel to the area, that their efforts will be fruitful and that God will open doors for them to minister to both the physical and temporal needs of people and that these open doors will also lead to opportunities to address the spiritual and eternal needs of people as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please note that in the picture of the men who went to the retreat at Camp Fairwood, the picture collage generator arbitrarily cut Art and Wilbur out of the shot. This was not my doing. I'll try to fix that when I have access to the pictures this evening.

Pastor Bixby said...

Thanks, Pat, for putting this stuff up.