I love my church!

Every now and then, something happens that makes me think of things that I know, but don't often think about or verbalize. I was hit with one of these last night and today, of how much I love my church. My church is 80-something years old, and I had known "of" my church all my life, way before it was my church. I have been a member of my church for 10 years. That's easy for me to remember, because my friends son Noah was born a week before or week after I joined my church and Noah just turned ten in August. I use Noah's birthday as my anniversary date at my church. By the way, my church is First Missionary Baptist Church in Auburndale. (http://www.firstmbc.com) I was reminded again how much I love my church on Friday night, when I sat with Pastor Price at the AHS football game. A local tradition is that after half time the cheerleaders throw little plastic footballs into the crowd. Different business help pay for the footballs and the organization gets their name printed on footballs. I don't know how or why this was started but they've done in here in Auburndale as long as I can remember, even when my sisters were in high school – and one graduated in 1980 and one in 1983. Some of the footballs Friday night on Friday night said "First Missionary Baptist Church." How cool is that? Mr. Jimmy (as my niece calls him) who is our Youth Pastor was also at the game. It is amazing to watch high school age kids wave and yell "Hi Pastor!" I bet they will remember for a long time that their Pastor was at their game.

Today, our church hosted what we hope becomes an annual event the "Auburndale Sportsman's Expo." Most of the planning went on while I was in London this summer, so I came back not knowing anything about it. I guess this was the brainchild of Pastor Will, who is our Associate Pastor. Pastor Will and his wife Amy are some of my most favorite people in the whole world. I know that's not grammatically correct, but it is very true. This thing today was HUGE! There were guest speakers and prizes, auctions, booths, barbeque, exhibits, and a special area for kids. . . It was amazing. I heard someone ask the guys at the registration table what they owed our church for coming. They couldn't believe it when they were told nothing. Then, they asked what our church was getting from all this, again the guy said nothing – just an opportunity to give people some time with their friends and family and a chance to let us minister to your needs. How can I not love my church? I watched all the volunteers from my church run around everywhere today, doing all sorts of jobs from parking cars to serving food to passing out prizes and taking tickets. I was reminded of the passage in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, when Paul is talking about how every part of the body is important, and no part is more important than any other is. Every job today was important and it made me sad that my life is so caught up in my job and my schoolwork for FSU that I didn't have a job, and didn't even have time to know what a big deal this was. I heard that the guy who was there from the Bass Pro Shop said to go ahead and put him on the list for next year. Me too – put me on the list. Next year, I want one of those orange shirts.

 

P. S. Check out all the incredible decorating the ladies from my church created. That's another thing on my list for whenever this Master's degree is done – I want to be on the decorating crew!
P.S. again - I left my card from my camera at my sister's house. I'll have to add those pictures tomorrow!