Memorial Day weekend

We need to take time to honor those who have served and those we have lost in the struggle for freedom.
During worship we had a short video that was about honoring our veterans. We then talked about different ways we experience Memorial Day weekend. Most folks use this as a time to remember all their loved ones that have died. A couple folks pointed out that this is a good time to pass down family stories and traditions to younger generations.
I have really appreciated the Give and Take times the last couple of weeks. People are really sharing wonderful insights and ideas.
We are receiving our One Great Hour of Sharing offering. Go here to learn more about the offering.
The sermon was our last on prayer in this month that we are emphasizing prayer. It was supposed to be a convicting sermon about praying/serving our community, nation and world, go here if you want to read its confusing manuscript.
Many folks were travelling this week- some were bravely camping in the rain. But there were still nearly 80 of us in worship.
We are have a community night of prayer on Wednesday- starting at 7pm. All are invited.

Driving- Meeting- Preaching

I had a busy week. Last week was the American Baptist of the Northwest Biennial (every two years) meeting. It was in Everett WA. It was an excellent time of worship, learning, fellowship and good meals. It was not however, a time of rest. My brother and I travelled back late Saturday night, well actually Sunday morning. I was tired on Sunday- but the Lord provided me energy to preach and serve.
We are in the midst of our Month of Prayer. We are really emphasizing prayer this May. I have been teaching on it and we have been doing some "prayer events." I hope it is working. I really believe it is important to be in honest communication with our God. It is life changing, church changing and ultimately world changing. Staying in prayer is how we stay connected to the Source of Selfless Love- Jesus Christ.
So we did something in the Give and Take time called Prayer Activities. It is a way of practicing and encouraging people to pray in all kinds of normal situations every day. People had a ton of ideas- it was a learning time for me.
The sermon time was a time of mostly scripture- to minister to all of us about what God promises in prayer. Check out my sermon
There is much to praise God about these days around here. We continue to have visitors every week. We are having people return from far off places- Saipan especially. Weddings are happening. There are two things I want to specifically praise God for on this Blog, I forgot to mention both on Sunday. 1. Tiffany- Norm and Sandy's daughter received a clean bill of health on the tests she was having for cancer. YES! 2. Our friend Robert had the large tumor (about a football size) removed from his leg and only minimal damage was done to the muscle- in other words he will walk again.
there were about 70 of us there praising God on Sunday.
May the peace of Jesus Christ be with you.
Corey

Moms- We honor you!

Well its Tuesday and I am finally getting to my weekly blog of Sunday.
Worship went well. It was, of course, Mother's Day. We honored mothers in a few ways. First the Give and Take was about Moms and the Bible. We talked about Moms in the Bible and also how moms have been important in the history of the church in sharing good news and reading the bible.
The sermon was prayer and the family. The text is available at coreysermons.blogspot.com
We of course thanked God for our moms and families. We also then had a Sunday School, for the adults on women in Church history.
I used a quilt my mom made for me as an illustration in my sermon. She stiched/quilted my favorite bible verse, 1 John 3:16 with black thread into a black fabric border. This to me is an illustration of our lives as Christians. We are to be an imitator of Christ even when no one is looking, even in the dark times. The verse is, "This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (and sisters)"
A lot of our families with young children were either travelling or under the weather- we missed you.
There were over 80 of us in worship Sunday.
This whole month of May we are emphasizing prayer. If you read this please remember to pray for me and our ministry here in Palouse.
Thanks, Corey

It's been a while....

I haven't blogged lately. Our family was able to take a vacation the last week of April. We went to Seattle and visited my brothers. We took in a Mariner's game, went to the Science Center- and had a bunch of good times with family. We ended the week by going fishing on opening day at Fishtrap Lake with Tina's family. Camping was a blast.
We've been back for the last 10 days- I just haven't had a chance to blog yet.
Sunday the 7th was our Annual Camping Sunday. We had John Batchelder from Ross Point Camp down to speak. He is a great man and a gifted speaker. I heard a bunch of folks excited about the upcoming camps for our youth.
May is a month we are devoted especially to prayer. There will be plenty of teaching on prayer and opportunities to put the learning into practice. We participated in the National Day of Prayer on May 4th. People prayed at home or at the Church- many participated. Sunday I began a month long series of sermons on prayer. The first was- Prayer: Life Beyond the Status Quo. This week's sermon is Prayer and The Family. The following week it will be Prayer and the Local Church. And then finally, "Prayer- Our Community, Nation and World."
I pray that you would use this month to focus on developing your prayer life. One of our verses for this month is Colossians 4:2, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Listening and Chatting with God makes us more "watchful" observant, thoughtful Christians. Prayer helps us to remember all that for which we are thankful.
I am thankful for my loving family. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve God and God's people here in Palouse.
Stay in touch- if you read this, maybe you could use the comments to "type" a prayer for our ministry.
Peace be with you.