Between last weeks Sunday service and this past Sunday, I had three lessons to prepare. This past week I taught the high school students on Wednesday and Sunday. I prepared a lesson on Hope for Wednesday from the story of Jairus and the raising of his daughter from the dead. I did a word study that demonstrated that don’t mean to use the word hope, according to its definition. When we say hope, we often mean wish and that can cause problems when we try to apply our hope to God. Hope is saying we have assurance in what we believe in. The students were really receptive to this, and I talked to one student who said that he has been more aware of how he uses that word since the lesson. God was really able to reach some of the students.

Sunday’s lesson was on wisdom, focusing on the story of Solomon deciding the mother of a newborn child using a sword. This lesson talked about how wisdom is more than just knowing things, it is also about knowing what is true and right and then acting on it. And since what is true and right only comes from God, we can only have true wisdom is we follow Him. Though this wasn’t the best presented lesson I have ever taught, I could see that God was still able to get the attention of some of the students.

The main challenge I discover last week was what a struggle it is to create lessons every week from scratch. One of the reasons that the wisdom lesson wasn’t as good as it could have been was because I wasn’t able to finish it until a few hours before the class began. I can see the importance to leaning of God for every lesson, so that he can pick up the slack on weeks where the lesson puts up a fight.

Monday night I accompanied Pete Kunckle for house calls. When I talked with him about what these house calls are for, I found that they cover a wide range of things. Firstly, it is their main way of staying connected with new members. We take a bag of information about the church, a tray of cookies, and tell them that we were glad to have them in church. We ask them if they liked church and if they have any questions. This connection shows visitors that they weren’t missed on Sunday and that we care for them. Secondly, it is used as an opportunity stay connected with current members. Those who do house calls build relationship with those that they visit and all in all encourage those we visit. Thirdly, those who used to come to church but has stopped coming for any reason are visited. They are not pressured into coming back, but they are asked how things are going, if they need prayer and let them know that they are missed. Lastly, this is the time when those who have issues with the church are confronted. Whether they just don’t like the music or whether they have a difference in opinion in doctrine, this opportunity is used to hear their voice and explain where the church is coming from. The three houses I visited with Pete were pleasant situations and I had a nice time visiting with those those I met.

Saturday was the youth car wash. We had a very good turn out. We washed around 70 vehicles, equating to around 100 cars washed! We even washed a tour bus, which counted as 10 cars. This car wash was run differently than I have seen before. Students are encouraged to raise pledges before the car wash, receiving a certain amount of money for every car that they wash. This way, the students can earn most of their money before the wash. Those that took advantage of this completely paid for their trips!

I have done a little more with poster making. I have been organizing a Nerf gun battle for the middle and high schoolers where we will turn the gym into a battleground. To help build interest, I have been designing a poster. It looks a little like this:

Yes, that is Rambo. There is still some work to do on it, but I am excited for how it is turning out.

This next week is going to be busy for me. I will be leaving on Thursday on a mission trip. I am going with the middle schoolers to Florida to work at the Christian college there. I have packing and lesson writing to do before I leave. It is going to be exciting!