MIDWEEK MESSAGE #170
Hello and welcome to Midweek Message #170. I hope you are surviving this heat and having a great week so far.
Please remember to pray for Matt Taylor this week. Matt is the new Curriculum Director at
S-OCS. He has a pretty big job catching up with his responsibilities after a late hire. I’d like to ask that you especially pray for his travel. Matt lives in Avon with his wife and two children. One is a freshman in college this year and the other is a senior in high school.
HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS YET? OVCF’s 19th anniversary will be celebrated on October 29th. The plan is to have two services, a pitch-in following the second service, volunteer recognition, and a special dessert. We also hope to give you a more complete update on our building addition (if available).
Speaking of the building addition: the architect came out this past week to go over some ideas and strategies for his next steps. He will be talking to a civil engineer to come look at the property where we plan to build. After that…? ☺
I have expressed before how hard it is for me to watch commercials about children like St. Jude’s. I have Jo mute commercials when I watch TV with her (she controls the remote!), but the ones about children really get to me. I know I don’t normally single out people for you to pray for but I have a couple that most definitely need prayer:
- Nolan Miller is the 16 year old son of Paul and Kelsey Miller. He is a fine young man and his parents are super people. While the Millers don’t attend OVCF, they have many friends here, especially in the home school co-op. Nolan has been diagnosed with leukemia and will have to undergo an intense regiment. He will be at Riley for at least 8 days, then chemo treatments will begin via port. He will have to go to Riley each week for a treatment, which is to last 2-2.5 years. They look for him to go into remission in about a month or so. Update: Nolan came home yesterday (Tuesday).
- On the other end is an adult: Tim Thacker. He is the father to Sara Roberts, one of our ladies who attends second service. His other daughter, Amy, works with Linda St. John. He has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Pray for his healing and for the family.
- Each week we publish a rather long list of prayer requests in the bulletin. Many of them I suspect neither I, nor you, know. And yet, they have been put on our prayer list to be prayed for by someone who knows them. May I suggest that you use the bulletin’s prayer list as a guide to pray for people? I believe in a God who does far more than we can ask or think (Eph. 3:20).
Within the past week Jo and I said, “See you later” to two dear friends from a church we served at in the past. It is a fact of life that the older one gets the more it happens. ☺ Try to reach out to people you know who have lost someone close to them recently or in the past. Certain times of the year are a little bit harder than others. I say that because this past week someone texted me something they saw. It goes along with the church being a caring and loving place where people can find Jesus and friends. It is easy to criticize a church and say, “It’s not very friendly or caring.” Diana has worked her “magic” to be able to get it into this MM (the rumor is that I am technologically challenged).
I know you are busy so I won’t take up more of your time with my ramblings. I’ll close by saying that our daughter, Janna’s birthday is Wednesday so we plan to head to Ohio on Thursday to celebrate, to visit Jo’s sister on Friday morning, and to watch Braden, our grandson, play high school football Friday night. We will be back Saturday. If an emergency arises, you can reach me through Tami (who is staying here) or Diana. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday for my last sermon on Revelation in this cycle called The Underdog Wins. Love you all.
Pastor Bill
