{"id":14094,"date":"2025-07-30T12:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/?p=14094"},"modified":"2025-07-30T12:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:31:11","slug":"midweek-message-7-30-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/2025\/07\/midweek-message-7-30-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Message 7\/30\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>MIDWEEK MESSAGE #256<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Hello everyone and welcome to Midweek Message #256! I hope your week has been going well and you have seen God blessing you in all ways.<\/p>\n<p>Did you remember our church pitch-in is tonight at 6:00?<\/p>\n<p><strong>With school starting, we will begin praying for our school personnel. This week we just want you to pray for the administration, faculty, teachers, and students as they get ready to start back next week.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Saturday was a day of excitement. No, nobody was here except me. But pictures don\u2019t lie. \ud83d\ude0aSaturday morning at 5:30, they began pouring the concrete for the foundation of the new addition. I left at 7:40 to go to the Y and when I came back they were still at it. Soon all the pouring was done, then the tedious work began. Around 12-1:00 they were all done and heading home. Not only do I not know how to do what they do, but the heat and humidity were brutal. But we now have the finished concrete pad. The last word we received is the shell will be started around the middle of September. There were a lot of excited people Sunday. If you didn\u2019t get a chance to see it then Diana has posted some pictures on the church\u2019s Facebook<br \/>\npage. You can catch them there. Better yet, come up and see for yourself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Special Announcement!!! Two Sundays ago when I mentioned praying for someone from <\/strong><strong>another church, a member of that church was shocked that another church would be praying <\/strong><strong>for someone in their church. (It\u2019s what we do). But I\u2019m pleased to announce that another <\/strong><strong>church has blessed US in a very tangible way. Several on our worship team sang and led <\/strong><strong>worship at the women\u2019s Women of the Word gathering last month at the Christian Life Center, <\/strong><strong>which is sponsored and promoted by Shiloh Wesley Church. Dr. Diane Wells is not only a <\/strong><strong>medical doctor, she is also the pastor of Shiloh. This past week their church blessed us with a <\/strong><strong>very generous monetary gift to be used in the building of our addition. We want you to know <\/strong><strong>so that you can tell her thanks if you see her. A letter of thanks will be sent from the elders to <\/strong><strong>express our thanks for their generosity.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sunday was a special day also.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Derek Britt and Luke Furr were here to bring us up to date on Chi Alpha\u2019s impact at IU. Like Ryan, I got choked up at the end of the video as they showed multiple students being baptized in all kinds of settings. To hear the voice-overs of some of the students and then to find out that it was their testimony at their baptism really moved me. Derek shared with us that in the neighborhood of 400-500 students were impacted by Chi Alpha this past year. Keep praying for their ministry. Chi Alpha is one of the monthly missions we support.<\/li>\n<li>Even more exciting was that Sunday was Move-Up Sunday for 6 of our students who will be moving from the Late Elementary class to the Adult worship. Some were unable to be here this week but the list included Akaydia Beckwith, Amelia Biggs, Eliza Chambers, Aasha Srinivasan, CJ Wood, and Cooper Wood. Welcome, my young friends, to the adult worship. I look forward to watching you grow in your faith. (And Ryan looks forward to having you in ROOTS youth group \ud83d\ude0a).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking of ROOTS! ROOTS kickoff is Sunday, August 24th from 5-7 PM. ROOTS is open to all Middle School\/High School students. Please feel free to invite your friends. If you have any questions about whether you will enjoy it, check with some of the young people who attend. If you, or your parents have any questions about snacks (yes they use them and there will be a sign-up sheet), lessons, etc. please check with Pastor Ryan.<\/p>\n<p>It seems like almost every week, whether I am talking to people at the Y, at a meal, some gathering, or with a Sunday visitor, I am asked, \u201cWhat is OVCF? What denomination is it? What do you believe about (fill in the blank)\u201d? I try to explain it and sometimes they \u201cget it\u201d but there are also times when I am asked for more information and deeper clarification. Like \u201cwhat do you mean Independent or non-denominational?\u201d This past Monday in a conversation at the Y, I was asked about creeds and our stand on them. It came up because I had befriended a couple of folks and invited them to OVCF. <strong>What would you say to the above questions, and others like them?<\/strong> Would you like to know more? I wrote an \u201cIntroduction to OVCF\u201d for that purpose. My<br \/>\nplan is to have a sit-down, non-formal gathering (with lunch\ud83d\ude0a) to give you a chance to ask<br \/>\nquestions and to discuss with other people ideas like the ones I\u2019ve been asked and more. So<br \/>\nhere are the details&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Sunday, September 7th, will be the first offering of \u201cAn Introduction to OVCF.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>It will be immediately following the second service.<\/li>\n<li>Lunch will be served (sandwiches, chips, finger foods).<\/li>\n<li>I plan for it to last about an hour to an hour and half.<\/li>\n<li>We will discuss the material in a small group setting. I will not be lecturing or standing at a pulpit. I\u2019ll set up tables solely for convenience in the youth addition.<\/li>\n<li>Do you need child care? Please let me know so I can make sure someone is there for you.<\/li>\n<li>All you need is a Bible, a notebook (there will be plenty of space in the material to take notes), a pen, a curious mind, and an open heart.<\/li>\n<li>There will be a sign-up sheet and since it will be offered multiple times, there will be<br \/>\nlimit of 12 per session.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I look forward to chatting with you. Any questions, please feel free to ask me.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve given you a lot to think about this week so I\u2019m going wrap things up. This coming Sunday I will be preaching on Destruction to Reconstruction from Isaiah 23-53. I look forward to seeing you. You are loved&#8230;more than you know.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Bill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIDWEEK MESSAGE #256 Hello everyone and welcome to Midweek Message #256! I hope your week has been going well and you have seen God blessing you in all ways. Did you remember our church pitch-in is tonight at 6:00? With school starting, we will begin praying for our school personnel. This week we just want &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/2025\/07\/midweek-message-7-30-2025\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midweekmessage","category-ovcf-news","nodate","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14095,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14094\/revisions\/14095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}