Life in the Grove

As soon as we stopped for a break in one of the little towns all the children rush the van windows, tapping on them for money and to buy gum or CDs or whatever else they are promoting. Of course you are not supposed to give them any money straight out, which is an odd thing to remember. Handing out money perpetuates a culture of begging for the children and there are so many children there you would run out of bills before hands. Also you have to remember that we are not the only white faces traveling though this country and one hand out can lead to a stream of continued tapping for organizations that are trying to establish a better income source for the countries poor. A short-term hand out will not solve the long-term problem. Hand outs are not why EMI has come, so I resisted. It is very hard to turn away from a sad 5-year-old with her hand out.

Cindy is starting to share about her adventures with Engineering Ministries International in Ethiopia. We will be checking in every once in a while to share some of her story and to see how God is using her there.

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Life is worth celebrating! We celebrate physical life with birthdays. We celebrate relationships with anniversaries and family reunions. We celebrate milestones with annual awards banquets and retirement parties. We celebrate life… and that is good.

God has given us the means to celebrate spiritual life. Baptism and Communion are celebrations of God’s forgiveness of our sins and the privilege of being reconciled to our creator.

This is so common to those who have grown up in the church. It is confusing to those who have not. This Sunday we will take a fresh look at those two celebrations. We want to celebrate well. There is a celebration in heaven when spiritual life comes to another person (Luke 15).

Let’s learn to celebrate well.

Here is a little reading to prep you for this Sunday.

• Luke 22:13-20
• 1 Corinthians 10:14-22
• 1 Corinthians 11:17-28
• Matthew 28:18-20
• Acts 8: 26-39

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This past Saturday many families at Cedar Grove joined in to help load the truck bound for Leon, Nicaragua. In addition to the 300 tubs from Cedar Grove a total of almost 600 tubs were loaded from California.

A huge thank you to everyone who made this shipment of Family-to-Family tubs to Nicaragua happen! Nearly 600 tubs, carrying 15,400 pounds of food & supplies are on their way to Nicaragua. Books that we will use as part of the follow-up material during the festival were also sent. Those tubs will not only bless 592 families in Leon, but every family will hear the Gospel and be given an opportunity to begin a personal relationship with Christ when handed the tub. Thank you ALL for your help with this project! - Mike Silva

If you want to read more about how these tubs will be used to reach the people of Nicaragua for Christ, check out our previous post about Party Planning for Nicaragua.

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As we grow, the time between good bouts of fun and laughter grows, too…But their value remains immeasurable…because there are few things in life as important as joy, friends, and the sound of laughter
(Author unknown)

Has it been a while since you laughed? How about that deep down belly laugh, where you can’t breathe? You know the one, well…at retreat, we laugh, we cry and we laugh some more. Won’t you join us for our annual retreat where friends and laughter are abundant.

This year we will hear from Patti Pierce as she encourages women to “light or reignite a fire in women so they will choose to be more intentional in cooperating with God in the process of transformation”.

If you are interested please sign up by contacting Pam Brown.

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