August 2005

Hello All,

"1Hallelujah! Thank GOD! Pray to him by name! Tell everyone you meet what he has done!
2Sing him songs, belt out hymns, translate his wonders into music!
3Honor his holy name with Hallelujahs, you who seek GOD. Live a happy life!
4Keep your eyes open for GOD, watch for his works; be alert for signs of his presence.
5Remember the world of wonders he has made, his miracles, and the verdicts he's rendered--
6O seed of Abraham, his servant, O child of Jacob, his chosen.
7He's GOD, our God, in charge of the whole earth." (Psalm 105:1-7, The Message)

It was not long ago that the youth group painted their room and we took out all of the table and hard metal folding chairs. For several months we sat on a rather hard floor, thankful that we had a room to call our own. Then in May we received a donation from the proceeds of the rummage sale. Diane and I started to look for furniture. We knew we needed at least a couple of sofas and chairs. Praise God. In the past month we have found some wonderful deals. It all started with trips to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and Stuff. The first piece we found was a beautiful chair at Goodwill for $60. After we got it to the church I kiddingly told Diane we probably could have sold the chair at stuff for a few hundred dollars. A week later we were cruising around Cedar Rapids and Marion still looking. We ended up at Stuff and found a really nice sofa with recliners at each end. Then we looked at the price tag, $300. Being the thrifty shoppers that we are, we decided that it was too much to spend. God had other ideas. We had just agreed that it was too much to spend when a lady came over the loudspeaker and said, “Welcome Stuff shoppers to our semi-annual 50% off sale.” We bought the couch. The very next week (seeing a trend here?) we were on our way to Lindale Mall, cars were all around us and Diane looked up and saw “Up to 70% off all clearance furniture” on the K’s Merchandise sign. Diane asked if we should look and I said why not. She looked in the mirror to see if she could get over the two lanes that it would take to make the turn. Remember all those cars, they were gone. We made the turn. As Diane parked the car she looked at me and said, “You know we are going to find something in here, we drove the car.” If we found something it would be the third week in a row, it would also be the third week in a row that we were driving the car when we were out looking. We made our way back to the clearance section and there it was, a beautiful new sofa, original price $550. It had been marked down to $299, then $270, and finally was at $200. We asked Karissa to sit on the sofa while we found a sales person; we were buying that sofa. When the salesman looked at the price tag he was amazed, they had knocked the price down to cost. He told us that they were selling as much as possible to make room for new sectionals that were coming in. We now had enough furniture, or so we thought.

The Wednesday after we bought the final sofa we had movie night. We had to get extra chairs for everyone to sit on. Were we disappointed about this, absolutely not! This was awesome; we did not have enough places to sit. We should soon be receiving the wonderful gift of a futon to add more seating, but we could still use more. If you have a chair, sofa, love seat, or futon that you would like to donate, please let us know, we pick-up! We are also in need of a couple of coffee tables, end tables, and lamps.

Movie night was such a success that it is now a permanent night once a month. The third Wednesday of every month has been designated as movie night. The next one is on August 17th from 5:30 – 7:30 P.M. and we plan on showing “Because of Winn-Dixie.” This would be great night to invite friends. Let’s see how many chairs we need to bring in to the room this time. In upcoming meetings we will be discussing a possible name change for the youth group, fund raising ideas, mission trip destinations, possible youth conferences to attend, a fun trip next summer (like Lost Island, Adventureland, etc.), and many other things.

As we close for this month we want to extend a warm heartfelt thank you to the rummage sale as the donation that was received has paid for all of the furniture that we have bought so far.

Because of Him,

Terry and Diane

Praise be to God!
Praise be to God our Father in Heaven for the wonders that we see and those that we do not see. Rejoice in all that He has done, is doing, and will do. Without our Lord we would be lost in this world. That you Lord for our families, our friends, our schools, our jobs, the men and women that serve our country so that we can have freedom of religion, and most of all thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

“2GOD is my strength, GOD is my song, and, yes! GOD is my salvation. This is the kind of God I have and I'm telling the world! This is the God of my father--I'm spreading the news far and wide!” (Exodus 15:2, The Message)