After Day 55

It's been a while since we have checked in with our blog work.  That's because we have been very busy and loving it.  Let's catch up, huh? ;)

Our three musical events in three days went better than we even could have predicted.  Pewaukee was a great location to lead worship.  From the way the people talked to us after church, we surpassed their expectations.  We love when that happens. 

Our trip then took us to Wisconsin Rapids for two services on Sunday morning.  Both went very well.  Again, we were blessed with a lot of positive comments.  We did had a few comments that weren't thrilled with our work, and we regret that we can't please everyone.  We just hope that we can educate people on the benefit of changing the style of music that accompanies hymns.  It's always a learning process and we are thankful for the criticism as well as the praise.  It keeps us humble, focused on Jesus, and always improving.  We had the chance to do our hymn study between services, which is always fun for us.

We then headed to Grace in Ridgeway, MN for our first concert of the summer.  We were confident that we were musically prepared, but it's always intimidating trying something for the first time.  However, God brought us through it, and he blessed us and the congregation through the words of the hymns.  Grace received us very well and we definitely enjoy our time there both playing hymns and interacting with the members.

Next was Arlington for our second week there.  This was a soccer camp prep week.  We were getting a little nervous with only 11 kids signed up by the deadline that we had set (July 1).  But God once again reminded us that his timetable is different than ours and that we should just trust him to take care of us and bless what we are doing.  As of right now, we have expanded that number to 22 with a couple others still on the way.  Our first goal was to get at least 20 kids...way to go, God! ;)  We will keep praying that he expands those numbers so more kids can be told about Jesus through soccer camp.  Our lofty (but achievable for God) goal is to have 40 kids.  We believe that God can bless us with those numbers.  Please, take a moment now, stop reading this blog, and ask God to bless Soccer Camp in Arlington.

This past week has been our first in Black Creek, WI with Immanuel.  Pastor Steve has been absolutely wonderful in planning a lot of work for us to do.  One thing that we all appreciated were daily morning meetings for Bible study.  We all grew in faith and knowledge of God's love for us.  We studied humility, patience, contentment, and love in those studies.  We have planned a great deal of the VBS material that we will be presenting in a few weeks.  We spent four days canvassing various parts of Black Creek and Shiocton, WI.  We created a prospect list of interest in the new child care facility on Immanuel's property and in the church.  Pastor Steve even took us out to see The Amazing Spiderman.  Definitely worth seeing. :)  Obviously, canvassing tends to produce a lot of "no's," but God has blessed each of us at different times in canvassing as his will permits with great conversations or interest in the church and childcare facility.  We are praying that the Holy Spirit begins working faith in the hearts of the people we invited to church either by bringing them on Sunday, through meeting Pastor Steve and John (the childcare director), or by whatever means he sees fitting.

After worship tomorrow, we have a concert in La Crosse at First Lutheran at 6:30pm (if you're in the area).  We are really looking forward to this opportunity to play there.  After the concert, we continue our drive, ending in Mankato.  VBS starts Monday...oh boy!  It's going to be a quick turnaround, but we know that God will take care of us and continue to bless us.  Pray for us, please. :)

"Your grace is enough for me.  Heaven reaching down to earth, I'm covered in your love.  Your grace is enough for me."