Well it has been a long week!! But we have definitely enjoyed ourselves! I will start with how the Question and Answer night went last Saturday! Well it went really good!! lol The panel only had an hour to answer as many questions as they could. How is worked is that Caroline (David's wife) drew the questions out of a hat. During that hour they only answered 5 questions. One question was about Predestination and free will, another was can demon possess us, another one was about the Apocrypha and why we don't use it in our Bible, another was can babies be born with the Holy Spirit like John the Baptist, and the last one was can you be a christian and not speak in tongues. On the panel was Joey, Mike, and David. They pretty much agreed on everything. It was cool to listen to all their opinions though. People in the audience wanted to debate them but they decided that they wouldn't do that for times sake. They one that they disagreed the most on was the demon possession one. Mike believes that demon possession doesn't really happen. He believes it is really a mental disability. David believes that demons can be internal but can only externally attack you. Because if you say demons (fallen angels) can possess a human body, you are making angels more powerful than they actually are. So one can't actually be living inside someones body. Joey believes in possession can occur internally and externally. So this was the only question where they didn't really agree. It was a really fun night and a great fellowship!! They are already planning the next one and that will probably occur on January 15, 2011 so if you plan on coming to visit (and we hope you do!!) that might be a good time to come!!! haha :)
HOLIDAY CLUB!!!!! The Fiesta Holiday Club has come and gone! I can't believe it!! A holiday club (VBS) would go very differently back home. It is not nearly as big as one at home would be. I will let you guess how many children we had. okay well maybe I will tell you! Monday-2. Tuesday-3. Wednesday-8. Thursday-2. Friday-9! It was way more laid back too! There was like no stress at all!! It was great! Without stressing we were able to enjoy everything along with the children! We made maracas and sombreros. We watched Chadder's Adventures. We played games. We had story time with Maggie. We even had a pinata!!! We were kind of disappointed about the numbers because we advertised like crazy! But we know that God brought there who he wanted there and so we learned to just have fun with what we have!
Well now we are saying "What do we do know?" haha but I am sure soon that we will find another big project to work on! We do have Sunday School, a once a month young adult service, and a weekly Bible study that we are involved with so that should keep us pretty busy! I think we will be trying to do a Children's Christmas Special. So that will be fun!
The Thursday night Bible study has been going really well!! Joey does such a good job with them all! And they all seem to really like his teaching! I love to hear him as well! :) We have been building relationship with all the young people! They are all so brilliant! Pretty much all of them are going through hard times right now though and with most of them it is family issues. So please pray that we will be able to give them Biblical advice and that they will be able to do what is right! We love them all already!
Well we love you all and miss you!
We will write again soon!!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Oh really?
It has been a while since I wrote you all on here! I hope everyone is okay! We do miss you all very much! I really don't have a certain thing that I want to write about. I think I will just kind of write about what ever comes to my mind.
I do want to remind you that tonight (afternoon for you) will be the "Question and Answer" night. I am really excited about it. Joey is too! He is actually doing more research now for it. There are 18 questions all having to with various subjects. I will give you some examples here: "Why do the Catholics not believe in Birth Control? Where in the Bible does it say we can't use it?" "Why is there so little worship during communion at NLBC." "Is it Biblical for women to be ministers and lead a church?" one more, "Can you be a Christian and not believe in the trinity?" So these are a few of the questions. So I think tonight will be a very good night!! But I would ask that you pray because some of these questions are very important and I know that Joey is probably a little nervous.
I also would like to talk about the Holiday Club. For some reason I am very nervous about it. I am not as prepared as I would like to be. I really hope that at least one child leaves knowing more about Jesus than when they first came! We have absolutely no clue as to how many children are coming. We will just work with what we get. If there are no children at least all the adults will have fun! haha Oh this is good...Last Sunday Mike, who announces church news, said that we only had 2 volunteers signed up for the Holiday Club and he told everyone we would like more. So when we looked at the sign up sheet after church there were at least 10 names on it!!! That was such a blessing to us because we only needed about 5 or 6 people. We were very pleased with that!
I thought you might be interested in knowing some things that we have noticed living here in England that may be different from living in Alabama. Some things are the words/phrases they use.
1. taking the mic out of someone means making fun of them. (I like this one)
2. car park is a parking lot
3. a queue is a line of people (you would say it like "Q")
4. Pudding is just dessert in general.
5. "what did you have for tea?" is like "what did you have for supper?" so tea is another name for supper and they also use it for the drink too.
6. a bloke is a man
7. an advert is a commercial
Those are just a few we have noticed and we are trying to use them! haha We have noticed some other things as well. Joey and I went to the city center yesterday to meet up with Erika so that we could have tea with her and her husband Peter. When we were waiting to meet her we were just watching. I noticed a few things a little different that I haven't really seen in Alabama. One was how many different cultures we saw! I mean it was unreal! I was pretty amazed. Then I noticed something not so good. That is that there are a lot of younger girls smoking. I have talked to David about that before and he said that most men here are attracted to women who are very thin. So to keep the weight off young girls smoke. I mean I know that people at home smoke but it is just seems different here. We have also noticed another thing. When you are a Christian back home and you are looking for a mate. Generally you would look for another Christian. Well here that is definitely not the case. Christians are so few here so what Christians look for are people with morals. We asked David about this and he said that there are usually more Christian women than men. So it would not be fair to say to the women that unless they can find a Christian man then they cannot get married, because if you said that then most of them would never get married. And it is not fair to them. I found that very sad! What happens then after you marry a non-Christian? Do they quit going to church to make their mate happy? Will they skip over 2 Corinthians 6:14-15? This is hard, right? We are also learning that people here (a lot like people at home, including me and Joey) think that..."well we know that Bible says this...but times have changed and that just isn't our culture today." So do we look at the Bible and say well this is good, but this part wouldn't really work for today? We have all been taught things that is said to be in the Bible but isn't actually there. So now we are having to look and search the Bible for what is truth. One thing we hear is "if women cant be pastors, why cant they wear hats?" Which seems like a good question until you actually read that verse. Paul says to "Make up your own minds". But it makes you think about what we do at home. What do we do that's cultural but not necessarily scriptural? Of course to us, there is a line we see here, that we separates us from some. Some say a lot of issues in the bible is "cultural" where we personally draw the line and say "Its doctrine". We like the words Brother Jason use for this : "The sufficiency of Scripture" The question is do we really trust Scripture for all it is worth? So you can pray for us that we would learn more and more each day. We know that thing like this are the same at home but being away from our comforts seem to point these things out. I think we will learn more by being away from what is familiar.
Please pray for us and the Holiday Club!
We love and miss y'all!
We will write again soon!
I do want to remind you that tonight (afternoon for you) will be the "Question and Answer" night. I am really excited about it. Joey is too! He is actually doing more research now for it. There are 18 questions all having to with various subjects. I will give you some examples here: "Why do the Catholics not believe in Birth Control? Where in the Bible does it say we can't use it?" "Why is there so little worship during communion at NLBC." "Is it Biblical for women to be ministers and lead a church?" one more, "Can you be a Christian and not believe in the trinity?" So these are a few of the questions. So I think tonight will be a very good night!! But I would ask that you pray because some of these questions are very important and I know that Joey is probably a little nervous.
I also would like to talk about the Holiday Club. For some reason I am very nervous about it. I am not as prepared as I would like to be. I really hope that at least one child leaves knowing more about Jesus than when they first came! We have absolutely no clue as to how many children are coming. We will just work with what we get. If there are no children at least all the adults will have fun! haha Oh this is good...Last Sunday Mike, who announces church news, said that we only had 2 volunteers signed up for the Holiday Club and he told everyone we would like more. So when we looked at the sign up sheet after church there were at least 10 names on it!!! That was such a blessing to us because we only needed about 5 or 6 people. We were very pleased with that!
I thought you might be interested in knowing some things that we have noticed living here in England that may be different from living in Alabama. Some things are the words/phrases they use.
1. taking the mic out of someone means making fun of them. (I like this one)
2. car park is a parking lot
3. a queue is a line of people (you would say it like "Q")
4. Pudding is just dessert in general.
5. "what did you have for tea?" is like "what did you have for supper?" so tea is another name for supper and they also use it for the drink too.
6. a bloke is a man
7. an advert is a commercial
Those are just a few we have noticed and we are trying to use them! haha We have noticed some other things as well. Joey and I went to the city center yesterday to meet up with Erika so that we could have tea with her and her husband Peter. When we were waiting to meet her we were just watching. I noticed a few things a little different that I haven't really seen in Alabama. One was how many different cultures we saw! I mean it was unreal! I was pretty amazed. Then I noticed something not so good. That is that there are a lot of younger girls smoking. I have talked to David about that before and he said that most men here are attracted to women who are very thin. So to keep the weight off young girls smoke. I mean I know that people at home smoke but it is just seems different here. We have also noticed another thing. When you are a Christian back home and you are looking for a mate. Generally you would look for another Christian. Well here that is definitely not the case. Christians are so few here so what Christians look for are people with morals. We asked David about this and he said that there are usually more Christian women than men. So it would not be fair to say to the women that unless they can find a Christian man then they cannot get married, because if you said that then most of them would never get married. And it is not fair to them. I found that very sad! What happens then after you marry a non-Christian? Do they quit going to church to make their mate happy? Will they skip over 2 Corinthians 6:14-15? This is hard, right? We are also learning that people here (a lot like people at home, including me and Joey) think that..."well we know that Bible says this...but times have changed and that just isn't our culture today." So do we look at the Bible and say well this is good, but this part wouldn't really work for today? We have all been taught things that is said to be in the Bible but isn't actually there. So now we are having to look and search the Bible for what is truth. One thing we hear is "if women cant be pastors, why cant they wear hats?" Which seems like a good question until you actually read that verse. Paul says to "Make up your own minds". But it makes you think about what we do at home. What do we do that's cultural but not necessarily scriptural? Of course to us, there is a line we see here, that we separates us from some. Some say a lot of issues in the bible is "cultural" where we personally draw the line and say "Its doctrine". We like the words Brother Jason use for this : "The sufficiency of Scripture" The question is do we really trust Scripture for all it is worth? So you can pray for us that we would learn more and more each day. We know that thing like this are the same at home but being away from our comforts seem to point these things out. I think we will learn more by being away from what is familiar.
Please pray for us and the Holiday Club!
We love and miss y'all!
We will write again soon!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Convicted!
Hello everybody!!
We hope that all is well back home! We miss you all very much, but we definitely aren't ready to come home yet! haha We are still loving it here! Sunday night we had our first Convicted service. That is what we are calling the young adult service that will now occur on the first Sunday night of each month. It was really good! We ate pizza, and played a game, and Ruth played the piano and sang, and Joey spoke!! He did a really good job! There was only 8 of us there but we still had a great time! We know that there is at least one person in the group that is not a Christian. He will even tell you so. He has gone to church his whole life but still hasn't made a decision. We would has that you pray for him!! His name is Ian and he is the pastors son. This really saddens us so please pray as we try our best to reach out to him!!! Also pray for the rest of the group. Ruth, Becky S., Callum, Philip, and Kaelee. Also Becky H. and Laura will hopefully be joining us next time! So please pray for all of us!!!! Pray that we will be able to build close relationships with all of them!!
Saturday we did get to go to London! It was sooooo much fun! We got to shop in the markets and it reminded me a lot of the markets in Africa because you get to barter with the shop keepers. I am no good at that but John who took us was so funny! I think John and my dad would get along great because they both ask for a discount everywhere they go! It was brilliant! I did miss my daddy a bunch that day because John reminded me so much of him! At the markets we bought Leighton and Logan some really cute hoodies that say LONDON! I hope they like them!
So I know that we have mentioned a ton of prayer request already but I do have a few more! Please continue to pray for the holiday club! So far we only have about 4 volunteers then there is me, Joey, and Kaelee! We would like a few more! Also pray that many children would come and that we will be able to have everything planned in time! The dates are 10/25-10/29! Thank you all so much I know you all are praying for us!
We love you all!!
We hope that all is well back home! We miss you all very much, but we definitely aren't ready to come home yet! haha We are still loving it here! Sunday night we had our first Convicted service. That is what we are calling the young adult service that will now occur on the first Sunday night of each month. It was really good! We ate pizza, and played a game, and Ruth played the piano and sang, and Joey spoke!! He did a really good job! There was only 8 of us there but we still had a great time! We know that there is at least one person in the group that is not a Christian. He will even tell you so. He has gone to church his whole life but still hasn't made a decision. We would has that you pray for him!! His name is Ian and he is the pastors son. This really saddens us so please pray as we try our best to reach out to him!!! Also pray for the rest of the group. Ruth, Becky S., Callum, Philip, and Kaelee. Also Becky H. and Laura will hopefully be joining us next time! So please pray for all of us!!!! Pray that we will be able to build close relationships with all of them!!
Saturday we did get to go to London! It was sooooo much fun! We got to shop in the markets and it reminded me a lot of the markets in Africa because you get to barter with the shop keepers. I am no good at that but John who took us was so funny! I think John and my dad would get along great because they both ask for a discount everywhere they go! It was brilliant! I did miss my daddy a bunch that day because John reminded me so much of him! At the markets we bought Leighton and Logan some really cute hoodies that say LONDON! I hope they like them!
So I know that we have mentioned a ton of prayer request already but I do have a few more! Please continue to pray for the holiday club! So far we only have about 4 volunteers then there is me, Joey, and Kaelee! We would like a few more! Also pray that many children would come and that we will be able to have everything planned in time! The dates are 10/25-10/29! Thank you all so much I know you all are praying for us!
We love you all!!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Dinner Conversation
Joey, Kaelee, and I ate supper with a couple (John and Liz) from our church on Saturday. We had a great time and John is even going take us to London next Saturday!! Kaelee and I can't wait for the shopping!!! haha Anyways...I want to talk about some of the conversation we had. While we were eating John ask us some questions about what we believe. One of the first questions he asked was about a woman's role in the church. We told him that we believe that women should not be in the role of a pastor. He thought that that was really bizarre. I think he thought that we think that women are lower than men and they have no right to speak but that's not it. We think that men and women are equal but we believe that God designed them to have different roles. It is hard because we don't want to offend them, but isn't the truth sometimes offensive? I just didn't really know what to say and I was a little thrown off. I wish I would have been more prepared for something like that. After we discussed many things like this, John preceded to ask ME why I was a Christian. My heart dropped. I then just shared my testimony with him, but it just didn't seem like enough. I am beginning to see why I must search and know what I believe and why i believe it! I can't quit thinking about the conversation we had with them. I also want to make sure that the issue of a woman's role is important enough to actually talk about or not. It's hard to know what battle I should be fighting. I need the wisdom to know I should be doing! So I tell you all this because I need prayer! I am really struggling with this. There are more things that John didn't agree with about what we believe and he also thought that us being married so young was bizarre. He used that word "bizarre" a lot! So please pray that Joey and I would have the wisdom to know which battles to fight!
We love you all!!
Brooke
We love you all!!
Brooke
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