Christmas
We spent Christmas just the five of us at the new house. I thought it was going to be fantastic until I realized how quiet it was on Christmas Eve. I fixed our Christmas dinner on the Eve of, so we returned from service, sat down for dinner and it was just strange. So quiet and, well, normal. Just another night except a fancy dinner, really.
Christmas Eve service was nice and the kids sat through it with us just fine.
After Christmas we had a stream of visitors which was great. I loved the noise in the house and the extra people. And, as a bonus, I had done most of my cooking in the days before so I didn't have to spend much time over the stove.
Back to church
Trent met with the Pastor of the church we have been attending the other morning. It was great and I'm glad he did it. Pastor Dan mentioned coffee to Trent after the annual business meeting (budget, etc) he attended in which Trent was probably the only person in attendance who was not on staff or an elder. Obviously not a high priority in the church at this point.
So Trent took him up on the offer and they met a few mornings ago. Trent was really encouraged afterwards about several items.
Trent and I had discussed approaching the church to see if we can get some more small groups going. They do have some in the church but it's not a priority at this point. We were thinking we could start writing sermon questions and distribute them to other groups who would like to use them. To that Pastor said 'sure, when do you want to start?'. Gulp. Give us a month. There are several other items they discussed such as membership, music, missions, the history of the church, etc. and of course, the LDS population.
Apparently the ward that we did Christmas caroling with has a good relationship with our church. Last year they did the Christmas caroling and it was the same bishop in charge at the LDS church. Pastor Dan said there was a marked difference in his message from last year to this as was his prayer. Dan and the bishop have built a relationship over the last few years and Bible reading has been discussed a lot. So much that the bishop made it a priority to start reading the Bible with his family every day. Not the Book of Mormon. It made such a difference in his life that he is encouraging his entire ward to read the Bible every day!
Another thing that has happened at our church is there is a good homeschooling population. The Mormons have a lot that homeschool too, but no building in which to meet as a group. They petitioned their bishop (not sure which ward this is) to use their building during the week and the bishop said no. So, our church invited them to join us at our church during the week. Now the Mormon homeschoolers in that area come to our church to meet in a group. Cool!
Work and Home
Trent has one guy that works for him that announced he was going to start going to Calvary Chapel instead of the Mormon church. Trent is excited for him but sad that his wife won't go with him. So, that is a prayer for us to take to the Lord.
I'm trying to stay in contact with the neighbors. Which is easy because most of them are retired. But, I am supposed to have breakfast tomorrow with the new neighbors who just moved in at Thanksgiving time. They moved to IF last year from Germany. I'm excited to hear her story tomorrow and meet their kids. They have four kids ages 7, 5, 3, and 8 months. Sounds almost familiar.
Oh, and it's bloody cold here . . . . .
