An Electrifying Success

So, our June 8th event was smashtastic! If you missed it, we DEFINITELY ate your share of the cake. Speaking of the cake, it was itself a work of art. As a collaboration between our own Ebony and the cake guy at the Jewel grocery store, it was more than we could have imagined. There's pictures below:









Plus...there were strawberries between the cake layers. Heavenly.

And the program just got better from there...even though we had a bit of a rocky start. First, we almost melted during our regular noon service because it was so hot in the sanctuary. Then, suddenly the sky darkened and let loose a nice-sized rainstorm--enough to blow the electricity out. We'd have gotten upset, except that the rain and darkness cooled us off enough to stop sweating to death. So we opted not to complain. A few hours later, the power came back on and we got started (albeit a tad late) on our special anniversary worship service.

There was singing and singing and more wonderful singing! We had our own specially designed coloring and activity sheet (created by Ebony as well) for the young and young at heart. We had testimonies and faith statements from members about how God brought them to Family of Hope and new ministries we are starting these days. (More about that later...) And Shaun Marshall preached his whole face off. It was fantastic.

Of course a key purpose for this event was giving God praise and asking for God's power to take our ministry to the next level by trying some new things. Here are some of the new things we'd like to try. Would you please pray with us about these?

• a pre-teen boys sports ministry: bringing boys to Christ and maturity through sports and mentorship
• a teen girls discussion group: helping girls recognize their God-given worth and abilities through mentoring and discussion groups held at the local high school and at Family of Hope.
• a women's group: bringing women together for recreation and networking around relevant issues, i.e. family, work, immigration, etc.
• a men's group: making a space for men to share and build friendships that promote community and growth
• a media plan: building a strategy to increase the presence of Family of Hope and its ministries throughout Blue Island and surrounding areas
• a career ministry: helping equip people to better search for, interview for, and prepare for jobs and career changes.
  
• counseling: pre-marital, individual, etc.

There's more, but feel free to share the thoughts and prayers you have so far. In fact, I think I'll make a new post for that right now...

-Pastor Ayanna