I was really touched by Nathan’s sharing yesterday, on the part 3 video of the grumpy old men talk show (to be posted soon on gracepointvideo.org), when he said that he has about 700 aunties and uncles who love him and take care of him. Johnny also said he has about 100 uncles if you didn’t catch his answer.
But as I sat there watching and laughing at the various Thanksgiving Celebration acts, I thought, “How true!” Our church family, as we get bigger and bigger, still has that down-home in-house family kind of feel that is so rare, that even the youngest of our children pick up on it. And this past weekend, we were able to share that with over 1100 people who attended our service!
In case you are suffering from sensory overload, I wanted to recap some of the highlights from yesterday.
- The hymn “There is a Fountain” with the various sharings on why people are thankful for their salvation from the Thanksgiving Dare blog. The hymn was written by William Cowper after he recovered from a temporary mental illness and he came to realize how God can erase the stain of any sin. Thus those powerful words, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”
- The 3rd installment of the Grumpy Old men talk show with interviews from our very own whippersnappers! So cute, so precious their sharing.
- The message on the transforming power of gratitude prepared Saturday day and night so that it would be fresh out of the oven (like our turkeys, hams and roasts were). How gratitude infuses you with energy and washes the toxins in your heart away and makes you feel like you can do it all over again. How gratitude is truth acknowledged, and how gratitude expressed has the power to transform any situation into a personal relationship-forming moment as you express the truth of what is going on. And how blessings are received only through gratitude expressed, and that this is just one way we can relate to our Heavenly Father, through thanking Him! Thank you Pastor Ed for your powerful messages!
- The recorded sharings from the Thanksgiving Dare blog, played after each stanza of “For the Beauty of the Earth,” sung by our praise band, some of the sharings recorded at 12:55pm right before the service, that gave voice to the gratitude that we feel in our hearts for all the blessing God has showered us with. Thank you Sunny for sharing all the way from Austin! It was good to hear your voice! And thank you Kelly for the thought and planning that goes into not just this special service, but each Sunday service we experience.
Well, that’s just a bit from the service itself, not recounting the stuff that went on before and after, and the nights before, but I’ll let the pictures tell the story there!
Thank you for this sharing! I’m so thankful for the Thanksgiving Dare message series and for the messages that we heard each week from the Grumpy Old Men
Thank you for the breakdown of all that we experienced during the thanksgiving service. i am so thankful for the 700 brothers and sisters and for the opportunities to have all these younger ones to love.
Also thank you specifically to Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang who takes all the time to think about different ways to create such a special service and memorable ways to worship and thank God for all He has done in our lives.
Thank you!
wow. thanks for doing this. i just found this entry today!
Thank you for recapping the Thanksgiving Service & Celebration. If God’s taught me one thing this year, it has been gratitude. As Nathan so innocently shared, we have 700+ brothers and sisters in Christ to love and to grow together with. I have a God-centered, church-planting, communal body of Christ that I call myself a member of. We have God’s good work to do. What have I done to deserve any of this? Nothing! Truly, God has spared no blessings on his people and I forever grateful!