1. I took a few days off this past week and took my family to Great Wolf Lodge. We had a great time celebrating Williams first birthday. We also drove down to see my family in Harrisburg and enjoyed just hanging out with them. My dad made homemade pasta, bread, butter (yes, he churned his own butter ... I know), apple cider, cinnamon rolls and sticky buns and more. I gained a few pounds : (
2. I got the weekend off from preaching - the first one in 17 weeks! Pastor Brad, our new executive pastor, spoke for me and did a great job. You can hear his message on "The Family That God Blesses" here. It should be posted by Monday afternoon.
3. Since I didn't have to preach this past weekend I did a lot of thinking and planning for 2011. I've got my preaching calendar lined out through Easter and I also did some major work on the 2011 budget too. I'm so excited about the vision God is given me and PCC for the next year of ministry.
4. Instead of going to PCC this Sunday, me and friend went to Liquid Church in Morristown, NJ. The founding and lead pastor, Tim Lucas, is a good friend. He is doing an amazing job building a great church that is reaching tons of lost people for Jesus. I learned a ton from Tim and Liquid today and look forward to synthesizing some of those learnings into the culture and flow of PCC.
5. I'm headed to NYC tonight to leave for Haiti early in the morning. It's a vision trip with my friend and founder of Convoy of Hope International, Hal Donaldson. Convoy is an international disaster relief and compassion organization. They feeds thousands of children all over the world, including over 40,000 kids per day in Haiti alone. I'll be visiting their feeding programs as well as the new distribution warehouse that is currently under construction. This new facility will enable Convoy to feed almost 80,000 kids per day by this time next year. Please pray for my safe journey to Haiti.
6. I'm totally excited about the Thanksgiving Outreach this week to need families in the Pocono Mountains. We are reaching out to 100 families in our community and providing them with a full course Thanksgiving Meal.
7. This weekend at PCC we will be participating in the special One Day to Feed the World offering. We are encouraging all PCCers to give one-day's pay to help feed needy children through the Convoy of Hope feeding programs. Please pray that that God will move on our congregations heart to birth a spirit of generosity the likes of which we have never seen before.
8. This weekend my good friend, Michael M., will be speaking at PCC. He was a former assassin with the IRA in Ireland. Now he has given his life to Jesus Christ and he has become a missionary serving all throughout Europe, working closely with Convoy of Hope outreaches. You don't want to miss this amazing story of redemption and life-change.
