FATHER'S DAY, CONCERT AND VISITORS!

If I had been thinking clearer I should have taken a picture of our Pastor's family to post here but I got sidetracked. How wonderful that their son and daughter in law and children were able to come to celebrate this past Father's Day. Even more special to hear another grandchild on the way!

Pastor Jim spoke on "The Father's Hand" today, sharing thoughts and scripture regarding the hand of God and the many ways that our Heavenly Father uses His holy hands. His sermon caused us to think about the many ways hands tend to almost all our needs. A few lingering thoughts remain in my mind - a father's hands are gentle yet firm, they direct us, protect us and provide for us. A father's hand is the hand of a husband, as he offers himself to his bride.

Scripture shared today included:

Psalm 8:6 (New King James Version)

⁶ You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,

Ephesians 5:25-27 (New King James Version)

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, ²⁶ that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Luke 23:33-34 (New King James Version)

³³ And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. ³⁴ Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”^[a]
And they divided His garments and cast lots.

Isaiah 49:16 (New Living Translation)

¹⁶ See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.
Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.

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Quick on the 'Draw'

Hmmmm, us women were blessed with roses for Mother's Day - and we are not complaining at all. We are truly impressed that the men not only REMEMBER to honour us, but that they go the extra mile by preparing the flowers and giving them out to us. {can we safely assume that Jim's wife Elaine has some gentle reminders as well? LOL!} Anyways, I must admit a twinge of something seeing this way nice gift the men raffled off. What - do you think that all them roses might compute into something like a fancy waffle iron or some such thing for the kitchen? And how do they not think we women might fancy ourselves something like this saw. It DOES look fun and useful.

At any rate, what a wonderful way to celebrate - by raffling off this highly useful tool to the Dads - and the lucky winner was Ken Johnson. I think his wife Rose is thinking trimming shrubbery and such but only God knows what Ken is thinking. He he!

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Penny Buhr Johnson

This is the week of our concert featuring Penny Buhr Johnson! We are truly looking forward to joining her as she uses her musical talent to bring glory to the Lord. Penny has a rich style which blends country and gospel. She's also a recorded artist and has reaped rewards in the industry. Her concert starts at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, June 24th at Osoyoos Christian Centre. We will provide dessert and beverages. There is no charge for the concert though there will be a free will offering.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time and funds to make this concert happen.

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We had many visitors this past Sunday, so nice to see the sanctuary filled with new faces. I always love finding out where folks are coming from and going to, and ask them to share a little bit about themselves.

This week I spent a few minutes getting to know these lovely ladies - Melodie, Sarah and Emilie, sisters visiting here from Quebec. Their father was certainly blessed with three lovely and charming daughters. The girls have left a message for YOU to listen to - just click the following picture below of them to be taken to an MP3 audio file which you can listen to by simply clicking on the file!

Thank you for visiting our Church and we will be praying for you as you travel and that you find jobs soon. We have many people come to our area to find jobs picking produce. Won't you pray for a hand of protection on them as they are in our area, and that they would find they are welcomed here!

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PRAISE REPORT:

Paula: God has done a miracle healing on her life!

Turns out our church parking lot does not require quite as much of an overhaul as we originally projected so now some of the funds collected have already been applied to a fund for a new roof.

Cost of roof: $6000

Collected to date: $1550

Feel free to contribute if you have a windfall *wink*

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PRAYER REQUESTS

Dave & his family - unnamed prayer request

Nathan - healing for his back injury

Keremeos Church - new Pastor, Jason Weibe.

Florence's brother Dave - healing from his cancer

Judy's mom - double mastectomy

RCMP, border security, ambulance peremedics and soldiers. Shirley's son is in the forces abroad, expected home in the near future. Please pray he is brought home safe, and for safety for the soldiers still out there protecting the innocent and fighting for our freedom.

marriages - pray for families under attack by the devil.

District leadership - the people God has allowed to represent our area.

Government - pray for level heads to prevail, that the parties will work for the good of the public and avoid a general election over the summer.

Global poverty. 1 in 6. Thats the number of how many people are starving on our earth. Pretty humbling. So many of us are trying to LOSE weight. Please for God to open the doors to our nations to be able to provide food and THE GOSPEL to those in need.

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Please email me at lalalime {at} hotmail [dot} com if you have a poem, photo, scripture or something you would like to share here on our Women's blog!

Next week I'll be posting a beautiful poem called "The Rainbow" submitted by guest Ruth Robic. We will also have photos of Penny's concert as well as some possible music clips of the fun event.

The women of OCC meet on Wednesday evenings on MSN messenger for a 'chat' and prayer time from 7 to 8 pm. If you would like to join in please send me an email with your msn username and I'll add you!