Monday, November 22, 2010

OCC Weekly Recap, Events, Encouragement and a GIFT!



What an exciting time at Osoyoos Christian Centre - funny how everything outdoors is edging toward a time of hibernation while inside things are heating up.


Our church family, and extended church family of Park Drive Church from Oliver connected with us to do a little sprucing (or on second thought I might say "cedar-ing") up around our building. A small bobcat arrived on Saturday, along with some helping hands and even though the temperatures had plummeted severely and there was a bitter wind blowing everyone pitched in to begin the arduous task of taking out some of the cedar trees outside as there have been some which were sickly (and eye-sores) Here are some of the photos of the action on the outside. Does'nt Pastor Bart (Park Drive) look like he's actually ENJOYING this machine?





And while the outside was being looked after, there was some 'elbow grease' being lavished on the inside! There really is something special when we labour together, we come together as a family. We accomplished much - but even with all that was done Sunday night - in the dark DARK cold night (we are talking - 10 c) if you were to drive by Osoyoos Christian Centre you would have been witness to a group of zealous, passionate, energetic men STILL working with the bobcat and the cedar trees! No kidding, now thats impressive.


Thank you to all who helped. We will schedule another Work Bee in the future - stay tuned!


*******


Thank you to the Away Team (Praise and Worship) from Park Drive who annointed us with music ministry. Its always amazing how the music they choose works to enhance the message delivered, even when they are unaware at the time they choose their songs. Pastor Joseph delivered another segment of "Chaos to Destiny"

*******


Shirley shared a word from the congregation how she has been aware of the thought that we are to LOVE DEEPLY - as in the following scripture:


I Peter 1:22

Now that you have purified yourselves
by obeying the truth
so that you have sincere love for each other
love one another deeply
from the heart.


As this is our women's blog this scripture resounded within me and I thought to share it with you who could not be with us to hear it. I liked how Shirley said we need to look at one another with eyes of love - eyes that are able to find the good in each other. In this same strain I came across this scripture, which if we love deeply, this is an action of that love:


Galatians 6:2 (RSV)
Bear one another's burdens.


This sort of love removes the judgement from our vision - often the judgement of familiarity, when we seem the same faces all of the time. We must gaurd ourselves from this. Which leads to this quote I found as well.


Do not think that love,
in order to be genuine,
has to be extraordinary.
What we need is to love without getting tired.

~ Mother Teresa


And as our church moves forward, Pastor Joseph reminded us, what would it matter if our church became a "big success" if we don't grow together as a family? This week, when you find yourself with a few free moments, why not reach out to your church family via phone, email etc?


*******


EVENTS:


Thursday Prayer at Kaye's
Time: 10:30 a.m.


Friday night Open Worship
Time: 7:30 p.m. @ OCC
Bring a friend!



And speaking of events, its always wonderful to support the other churches in our community! I was sent this announcement for a fund-raising event for the Baptist Church. Lets come out and support this worthwhile ministry"


Garage Sale
Osoyoos Baptist Church (downstairs)
6210 Hwy 97
November 26th (friday) and 27th (saturday)
Time: 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
All proceeds to support the Community Christmas Dinner and Alfredo and Amalia Sommer's Ministry in Argentina.


*******
We need your BAKING!


Our church would like to be able to meet the needs of anyone who should come hungry to our door. What we need are tinned soups, tuna, salmon, dried soups and HOME MADE baking. When I say home made baking, it would be nice to have a few lasagnes in our freezer and things like cookies so that if we need to warm something up quickly its there. So, if you feel you would like to contribute it would be much appreciated!


*******


Lastly - I wanted to give something away here on our blog - a small way to say thank you to those of you who visit and support our blog. So, as one of my gifts is working with graphics, I've created this Christmas Ornament which you are free to use for whatever purpose you would like. I'm hoping it might suit some of your needs for PowerPoint Presentations etc. You are free to use it in any way you like but if you include it in a digital scrapbooking kit for resale or anything like that, I ask that you would give credit to me - Barb Derksen.


This ornament is a PNG file, meaning it has a transparent background. Just right click on the picture and choose "save as" It is aproximately 6 inches in size (I still don't think in metric) and is 300 dpi (dots per inch) - meaning its very high quality and can be easily resized.



Blessings ~


Barb Derksen behalf OCC Women









No comments: