Mother's Day Blessings

Greetings!
Although chilly, the sun is shining and God's love is abounding! I sincerely hope that all the moms are having a blessed day, knowing the abundant love you have for your children is just a sliver of the love God has for us all. Amazing Grace, Amazing Love - WOW!

New Day's 2nd Preview Service this morning was uplifting, joyful, full of spirit, fun and meaning! Rejoice and Praise! It seemed that the small (35) but significant congregation were touched by God; and Jim and I certainly felt the humble joy of sharing just a bit of His grace today. It was a one-man band, as Jim lead praise songs on his guitar; other music came from CD's. The borrowed projector and screen worked perfectly and the untrained amateur running it, (me!) managed to get most of the slides up when needed! Jim had the congregation create a bouquet of "tributes to mom" - each person was given a carnation when they arrived and then were asked to come forward and share a sentence or two about their moms and place the flower in a vase. The words spoken were so wonderful; a precious time of sharing. Jim's message was about doubt (scripture from John about Thomas), and he had interaction with some of the congregation and visual aids that kept everyone engaged. The service ended with communion and the smiles that carried out the door warmed my heart!

I've put pictures on the website (http://www.newday-umc.org/) - many thanks to Karla Vieau for some great shots!

Next worship will be Sunday, June 14, 10:45.

We'll be starting two small group classes in two weeks (Bible Basics and Discovering Your Spirituality Type). Please pray for people to attend and for meaning to be found in these small groups.

The "call" for the grant money to be provided by the United Methodist Metro-West Builders Assoc. was mailed out last week. Please pray for those folks who are receiving the brochure to be generous. To be ready for full launch by September, New Day has some very significant needs which we're praying this "connectional ministry" will help provide.

As always, your support and prayers are such huge blessings to us and this new, young community. Bless you all!

With much love,
Janet :->

Come Grow with Big Lake's Newest Church Plant!

(from the Pastor's wife, Janet)

Jim and I and two of our launch team handed out about 400 little planting kits yesterday at the Big Lake Expo! The best news is that about 170 registered for the drawings for the prizes and of those, 31 requested more information or were interested in keeping updated with New Day's progress!! Yeah!! This Expo is the first event that Jim and I volunteered at a year ago (when we didn't know anyone and were just getting started), and it was heartening to be back this year and recognize so many people.

The other really fun thing that happened last week was a call from a young couple (engaged) who we had met at one of the picnics last fall. They have been wanting to get connected, but just hadn't taken the time to contact us. They came to the class we held THAT NIGHT (Discovering Your Spirituality Type)!! I thought it was pretty brave of them to come to our home, entering a group of unknown people in a class that had already begun (this was the 2nd in a series of 6)!! The group is a mix of ages, but it warmed my heart to see the younger couples so open and excited to grow in their faith and connect with others on this journey. It reminded me so much of Jim and I in our early years and I pray that these folks will be blessed with experiences to build relationships like we had, that have sustained and nurtured us throughout our journey.

I have been pretty much totally focused on getting the website built this past week or more. What a job! Please visit and send your feedback: http://www.newday-umc.org/. I am so grateful to niece Kristi for sending the proper format of the logo (3 times, since I couldn't make up my mind which version was best!!) and to son Scott for technical support via phone and helping improve the first draft IMMENSELY!! It is a work in progress - we'll be tweaking and changing things as time goes on, but for now at least we have something! Let me know especially how your computers handle the links, etc. - or if there are any problems you have getting into anything...

Please pray for our next community event to be held at the new church, Sat. March 28. It's a family planting time - families will plant flower seeds to take home, to share with the community and to decorate the gardens at the new church! Music and story-time included. It should be fun! Also, prayers for the 1st preview worship service -- an Easter Eve Vigil. You are all welcome to join us - Sat. April 11, 7:00pm. Jim will be starting to really focus on getting this together. May God's spirit guide all the preparations and our hearts...