Busy Life and Other Stuff

Hey everyone, sorry about not posting since April. I have slacked in this area, but maybe I'll be able to get back into it a little bit.

We've started our second year of Awana and are really enjoying it. We've had around 25-35 kids each week. That's taken a lot of prep work for both Misty and I. It's been interesting trying to fit the church schedule into something that remotely looks feasible.

We're still studying John on Sunday mornings. We had our first anniversary in the book at the beginning of September and we're enjoying just taking our time and seeing how things fit together.

In personal news... we are expecting baby #4 in March. Not sure if we'll have a boy or girl at this point, ask us in a few months. ;-) We haven't done a lot of announcing about this, originally because we just wanted to see if we could keep it a secret. After that though, there have been some complications and we weren't sure a number of times if we had lost the baby. As of this past Monday though, it seems that the baby is doing extremely well. Ellie was even able to feel the baby kick.

Well, supper is about ready, so I should get going.

A View From the Pulpit

So, what does a pastor see on an average Sunday morning? Well, obviously churches differ, but this is what I see. The people that I love and care for. The people who are here to hear the Word of God spoken.

One Sunday morning we were packed. A couple had celebrated their 50th anniversary the day before and all of the family decided to join us on Sunday morning. We could barely fit any more people in. One woman asked if Iwas nervous. My response, "Yes, but not because of the number of people. I'm enough of a show-off that I enjoy being in front of people. I'm nervous because of the responsibility that I have in properly preaching the Word of God."

I love public speaking. College speech class was one of my favorite courses. I get a thrill from it. I rarely get nervous if I'm just giving a speech. However, once you add the responsibility of accurately preaching God's Word, I get nervous. It is a great responsibility that I should never take lightly. Once I do, then I am in the wrong position. God, help me never to take that responsibility lightly.

Hard Week

Have you ever had a week where you just can't get to whatever it is that needs to be done? That's pretty much how this week is going...

#1 Computer Problems
The Power Supply on my desktop went out. Hence, trying to type on my laptop slowed me down. New psu shows up and after installation, computer works, for awhile. I now find out my hard drive is going out. I'm trying to back up all of my information so it doesn't get lost. Oh fun.

#2 Adoption Process
Our home study is this week. The social worker spends a day here interviewing us. I don't mind the process, but that's most of a day that I can't work.

#3 Thursday
I don't mind Thursdays. They are perfectly wonderful days. ALL of our Bible studies happen to fall on Thursdays. I'm not quite sure how this happened. Oh well, it works. It just doesn't leave a whole lot of time to work on a sermon.

#4 Christmas
Ok, I love Christmas. As the song goes, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." This is my first Christmas as a pastor and I'm getting a glimpse of all that goes on in a church during Christmas. It's pretty cool, but time consuming.

Anyway, that's a glimpse of this week. #1 is the most frustrating, but I'm dealing with it. I enjoy computer work so I'm getting it all done. I just need to focus on other things first.

I have my sermon narrowed down for this week. We'll be studying the kenosis in Christmas. If you have no idea what that is, look it up. Studying builds character. :-) Or read Phil. 2:5-11 for an idea.

You know what, I think this is enough for today. I better get to work on this sermon.

God bless,
Parson Larson