Blown away

The day after we do baptism it is always hard for me to describe how I feel about this church and what God is doing here. The best thing I can tell you is to come see for yourself. No matter how I describe yesterday's celebration the words won't do it justice. Nothing gets me more excited than seeing adults and kids make a public statement about how Jesus has changed their lives. If you couldn't be there last night, we will be scheduling another baptism for September that you will not want to miss!

At the risk of leaving some important people out, let me thank some folks for the hard work they put in to make last night's party a reality:

Springwell Church - for letting us borrow their portable baptistry. Springwell is a church that is only interested in building the Kingdom of God. They are not selfish with any of the resources God has blessed them with. I pray we will always have that same attitude.

Lisa Varn - for organizing all of the food. Lisa took care of the catering with Bucky's BBQ (which was awesome), getting people to bring desserts, and recruiting people to help set-up and serve. Lisa does this for every baptism celebration and I never have to worry if it will be taken care of. If you ate too much last night and loved every minute of it be sure to thank Lisa!

Chad Roddy and Mark Sears - for taking care of the sound. The best part about working with these two guys is their attitude. Both of them are concerned first and foremost with how they can help. Their positive outlook made the technical part of last night's party a breeze.

Blake Comer - for volunteering to try out the baptistry. Before everyone arrived Blake allowed us to "baptize" him so we could be sure the water level and temperature were right in the baptistry. Too bad Blake's parents couldn't be there to see it.

Various volunteers - for filling in the gaps. So many of you just pitched in and helped when you arrived. Whether it was taking trash to the dumpster, setting up tents, helping serve, keeping track of kids, or greeting people as they arrived here's a list of people I saw helping out in various ways: Mark Wilson, Trey Frick, Randy Price, Mark King, Phil Hannah, Lin Raffaldt, Phil Smith, Jason Collins, Steve & Debbie Bateman, Laura Beth Comer, Seth Kauffman, and many more.
If you helped out and I didn't list your name, please forgive me. I'm certain lots of you were serving in ways that I didn't even know about. That's one thing that makes Freedom such an amazing church to be a part of, people pitch in to get the job done without having to be asked or recognized.

As I said earlier we will have another baptism in September because we have four people who couldn't participate last night. Until then, take every opportunity to tell your friends about the true freedom they can only find in Jesus!