May 1 – “On the move”

We had more people stay for discernment meeting at church yesterday than we have had in literally years.  Not that there was any kind of pressing, hot topic issues to discuss, either.  People are just really excited about what God is doing, so they want to be close at hand to be in on whatever it is he does next.  The only two issues yesterday concerned our sign and our playground equipment. 

The sign had already received a fresh coat of paint, courtesy of one of our incredibly generous members.  Our next step is to order the plastic panels and the pieces to hold them in.  I had all the figures available.  But the reason I never pulled the trigger on the order was their cost for shipping.  It amounted to well over half the cost of the items just to ship them.  That just seemed a bit exorbitant to me, so I wanted to get some feedback first.  Sure enough everyone there agreed that the cost sounded way too high.  One person even jokingly suggested that we could send someone with a pickup to the company’s factory in Florida for less than that price.  We had several volunteers on the spot.  I’ll call the company and see why shipping is so high before we continue the order.

The playground issue was actually another good thing.  Our tenants and friends in the homeschool music co-op that uses our buildings every Friday approached us about repairing or replacing our playground equipment.  There are quite a few metal pieces, and they simply don’t last in the salt air.  They have offered to join with us in a fund-raising effort to get the repairs or replacement done.  Once I presented that proposal, the Seaside folks immediately jumped into high gear.  Within ten minutes they had planned a pancake breakfast on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend to coincide with the Jamaica Janes’ bake sale.  I could barely keep up with the whirlwind of ideas that were flying about the room.  Gotta love it when people are motivated in the name of the Lord.  Can’t wait to see what the equipment looks like this summer.  And I really can’t wait to keep doing ministry with these Seasiders God has sent our way lately. 

Hebrews 4:14 says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

Father, thank you for the excitement and willingness to work among the Seasiders.  Bless their desires to serve you and their efforts.  Amen.