March 2, 2009

Congratulations to Whitney Gonyea on winning the Bear Idol title at Mt. Juliet High School last week. Bear Idol is a talent competition based on the American Idol format. Whitney is a junior at MJHS. Alex Odom, a senior at MJHS, made it to the top five.

I know it sounds crazy but did you know that Daylight Savings Time starts this Sunday, March 8, 2009, at 2:00 AM? That means that when you retire to bed this Saturday evening, you need to set your clocks FORWARD one hour. Yes, it is time to lose an hour so that we can be awake in more daylight. Yes, this Sunday!

Room-in-the-Inn returned to HCN on Saturday evening with the New Life Sunday School Class serving as host/hostess. Ten men without a place to sleep or eat were transported to your church facilities where they were fed a hot meal for dinner; given opportunity to shower and wash their clothes; provided a place to sleep that was warm and dry; fed breakfast and given a sack lunch to take with them back to the city. Servants were Kendell, Tammy, Bryce Poole; Scott and Janet Moore; Mike, Darlene, Corey Miranne; Suzanne Karr; Valerie Marsh; Aaron, Julie, Caleb, Lydia, Ethan, Elizabeth Foster; Mark, Carolyn, Bret Washing; Alan and Angie Elkins; Troy Haydel; Greg Trotter; Howard Barrett; Sheri Render; Judy, Brent, Christi Fite; Paige Abernathy; Wayne McNeese; Jody Sweeten; Rob Mathias; Tony Dozier; Ed Gonyea; Scott Perkins.

Pastor Ken Jewett and University Students have served the Monday evening meal and the Tuesday lunch meal for several months at the Nashville Rescue Mission. When mission leaders found out most of the group included ministerial students, they asked if they would be willing to lead an evening service. So, on Sunday, March 1, 2009, the following students and Ken led the service with sixty to seventy men present: Hayley Hill, Elissa Olds, Mandy Goon, Tyler Greene, Daniel Smith, Derek Brinkman, Jake Resor, J.T. Blue, David Tigabu.

Joel Thimell is the owner/operator of City Wraps Café in the Arcade in downtown Nashville. Joel’s beautiful and sweet wife, Alicia, died in January 2008, leaving Joel as a single parent to two daughters, Rachel and Bethany. He is now the sole provider and caretaker of his family. I asked Joel weeks ago how business was going and he told me that even regular customers were cutting back. The pastoral staff team visited City Wraps Café last Monday for lunch and every one of us was sad that we could only try one wrap on the menu. Wraps are made from meat cooked whole and on site. Three different soups are cooked from scratch each day. The café is open only for lunch, Monday through Friday. If you are near the Arcade (4^th Avenue North), at lunchtime soon, find City Wraps. I highly recommend the menu and quality of the food. I like supporting a man who is working hard to raise his family.

Thanks to the team which filled the gap in Pastor Ronnie Thompson’s absence last Sunday from Livewire Worship: Rodney Neighbors, Ginger Pilarski, K.C. Van Atta, Brad Thompson.

Thanks to Daniel Smith, Jake Resor, and Hunter Steinmetz for reading lectionary scriptures on the first Sunday of Lent in first service.

Two heads are always better than one and especially if Rondy Smith’s head is the one you add. Rondy suggested some changes to the meetings I wrote about last week with Kenyan Pastor Nicholas Kisua. I agree that her suggestions are better. Therefore,

• MissionAfrica’08 Team meets with Pastor Kisua and Ben on Saturday, March 21, 2009, at 5:00 PM in the Parlor with a potluck meal and a time of reunion.
• MissionAfrica’10 Team meets with Pastor Kisua and Ben on Sunday, March 22, 2009, at 6:00 PM in the Sanctuary. If you are thinking about participating in the June 2010 trip to Kenya, you are a member of the team.

I looked at your faces last Wednesday night as we gathered in the Sanctuary and I think I recognized the look of people who were excited to begin a trip, to take a journey. The season of Lent is exactly that: a purposeful, thoughtful journey to Easter Sunday. In the process, we mark our foreheads with ashes and decide the something we will deny ourselves and the something we will do for forty days as we identify ourselves with Christ. The stories I told in services on Sunday have provoked more of you to tell me of your experience on Wednesday night. You make me weep. I am so glad to be traveling with you.

In Christ Jesus,

Pastor Howard