What an afternoon yesterday was around the Thornton house! Our oldest daughter, Rosie, was doing her final packing for her mission trip to Haiti and we were preparing to get in the car to drive to Baltimore for her to join her mission team. Meanwhile my wife was online looking for information from an airline and searching for some Creole phrases, the language in Haiti, that Rosie could know for simple conversation. In the process, my wife came across news of a Travel Warning issued April 30, 2008, that had been issued by the United States Department of State. It advised Americans to defer non-essential travel to Haiti until further notice because the conditions that led to civil unrest a month ago had not been entirely resolved. She showed me the information online and I read it all several times. Fourteen kidnappings of Americans so far this year marked by deaths, brutal physical and sexual assault, and shooting of Americans. It read that there is a limited capability of local law en...
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This past weekend Spirit Force , a drama ministry from Messiah College, shared a musical drama at all three of our worship services at Friendship Community Church. It was something to not only watch it but to see and hear the responses of people who were in the audience. The drama was all about grace. Of course grace only means something if you have lived without it, as the husband/father/alcoholic did. The stresses he put on his family were so real that the rawness of it was felt by many, and had been experienced by at least some present. To say the least, the presentation was a grabber that reached in and pulled out emotion from the viewer even if you hadn't experienced all that family trauma yourself. I'm thinking that's because all of us have experienced some distance from God and difficulties with people at some time in our lives, or at least known others who would admit to that. At each of the performaces I put visual images from the computer onto the screen and...
This week I had the opportunity to see someone that I have been mentoring for five years achieve quite an accomplishment. Tracey Utermahlen--busy wife, mom, grandmother, full-time employee, volunteer...and now ordained Pastor (and really so much busier than even all of this). What a joy to see her stand in front of the hundreds attending the ordination service and receive her ordination certificate and her new Bible, her authority for ministry. For five years she has taken classes through Winebrenner Seminary and served faithfully as a volunteer at Friendship Community Church. Just last year she became a licensed Pastor and came on board the church staff officially. Tracey is quite the fun person and is so gifted and caring. Congratulations Tracey! And to all the rest of us, let's join Tracey in serving God and sharing Jesus in exceptional and ordinary ways. The picture is of Tracey and her husband Greg on their wedding day a little over four years ago. Blessings on you both ...
Showing God's love to people in ways that will change lives is what I'm about. I try to do this in the way that I plan and lead worship on the weekends at Friendship Community Church and in the ways I connect with people daily. I have been interested in reaching people through starting new churches for quite awhile now. Two churches that have started in the past 3-4 years are the Liberty Community Church in Manassas, Virginia, and Higher Hope Church in Horseheads, New York. I have had the opportunity to get to know Thom Redmond at Liberty Community Church and some people from the church here at Friendship initially went down to help on some of the opening Sundays. I haven't had the opportunity to get to know Mike Schooley of the Higher Hope Church but it has been my pleasure to get to know him and his church by the hours of looking at video footage and editing it for this video presentation. These churches are unique yet each looking to touch people for Jesus in their o...
What a weekend this will be! First of all, let me just say, as my family and close friends know, that I am not a painter/construction person/or handy person in any way. Friday night at 6 PM and Saturday morning at 8 AM we are having Painting Parties here at Friendship Community Church. Parties I understand, but painting is not my thing. But I want to support what is happening and all the people who will come and do know how to paint, so I will be here for the Parties. I will move stuff and make coffee and do little things ... but no painting. (Maybe I'll surprise myself...but I doubt it.) I will be reminded of how important it is to help and support others. I do look forward to the burgundy walls that will be adding color in the lobby. I am so glad for the hallways to be brightened with a fresh coat of paint (5 1/2 years since we moved into this building is a long time in "paint" years). And the front of the worship center will no longer be white...it will be a bet...
It's primary election day here in Pennsylvania today. I voted about 8 this morning. My duty is done, my choice made. While driving I heard someone call in to a radio station with who they supported. She called one candidate "delusional" because they thought they could change the world. I laughed for a moment, and then thought how important it is to want to change the world. In the movie "Ark Almighty" the main character's campaign was about changing the world. All of us can change the world, one act of kindness at a time. I probably won't propose any sweeping changes to the health care situation or the tax structure or environmental problems but I can look for someone to help today...and then tomorrow and the next day. Jesus is glad for politicians and everyone else who will reach out to others in His name.
I've been reading an interesting book called "Summer of Light" by W. Dale Cramer. One great quote from it (page 153) comes after the main character, Mick, asks The Man With No Hands (an interesting character description of a former addict) about his having "Got religion." He replies: "Religion is what regular people get in order to stay out of hell. People who have already been to hell don't want religion, they just want to know God."
The last couple of weeks my life has slowed down because of the cold/cough I have had and still have. Maybe that's what took me back to finish this video project of pictures of my early days in the 1950's up into the mid 1980's or so. "This Life" is one I want to keep living with my family and friends and for God.
This is the time of year when the weather seems to be constantly changing. Cold and rainy to warmer and balmy (well, not much of that around Pennsylvania). In any case just as the weather changes so does the political climate. Hillary and Obama keep trading places at the front of the pack and whoever is second almost implies that behind is a good place to be right now...yeah, right...like either of them wouldn't want to be ahead and have this thing locked up. Meanwhile, John McCain is the only Republican for President left standing as Mike Huckabee bows out and the others have either dropped out, suspended their campaigns, or are spinning their way to another year. Politics is good for the economy, right? The more they spend the more some people make selling, producing, and making the ads, etc. Now if only the payoff would be a person who would lead this country ahead. And isn't that what we really want? Anyway, I hope this political season finds you anticipating the iss...
Happy Valentine's Day once again. (In case you read my post from earlier today, and I hope you did or will.) Since I posted the pictures of couples from Friendship Community Church in the video earlier today, I thought I would post this video from my wedding to my bride, my sweetheart, my wonderful wife Diane.
It's Valentine's Day and a young man's thoughts turn to love...and so does an old man's thoughts (and those of us who are somewhere in between those two groups). Though I know it is often another holiday that doesn't measure up to all the hype, there is something good about taking some time to celebrate our love for someone else. So today I will give Valentines to my wife and two daughters. I will let them know how much I love them and am so glad they are in my life. Tomorrow night is Date Night at Friendship Community Church. I will be running the tech area, as well as enjoying the good food, and I have put together a video of wedding photos of some of the people who will be attending. These pictures represent marriages that go back just a few years and some that go way back, one to 1946. So enjoy the pictures, think of those who made a difference in your life through their marriage, reflect on how you can grow in all circumstances, and enjoy Valentine's D...
I just read Don Record's blog from Action Church . He talks about how starting a church is more like pushing an old time plane off a cliff to get it started than like initiating a space journey. It reminds me of the movie, Apollo 13. "Houston, we have a problem" has been spoken and the team in Houston is trying to figure out what to do. "Forget the flight plan. From this moment on we are improvising a new mission." Then the leader turns on the overhead projector (remember those?) and it doesn't work. He pushes it away and says, "How do we get our people home?" Then they kick around an idea to use the LEM, which was to get them onto the surface of the moon, to bring them home. A designer of the LEM says, "We can't make any guarantees. We designed the LEM to land on the moon." The leader of the team responds "I don't care what anything was designed to do. I care what it can do." So design away Don and actionchurch t...
Technology is amazing. YouTube and GodTube and other video places online are great ways to be able to learn and be touched. Yesterday I saw other people's videos which moved me and created a song and video of my own. I posted it here and you will still find it below (along with the lyrics to this song). Today I created a new video of the song with pictures instead of me just sitting there singing. So many ways to reach the world, or at least part of it.