It’s been a joy to hang out again with returning students each afternoon on the 2nd floor of the Cafe. The first few days nobody showed up and I wondered if we’d have any music lessons but one by one they have returned – and bringing friends!
Some of the returning students have really progressed on their instrument. Others are first time visitors, sheepishly holding a guitar and attempting to strum their first chord. A few times we’ve managed to sound collectively decent – the smiles are their faces mid-song as they realize they are part of an actual band for the moment is priceless… then, inevitably the musical train derails and we all laugh.
Honestly, I used to devalue the significance of building up personal confidence as part of reaching someone with the Gospel. After all, pride and self-esteem stand as enemies of the cross. However, Jesus let the humble come, and He didn’t continually remind them of their sin (as opposed to the already proud), but acknowledged them as human and as such, of significant value to God.
From children, to mixed raced Samaritans, even prostitutes were drawn to this Jesus. He seemed to go out of his way to affirm love. Pray with us that these guys and girls grow in their gifts, and through the payback of “hey I can actually do something cool!”, we can point to the One who inspires us to even greater things.
We are having problems with our water again at our house. Our heating system is causing problems and only parts of our house is circulating. Fortunately we have a warm spell and it’s not freezing yet. I dread this part of winter. We have several properties now to keep warm – the cost and the time spent can be very ‘draining’.. sigh. Through our continual preparation at our house, we’ve run our well dry. Fortunately this doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, our world seems to come to a crashing halt – especially Debs.
Tonight we will gather again for Club 180, as well as the skaters out back for some lessons. I’m preparing tonight to share on the nature of the Gift of Salvation – it’s value, it’s meaning. In orthodox culture we see the symbol of Christ’s death at every turn – yet, like a pair of socks at Christmas it has lost it’s spiritual punch. God illuminate our hearts tonight as we refocus our eyes on the sacrifice, you gave your ALL to purchase and free us.
Brent posing as we take some photos for our new website coming soon!
We still don’t have funds for safety gear for the Skatezone, insurance for property and sod – we are in waiting mode and actual needs are like this:
- Skatepark : $400 (3 skateboards, 3 sets of protective gear)
- Insurance: $1,000/yr (will cover liability for entire park)
- Sod: $500 (for kids zone, otherwise very muddy this spring)
For less than $2,000 we will be in good shape – until then we wait and pray! We’ve already spent $9k in total on the $7k raised kickstarter project, the unplanned $2k overage has made things very tight for our family. If you are interested in giving towards this, please click here!
This photo to the left is pretty funny. I had sent Josh and Brent down to paint the metal posts for our park fence being installed. When I showed up several hours later, I found some of the 180 students painting it. Brent had, Tom Sawyer like, finagled them into helping – the price? A free hot chocolate. They finished very quickly –
Thank you for your prayer and support.
Bruce & Deb