It’s A Great Easter Week!

Tonight at both our junior high CHAOS and our high school BIG HOUSE events, our staff will be inviting students to make new or greater commitments to Jesus Christ. I believe great things will happen in the hearts of students.

Tomorrow night our college BASIC event on UNI’s campus will feature 6 or 7 students sharing their testimonies and Orchard will have an Easter Thursday Communion Service. Friday night fourteen high school seniors from 5 different high schools will share at the Community-wide Good Friday Service of Darkness. Again, I believe that God will work in a powerful way.

A Visit and A Gift!

This morning Dan Paxton, the senior pastor of Heartland Vineyard (our neighboring church across the street), stopped in to give me a book he thought would be helpful to me and we prayed together. We prayed for each other and for both of our churches to have impact this Easter week.

Dan’s stopping in made me feel humble that he was thinking about and caring for me on this busy Easter week. As I reflected upon his visit and his gift, I wanted to pass on the encouragement to other church leaders. I emailed several friends who lead churches in the Cedar Valley and let them know that I would be praying for their congregations this Easter. As I would expect, they “replied to all” and committed to pray for each others congregations on this Easter week.

On top of that, our Mission Team to Haiti, will be with our partners near Pignon, Haiti this Easter. Our team of ten which includes staff members (Doug Tensen & Pat and Diane Oehler) will be leading that church in worship on Easter Sunday morning. This Easter weekend will be awesome at Orchard and across the Cedar Valley and the world.

I Am So Thankful!

I thank God that I can be part of a community where churches authentically pray for each other instead of competing against each other. I thank God that I can be a part of a congregation that invests so much in God’s kingdom beyond just our congregation.

It is my hope and prayer that everyone reading this has a powerful and inspiring Easter!