I'm Bummed...

This weekend, we had an organizational meeting at our church for the children's program. Because we have more children than anyone else at church (for now, anyway...Congrats, Willistons!), I am, of course, very interested in what they are planning, and I'm sure everyone would have wondered where I was if I had not attended. Our church is very young, with very young people who are not yet married, and if they are, most do not yet have children. A few months ago, it was announced that our church was in the process of scouting out locations for a second church home. We will still have church in the evening in downtown, and we will add a second service at a location in south Tulsa, with a morning service. At the time, I assumed that we would just be copying our current setup, but tonight I found out that is not the case. The plan is to move the time to even later on Sunday nights in the downtown location without Gathering Kids, and then the south Tulsa location will be in the mornings with a complete children's ministry. We have enjoyed going to the Gathering so much, and have really learned a lot about ourselves and how to be Christians who are accepting of everyone and reach out to and love everyone, giving as much as we can to whoever may need it and treating everyone the way Jesus would have treated them, all of which have become our desires for us and our children since we started going to the Gathering. But we want to attend church in our area, on our side of town, and we will not be going to south Tulsa to attend church. So, this week we will begin looking for a new church home, somewhere the kids will flourish and really love to learn about God. That means we will be giving up our small group, and leaving the people we have come to love very much as our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are both very sad about this, but we are sure that God will lead us in the right direction. In the meantime, we'll be praying for what we are supposed to do.

1st Annual Gathering Women's Retreat

This weekend was so much fun! I was able to relax, hang out with some great friends, and I took a shower without someone turning the light out on me. HAHA The ride up there was a lot of fun, with 5 additional people in my van...we only got slightly lost on our way to Eagle Rock...

Here's our cabin. It was super nice!!!

Here's our group during the morning praise and worship study time.

Here is the creek...the water was crystal clear!
This is the creek where a lot of women went exploring, but they said there were spiders, so I just enjoyed it from afar.
Here I am, playing with the self timer on the camera...
Here we are, playing a hilarious game of Catch Phrase! And here is the Van Crew, heading out after all the fun!

The Gathering Olympics

Today was our church Labor Day Picnic. The kids had a great time, playing and eating.






After eating, the Gathering Olympics commenced with the first event, the 3 Legged Race, or for Amber and Candice...the bronze winning 3 Legged Fall...followed by Amber waving the TRIBE flag.

Here's our fearless TRIBE leader, Josh, with his ultimately fourth place hula hoop performance, ending up just shy of the bronze medal performance of 3 seconds.

Here's Suz with her game face as our TRIBE cheerleader, sporting the official TRIBE flag, crafted by yours truly.

Here's fellow TRIBER, Tim, with his silver medal winning performance and subsequent ceremonial flag waving in the Croquet event.

Here are the small group leaders, sporting the medals worn by their respective small groups: Jessica from Pursuit, Krista from 29:1, Josh from TRIBE, and Brad from Kaleo.

Here's all the TRIBERS who attended the Labor Day picnic.

After the picnic, we came home and collectively took a big family nap. It was a great day!!!

TRIBE - Our Spiritual Family

Every Thursday night, we open our house for a night with our small group, TRIBE. We all eat together and then usually discuss the past weekend's sermon, or we plan service activities to reach out to the unchurched, especially students at TU. Here are some pictures from last night's meeting.