A Taste of Heaven

Lee Smith, our chef

Folks, it just doesn't get any better than this!  Family dinners with some of the best chefs on the planet!  Y'all come out on Wednesday nights, 'cuz we're having a feast and we need you here to share our joy!  Tonight, we had an absolutely fabulous bbq pork loin, green beans, rice pilaf, green salad and fresh, hot rolls with butter, plus three kinds of home-style dessert--lemon, pistachio and cheesecake.  It's all you can eat for $4 per adult, $2 per student.  And, the way my teen-age sons eat, there is NO PLACE IN TOWN where we could feed them for $2 apiece!!  But, lest I make it all about the food (which is AMAZING!), it's not.  It's about the family time, the conversations we have, the things we learn about one another, the help and prayers we offer to one another.  It's really, truly, a little bit of heaven right here on earth.  Come feel the love, eat the food, drink the lemonade, and leave with your tummy and your heart full!
--Posted by Mama O. 

Putting up with our dirt

Our Tuesday morning Ladies Bible class home-baked cookies for our neighbors

We hand-delivered the cookies to neighbors

Ladies in our Tuesday morning Bible class home-baked cookies to share with our neighbors in the houses bordering our parking lot.  With all the dirt and mess from construction going on, Ruth Hutchison suggested it would be nice to do something for our neighbors.  We packaged a dozen home-baked cookies in a spring flower pot, attached a flower seed packet, packaged it up all pretty and included a note that said, "Thanks for putting up with our dirt"!  The ladies visited with neighbors who were home on Tuesday morning and left the cookie gifts on the front porches of those neighbors who were not home.  Ruth prayed over our cookies before we walked the neighborhood and we hope a neighborly blessing goes out to all those who live near us!
--Posted by Mama O.

Set Apart For God's Work

4/14/13, 10:11 AM Those in our congregation who serve the homeless in our city monthly! We send them with the Spirit! #ccofc pic.twitter.com/YBHnD1FKG9 Photo courtesy of Aaron Scott's Twitter account Our elders prayed yesterday over the group of people who minister to the homeless each month, as Dr. Jason Locke challenged us with a message called "Set Apart for God's Work", focusing on what it takes to be a church that sends out missionaries. He asked the question, "Why was Antioch the 'sending church' for the missionaries to the Gentiles and not the Jerusalem church?"  He suggested that it could have to do with Antioch's ethnically diverse church leadership (a lot like the current leadership at College Church of Christ) that had a more embracing view of "outsiders" than did the Jerusalem church. As he challenged our thinking on evangelism, Dr. J encouraged us to be a church that welcomes "outsiders", those who have never been Christians, and not simply to attract those who are already attending other churches.  This will mean less "advertising campaign"-style evangelism with celebrities and give-aways to lure church attenders, and more personal and loving attention to the people around us day in and day out.   During our class discussion time, we considered the question of how open we are, as a group, to receiving direction from the Holy Spirit, as the early church did. Cathi Ferri said she senses the Spirit moving among our group when we surround people and pray over them, holding hands or hugging one another. Stephanie Spencer-Norby asked if we practice waiting collectively for the Holy Spirit to speak to us. Phillip Ocheltree drew on his experiences of  attending a charismatic church's college.  "Charismatics believe in miracles, expect and are not surprised by miracles, but, when they try to manufacture the gifts of the Spirit, they look manufactured," he observed.   Do people need to see the power of God demonstrated before they accept Him, such as the miracles performed by the apostles in the early church? Rachel Hamm suggested that the "love we give out" as Christians is the most powerful demonstration of God's power to unbelievers. Thanks, Kyle Mason, for leading a great discussion in Shepherding Group on Acts 13:1-12 and 14:1-28. --Posted by Mama O.

The Zen of Yard Saling

Rae and Gene load furniture into Gene's truck for transport back to Fresno

Peter and Rae pose with a carload of yard sale treasure

Yard Sales as a metaphor for life:
  The Zen of Yard Saling.
 1. Learning to enjoy the adventure, to be thankful for who and what you encounter along the way.
 2. Discovering that you often want what you don't find along the way, and discovering that the things you find along the way, that you didn't think you wanted or needed are just fine, and learning to be content with the treasures you find, not the ones you couldn't find.
3.  Learning that the story behind your possessions is what makes them precious, not the dollar value.
4. Learning that you sometimes get the item that everyone wants at rock bottom price, and sometimes someone else gets it.  And it's all good.  You can let other people be happy for you when you get the coveted item and you can be happy for other people when they get the sought-after item.
5.  Learning to look forward to the unknown, to anticipate how a yard sale may change your life, but you don't know how.
6. Learning how to negotiate with other people.
7.  Learning your own limits.
8. Learning the true value of an item.

Gene and Linda Sue served as our "guides" this past weekend at the annual Morro Bay City-Wide Yard Sale.  We had never attended before, but we have agreed that we will never miss it again!  As we drove back on Sunday afternoon, we talked about our experiences and what we learned. "The Zen of Yard Saling" is what came from that conversation.
--Posted by Mama O.
   

Pay It Forward

Gene even hooked up our sewer hose for us!

Gene turned on our propane 

The great mystery is how Gene unlocked our trailer without a key

Pay It Forward--When you receive a kindness from someone else and you can't pay them back directly, what do you do?  Pay it forward!  Find another good deed that you can do for someone else.  In turn, they will pay that good deed forward and you start an avalanche of good deeds that cascades into the Valley of Indifference with a thundering roar--a roar that says "We love you, God loves you, people care about you, you are not alone!!"

We were the recipients of just such a "Pay It Forward" good deed last Friday night, April 5, 2013.  My son, Peter, son-in-law, Rae, and I were driving over to Pismo late Friday night.  I called Linda Sue to tell her not to worry about us because we wouldn't be in till around midnight.  About 11 p.m., Gene left their trailer to go check on ours.  When he returned to his trailer, our trailer had been completely set up for us--the electricity and water were hooked up, the propane was on, even the sewer was hooked up!  But, the biggest mystery of all was that the slides had been pushed out (which can only be done from inside the trailer), and "the light was left on for us" (just like Tom Bodett promises with Motel 6), also a task that can only be done from the inside the of the trailer--but the trailer was locked when we arrived!  In his enigmatic, mystic, Far Eastern way, Gene let the mystery remain a mystery.  So now, we have no choice but to "Pay It Forward".

These photos, by the way, were taken on Sunday, before we left.  Gene inspected everything to make sure we had closed the trailer up properly.

THE GOLDEN RULE
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."  Matthew 7:12 (New International Version)

Resurrection Hope!

Shawn Kirkley and Lee Smith wear matching Easter jackets

We experienced the hope of the resurrection on Easter Sunday with three of our College Church family members who have lost a parent during the past year.  Rachel Ammons, Arris Shabaglian and Aaron Roland all shared why they receive hope and comfort from the thought of seeing their loved ones again.  Shawn Kirkley wore his hope of the resurrection--a pink tie.  His mother-in-law, Mary Tarkenton, always wanted Shawn to wear pink--she thought it was a good color for him.  Turns out, he and Lee Smith showed up in exactly the same Easter jacket--a light blue sports blazer.  

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words."  1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 (New American Standard Version)

--Posted by Mama O.