I have not gone to Isaiah’s recital in awhile.  But I was sweetly surprised as I saw him play.  It is funny because for Isaiah I think he struggles between sports and his music.  He loves playing sports but he also loves playing the cello.  I hope he could keep up with both.  We will see.

This month the wives and then the husbands of GCC came together to talk about marriage.  I heard the sisters had an awesome time.  How did you ladies like the speaker?  I am thinking of asking her to do more seminars later.

I just want to put it on the record that the husbands meeting was the best meeting ever!!!  I told the brothers to say that to their wives no matter what happened at the meeting.  But I do have to say it was a good meeting.  It was a good meeting to build on and I really liked the brothers who came!!!  Good to see all of you there!!!   I was actually surprised how many of them shared.  Of course among the men there are always the more silent type. But I felt that most of them were opening up.  But I started to preach and then the conversations ended.   I have to improve on that point.

I feel really great about the two seminars that we had this month.  I think we can build on them. My prayer is that God will use GCC to raise Christ focused marriages. Marriages that are healthy and godly.  Marriage is great but as we all know it is not easy.  Other than one of the brother who said marriage is easier than dating for a long time.  Well, all I can say is we will see.

I asked the husbands to do this but if they forget….I want to ask the ladies of GCC to lead.  I told the brothers to do it but sometimes men forget.   Be gracious ladies….marriage is a partnership. It is ok for the wife to call a time of prayer and discussion.  Annette does that to me once in awhile and I appreciate it.

Here are two things to follow up on our meetings:

1. Look through the article I gave the husbands…The irresistible man…talk and pray through it. 

2. Look through the powerpoint that Annette had…if you did not get it you can always ask her or me for it. Talk and pray through “What husbands wish their wives knew about men”.  

Have a great time doing this together!!!

Hi Everyone

I will be headed out to our weekly wednesday prayer meeting (9:30-12am). But as I get ready to go I feel a need to ask all of you to join us in prayer for GCC. I feel that we need much prayer as we enter into this Lent Season. Here are some prayer requests.

1. We will fast in preparation for Easter with the right heart for Jesus. We will not go through the motion or just fulfill a duty but we will fast and ask our gracious Father to give breakthroughs in different areas of our lives. We will find renewed hearts through biblical fasting.

2. We will be praying for Japan. This is a serious situation as you know and we need to be lifting up the country before God. People will be rescued. The Nuclear situation will be resolved. Let us ask God to empower the Christians with wisdom and love to be a light in this situation.

3. We will pray for many in GCC. There are many people going through some hard times. Some are struggling spiritually, there are family issues going on in different people’s lives, and much much more….we need to pray for our GCC family that people will receive grace and strength to keep trusting Jesus.

4. Pray for me as I try to lead GCC. I want to hear from Christ as I lead GCC. I want to care for people like Jesus does. I want to be a blessing to you. This is a tall order and I cannot do this without your prayers.

God bless.

I know most of my blog is about my family and church prayer requests.  Someday, I am planning to write some really insightful and profound thoughts. But once again here are some more shameless videos.  I discovered this old video of Isaiah and wanted to share it with you.  The first one is when he was around 5 years old starting on cello.  The second is one he recorded recently for a scholarship.  I was personally blessed to see the improvement.  He still has the nervous looks but his skills have improved with his hard work.  I know I am his dad but looking it at put a smile on my face.  Yes, please forgive my shameless promotion.

Here is Isaiah when he was around 5 years old.  You have to check out the expression on his face.

Here is Isaiah playing recently. Practice has great value.  Good job Isaiah.

Have you ever had a long day that wipes you out but you feel great about it?   Today was that kind of day.  After a productive time in prayer last night,  I started this morning at 6am.  Pastor Joe’s boys were sleeping over and Jedi wakes up at 6am.  He is like a clock.  I tried to occupy him and then around 7:30am I was off to drop off my daughter to an event. By 9:30am I was leading our membership class where more than 50 showed up.  Praise God!!!  It went well but  by the time we finished it was 1:30pm. I had to pick my daughter up and got home around 3:30pm. 

I wanted to take a nap so bad but Sarah and I cleaned the house because all GCC band members were coming over .  There are around 30+ members.  This is all three bands combined (UC, Mainline, Temple). We had the band over at my house to cast vision and to say thanks.  The band members of GCC really do work hard!!!  I am so thankful for them.  I told them that the Lord will reward them for their heart of service.

Honestly all of us should be praying more for them.  We ate, prayed, sang, and talked.  I really enjoyed it.  I feel so blessed to be working with people who are living out their calling for the Lord.  It was a tiring but fulfilling day. Now I have to finish my message and preach at Mainline and UC tomorrow.  I have the Mainline message loaded and ready.  But I still have to put the finishing touch on the UC message.  I would appreciate some prayer. God bless!!! It was a great day.

Here I am up late at night hanging with my daughter.  Annette felt sick and went to bed really early and so I was lying with my boys in their room for awhile.  They wanted me to pray for them and so I did…then after awhile they fell asleep…on my way back to my room…I saw my daughter’s light was on. She was studying for this and that so I decided to hang out at her room and study.  I got some work done on a message and also looked over some Piper videos on various topics.  It was a good nights work. I hope Sarah got a lot done too since she has an exam tomorrow.  She said I was bothering her but I know she liked the company.

I found these pictures. Yes, I made Isaiah pose this way but I thought this was a good picture. The kids are growing up fast. It is really nice to see them enjoy things I enjoy.  All three of them play soccer and it is interesting to see how each are so different in the way they play the game. Daniel has the best ball handling skills.  Sarah seem to see the whole field well.  Isaiah is the most aggressive and runs like crazy. 

I don’t get to see a lot of their games because of schedule conflict but I try to make it to as many as possible.  One time I saw Sarah playing her heart out and she made me proud.  Her team lost bad though. I saw Daniel many times go by a defender…he looked good…if only he had a strong shot …there would be many goals.  Isaiah plays like he cannot stop running.  He is pretty good at defense.  It is fun seeing him defend against guys that are much bigger than him.  He goes at them hard but when a player gets by him…he really gets mad at himself. This is a bad habit. 

It is interesting to see how different they are even in the way they play soccer.  God made us all so unique.  They are from the same family and they are so different.  This is what makes life exciting but it is also what can bring conflict.  It is amazing to see all the diversity in God’s family.  Even in GCC there is such differences among all of us….but we can focus on the differences and become divided or we can focus on Jesus get united.  Because the amazing thing about Jesus is that He can make us one in Him.  Let’s seek the Lord with all our hearts and make that our uniting factor.  Then let’s play soccer!!!

God was so faithful at GCC college retreat last week.  Now we have the Symphony Retreat in Boston coming up this week.  Please remember to pray for this important retreat!!!

I will be going to Symphony Church in Boston this coming weekend to speak at their first retreat.  I heard about 50-60 are signed up.  Please pray that God will use this retreat and also use me to bless the students.

 
Here are some facts about this New Church Plant….read and pray for Symphony Church and their retreat!!!

Our History

The official launch of Symphony Church is September 5th, 2010, but as with many things, the roots of Symphony began much earlier.

In 2003, God gave Barry Kang, then a 25 year old bond trader in Los Angeles, a heart and calling toward college students. Soon after, he left the world of finance to join the staff at Church of Southland as the college pastor. In 2004, God confronted Pastor Barry with the tremendous need for the gospel to be preached in Boston. Thus the seed which would become Symphony Church was sown.

In 2008, Church of Southland sent Pastor Barry and his family to Grace Covenant Church in Philadelphia, where God would build the core of the Church planting team and in June, 2010, Grace Covenant Church sent out eight intrepid church planters to Boston, and Symphony Church was born.

We will be having our college retreat at a new place (Harvey Cedars) with Pastor Sam Lee from Catalyst. Pray for us this coming weekend.  Join us if you are in college or if you just want to go to a retreat.  Here is some more information….

GCC’s 2011 college retreat “Alive” is approaching and we invite all of you to come join us for these three days of worship! This year’s retreat will take place at Harvey Cedars Bible Conference, New Jersey from Friday, January 28 to Sunday, January 30 and we are excited to say that Pastor Sam Lee of Catalyst Agape Center will be our guest speaker for the weekend!

We really hope that everyone can join us as the retreat is a great way to get away from school and spend time growing spiritually. As many people will say, it’s a great time of worship, an excellent way to learn more about God, and also a fun way get to know other brothers and sisters in Christ through worship, small groups and games.

If you’re interested but haven’t signed up yet, you can do so by telling your family group leader, signing up after Sunday service, or signing up online here. The cost for the retreat is $80 until Jan. 16 with a $20 deposit, but will increase to $95 after that and will be $105 at the retreat. If necessary, financial help can be provided. Pickup times and locations will vary depending on school. We are expected to return by around 3pm on Sunday.

Here are the pickup times for each campus this Friday:

• Villanova – 5:05pm at Bartley Hall
• Bryn Mawr – 5:15pm at Pem Arch
• Haverford – 5:25pm at the Campus Center
• Penn – 5:15pm at 39th and Spruce
• Drexel – 5:15pm at 33rd and Race St

What to Bring:

• Bible
• toiletries (toothbrush, deodorant, towel, etc.)
• notebook/journal and pens
• change of clothes (you don’t need to dress up for Sunday morning)
• Also, please be prepared for offering for Sunday morning.
• Note: sleeping bags are NOT needed. Linens and bedding are provided at the retreat center.

Lastly, don’t hesitate to email retreat2011@gracecovenant.net with any questions or concerns regarding the retreat. Look out for more announcements and we hope to see you all there!