Christmas Characters

Merry Christmas

from

Mary, Joseph, three shepherds, an angel and the rest of Kidz Church.

May the Lord richly bless your homes this season and in the coming year, and may you grow in the knowledge of Him.

Merry Christmas

Storefront display- NYC

The day is finally upon us!

All the scurrying around will soon cease and people will settle down and enjoy the holiday, hopefully by enjoying one another exchanging gifts, around a meal, looking at decorations, and attending a church service.



We want to wish you all the merriest of Christmases



Pastor P, Pastor Ben, & Lucie

If I Were To Do A Message on Cleanlinesss . . . .

. . . . it might start with a good story like this one:

Can Cold Water Clean Dishes?

John went to visit his 90 year old grandfather in a very secluded, rural area of Arkansas.

After spending a great evening chatting the night away, John's grandfather prepared breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. However, John noticed a film-like substance on his plate, and questioned his grandfather asking, "Are these plates clean?"

His grandfather replied, "They're as clean as cold water can get them. Just you go ahead and finish your meal, Sonny!"

For lunch the old man made hamburgers.

Again, John was concerned about the plates, as his appeared to have tiny specks around the edge that looked like dried egg and asked, "Are you sure these plates are clean?"

Without looking up the old man said, "I told you before, Sonny, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Now don't you fret, I don't want to hear another word about it!"

Later that afternoon, John was on his way to a nearby town and as he was leaving, his grandfather's dog started to growl, and wouldn't let him pass. John yelled and said, "Grandfather, your dog won't let me get to my car".

Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching on TV, the old man shouted, "COLDWATER, GO LAY DOWN!!!!"

Meet Coldwater!



Merry Christmas,
Ms. Lucie

Christmas Festivities

It is almost Dec. 25th, and with this joyous holiday comes the annual tradition of parties in Missionettes and Rangers on the Wednesday before Christmas. The girls have been busy shopping in the Missionettes Store over the past month, and will this week enjoy a time of games, activities and crafts, and food. The boys will shop this week at the Ranger cabin while also enjoying a time of shopping and fellowship. Neither the Rangers nor the Missionettes will meet on Wednesday, Dec. 26.

Merry Christmas to all!

Speed the Light and continued success

I love this photo- it makes me think of the old game show, "Let's Make A Deal". And to think that they chose Drew Carey over our own Pastor Ben for "The Price is Right". He would have been so good...

Oh well, their loss is our gain, our continued success and blessing. Once again, Pastor Ben has led the Powerline youth to a great year of ministry and raising funds to provide vehicles for our missionaries around the world.

A final report will be given sometime soon-but for now I can tell you that they raised almost $28,000 this year. Congrats to everyone and a very Merry Christmas to our missionaries.

Pastor P

Mystery Man

Okay, okay, okay. Maybe I don't blog enough, but I'm doing it now. I've been searching for the perfect photo to go along with my entries, and it's taken me a long time. But now, I have one!!!!

Yes sir, you can't get prettier than that!!!

And now for the story behind the picture: we've just begun a great new series in Kidz Church, where the children will explore various ways that biblical characters worshipped Jesus during that very first Christmas. We will be taking a make-believe journey to Mexico during Christmas time, and will learn not only about how they celebrate Christ's birth there, but how we can worship Him here in our own little town of Newark! That fellow photographed above is Mr. Ken Fuchs, acting as Bobby Blunder, a man also journeying to Mexico as part of a short-term missions team, and who is doing everything possible to avoid being part of the group! This week, he told us that he couldn't stand the music the missions team selected, so he decided NOT to join the group during worship time. He ended up taking a very wrong turn on his quest for Acapulco, and we learned that it IS good to worship God in ALL we SAY AND DO!!

The very best thing about this Sunday happened at the very beginning, BEFORE we had even gotten into the new unit. Ms. Faith and I prepared a series of excellent worship songs to set the tone of honoring God with our whole body, mind and soul. There was A LOT of motion in those songs, and they were so catchy and fun that all the kids had smiles on their faces by the time they went back to their seats for the offering prayer. Usually we do 3 or 4 fun songs, and then one or two slower, more sedentary ones during the offering. Also usually, during those slower songs, the kids get kind of distracted with the ushers going up and down the aisles, taking the offering, and they tend to get a little chatty with one another. Ms. Faith and I have to often remind the kids that the offering songs are an excellent opportunity to really focus on God and praise Him for the many wonderful things He has done for us and because He loves us so much. Most kids heed this advice. But there are ALWAYS those who do not.

This week, as Ms. Faith, the Kidz Choir and I stood at the front of the room, with our eyes closed and hands held high, totally immersed in the spirit of true worship, ALL the kids in the room did also!!!!!! Let me restate this, because this is HUGE: ALL the kids were totally tuned into worship! It sounded like an angelic choir and God's spirit was actually felt in that room! At the end of that song (Here I Am To Worship, 4 minutes and 5 seconds) the kids started yelling out: "PLAY IT AGAIN, PLAY IT AGAIN!"

I couldn't believe my ears. Our kids were HUNGRY for MORE worship and they hadn't even heard the message on "worshipping God" yet!

This is what we have been praying for in this room--for the Spirit of God to take over completely in the lives of these kids, for a mighty move of His Spirit to flow in us and through us, and for His presence to shine through us to those around us, so that they too might grow in a deep and meaningful relationship with Him.

It happened yesterday!! And I am totally excited about today and tomorrow!!!
All glory and praise be to HIM!!!

Ms. Lucie has the bestest job in the whole world!!!

Onesimus 3? or 2?

Hey there

Just a quick note- for some reason Lucie Hale has not put any posts to this blog in a long time. She is the third person in Onesimus3. Do us a favor and email her at lucieshines333@comcast.net and URGE her to post something of interest. Her life is so full of good things- I know there is something that she can share. PLEASE EMAIL her today! She probably just needs to know that you care and that you are interested. Without her we are just Onesimus2.

By the way- this is supposed to be a drawing of Paul and the run away slave Onesimus.

Pastor P

It's Christmas time in the City

Recognize the guys in the picture?

One is our own Chuck Parsons and the other is Ruppert G. owner of the Hello Deli and frequent contributor to the David Letterman Show.

This was just one of the sights and stories we have from our trip to NYC this past weekend. 29 of us went and we had a great time.

From feeding the flying rats (also known as pigeons) near Ground Zero to hangin out at Times Square and not buying $3 pretzels or $4 sodas to
touring St Patrick's Cathedral and seeing "The Tree" at Rockefeller Center, it was another chance to make memories and expand horizons for many of our teens.

I love New York and that's not just repeating the famous ad campaign. It's where I grew up, it's where most of my family lives and it's a great place to eat a dozen or so White Castle Burgers, some Chicken rings, egg rolls and some fish nibblers (if you so desire, we didn't).

I love Delaware too. It's where God has called me to work alongside some incredible people to impact our world with the Love of Christ. Unlike Ruppert, most of them may never be famous or pseudo-famous, but they are the ones who make PowerLine Youth Ministries tick and without whom we could not accomplish all that we do.

So thanks to all the Youth Leaders, parents and students who give of their time, talents and so much more.

PB

TIME

Time: The one thing that we cannot buy at the mall or the department store or even online. There is simply no way to get more. And people are feeling the crunch right now with Christmas and New Years quickly approaching. We could all use a little extra time.

Time is God's provision to us, we are to use it wisely. And here is what He has to say about our use of it.

EPHESIANS 5:15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, (redeeming the time) because the days are evil.

And God has plans for our time...
PSALM 139:16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

And here is more great advice-
Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So...I suppose we should not worry about time, how much we have or how quickly it is passing, especially when we know Christ as our Savior. We should remember that the day that we first received Christ and accepted Him as as our Savior was the first day of our New Life which is also the day that we began living Eternal Life. So even when we leave this world of clocks and calendars we still live-but in eternity without the restraints and confines of time.

Try to enjoy the next 31 days before we begin a whole new year of opportunities.

Blessings, Pastor P