Sunday evening at Deerfield UMC, Boone came alive with a common purpose, to help raise money to find a cure for cancer. The Deerfield UMC Relay for Life Dream Team came up with the idea of our church hosting a coffee house to invite the community to come in and join us for a time of music and a meal and fellowship to help raise money for Relay. So what a success the event was! Blessings beyond our expectations. For those here who are cancer survivors and for their families, I know this event held great meaning. And for those who have lost loved ones, it was a chance to remember that we carry on the fight to find a cure. For our listening enjoyment, we had 10 musical groups come and share with us, and even Kermit the frog came by for a song and made a special guest appearance. He will also be our preacher for conference Sunday, which is Pentecost Sunday, if you would like to come to Deerfield on that day, you are invited and you may be surprised that Kermit can make the transformation into a really great preacher.
The event was attended by about 150 people from the church and the community. We did raise about $2000.00 from that specific event that day towards our whole relay goal. We stand at about $5400.00 collected towards our goal of $7500.00 so we could use even more financial support on this mission. We want to say thanks to everyone who gave so willingly of their time and talents to make the event a success not just in raising money, but also to make it a spiritual event. The Holy Spirit was with us, and we give the Lord praise. Earlier Sunday morning in worship, we had studied from John 14 where the scripture teaches about heaven and how Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, a place with many rooms. During the children's message, I invited the children to dream about what would be in their room in heaven if they got to go to heaven today and tell God just what they wanted. I asked them what color would they paint their room, and the answers came: blue, purple, green, yellow and pink. I asked them if they would put a refrigerator in their room in heaven and they all laughed. Later on in the sermon for the grown ups, I shared my concern and my hope for the future of the United Methodist Church as a whole. We need to focus on becoming a church of the future. We have to figure out how to reach young people and help them understand that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, now while they are eager to learn. Then after the sermon, when it was time to take up the offering, a little girl, I am guessing maybe 6 years old, insisted to her mom that she help her mom take up the offering. So she came up the aile with her mom and the other young woman taking up the offering and helped along the way. The little girl had been to children's church and had not heard what I had just said about our need to reach the young people, and how we had to call on God to show us how to do this great work. In John 14:14, where the scripture teaches that if we ask for anything in the name of Christ, he will do it for us. The words had just come out of my mouth that we are asking God to help us reach the young people and teach them to know the ways of Christ, and in just moments, a little one comes forth and offers to serve. It was a Holy Spirit filled moment, that spilled into a Holy Spirit filled day. We know for sure that God hears our prayers, and God will provide us with hope for the future, in great events like Relay for Life, worthy causes to find a cure for cancer, and on regular Sunday mornings in worship. God will give us the courage and leadership that we seek to help our church step into our future with hope. Praise be to the one who is the way, the truth and the life.
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