(Alabaster Ministering to Emergency Needs)

One way the Alabaster Church of God reaches out to our community is through our A.M.E.N. Food Bank program.  Our mission is to show the love of Jesus Christ by assisting families in the Shelby County area with nutritious food in emergency situations.

Each month we assist an average of 160 families in our area.  This is a total of approximately 400 people.  We make sure that no person shall, on the grounds of race, color, national origin, age, sex, religion, or handicap be denied assistance under this program.

During the month of February the A.M.E.N. Food Bank assisted the following:
156 Families to include 406 people

The Food Bank distribution schedule is as follows:
3rd Thursday of each month
10:00 AM until 12:00 Noon

It is a pleasure to serve our community for His glory

The Church of God General Overseer has started blogging.  That is good news.  It shows us all that he is aware of the ever-changing landscape in which the Church has to minister.

I, for one, will pray that he uses this resource to speak to all of us.  The ministers and the laypeople which he is at present residing over.  It is past time in the COG that we were kept informed.  It seems the calls for transparency in the leadership of our denomination may have actually been heard.

Help me pray for this transparency and the trust which will grow out of it.  And we need to continue to pray for Brother Culpepper and all of our leadership.

I am including the link  in the Blogroll so you can find his site more readily.

Love you all

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1Th 5:16-18

Pray without ceasing.  How is this possible?

I don’t believe it is if prayer is only letting God know what we want or need.  This seems to be the attitude of prayer that most of us hold.  But prayer is so much more than that.  Prayer is not only asking and thanking God but is also about relating to Him.  Talking with Him, hearing from Him, sharing in this amazing story called creation with Him.

Prayer is vital because God has set this whole system up to rely on it.  Prayer is the oil in the machine called life and it grinds to a halt without it.  There are things that God will not do unless we ask and the bible shows us that we can move God, cause Him to even change His mind, through prayer.  We serve a God who wants a relationship with us.

We can pray without ceasing by understanding that it is not just the talk but is also the walk.  God walked with Adam in the garden and He walks with us even now.  Ready to listen and ready to teach, He is there if we will only realize it.

The Church of God has a forty day program starting January 1, 2009 that is designed to bring us back to the place in our relationship with God where we can recognize and actualize the vitality of prayer.  We must get back to living a life where we pray without ceasing.  Our families, our churches, our nation, our world needs this.

Join us in this and lets change the world.

Love you all

The children in our church performed a Christmas play this past Sunday and they did a wonderful job.  They had worked diligently for almost three months, practicing and working on getting it just right.  And it was just right.

As the children’s Pastor, Barbara Snyder, said, it is something about the children that packs a house; as it should.  We should all support our kids in all that they seek to do that will enrich their lives.  And the gospel of Jesus Christ will decidedly do that.

I just want to report here that they did do an amazing job.  From the smallest to the largest of them, they all seemed to be right on cue and if not, it was not noticeable from where I sat.  The play had them spelling some of the many names for Jesus that are found in the Bible.  Most of them got them right and I have a suspicion that even the ones who got them wrong, only did it to advance the script.

I was touched, moved and very proud of them.  Keep up the good work.

We would like to extend a special invitation for you to join us for our children’s Christmas program, The Christmas County Spelling Bee. Come join us in Christmas County, where everyone has gathered with great anticipation in the Town Hall. So many people want to participate in the annual “Live Manger Pageant” that this year the cast will be selected through a spelling bee competition. You see, nobody loses in this bee. Everyone participating will get a part in the pageant honoring our Lord today.

The contestants will be spelling the many names and titles of Jesus! Many scholars believe that there are over 700 different names and titles given to Jesus in Scripture and each one reveals to us more of His character and how He works in our lives. What an exciting time of year: Christmas! We are here to celebrate the true reason for the season: JESUS!

We have been praying that those who hear the program will come to a deeper understanding of what a truly wonderful gift God sent us in a manger bed over 2000 years ago. The program will be held on Sunday morning, December 21st at 10:45.

We are blessed to have had such wonderful help and support from the cast, the parents, church staff, and many others who helped with various aspects of this program. We could not do it without you!

Ms. Barbara & Ms. Brandy

Yesterday evening, the ladies ministry had their Christmas party, and what a wonderful party is was!  I am relatively new to ACOG, so this was my first Christmas Party with the ladies, and I was so impressed.  Different ladies in the church decorated the tables, and they were beautiful.  Nancy Massey decorated the Christmas tree (with some help from some ladies in the church).  And the food – we could have fed twice the people we had, and we had around 40 ladies.

 

It was so much fun spending time with the ladies from the church.  There was a devotion by Charlotte Ward and song by Jamie Fincher.  We played the left/right game with presents, and we had a lot of fun.

 

Thank you to all those ladies who participated in and planned the Christmas Party.  It was an overwhelming success!

 

Dee