God of Miracles Testimony!
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV).
This past Sunday, I received the following text-testimony from our very own Kathy Murtha. She said I could share it with you! I’ve been waiting all week to do exactly that! Here it is:
“Good morning! I wanted to share how God worked in our lives this week! I got a text message from my daughter. Our three-year-old great grandson in Georgia fell or jumped into their pool. When they found him and pulled him out, he was blue. Fortunately, his grandpa was there and gave him CPR. When he turned him over on his side, he vomited and they immediately rushed him to the hospital. We prayed and he is fine! I believe God breathed life back into him! The mistake that was made is the ladder was left in the pool. Once he was able to speak, he told his Daddy and Mommy what he remembered. He had wanted to go swimming and the next thing he remembers was seeing a light and then waking up in the hospital. God saved our great grandson!!!”
Wow! Praise the Lord! We serve an awesome God, don’t we? The world we live in can be a scary place–a wilderness full of dangers. If we let it, fear can paralyze us from doing anything, can’t it? But Kathy’s testimony reminds us that we serve a faithful God; a God who loves us more than we can imagine; a God who stays true to his promises and keeps covenant with us; a God who not only looks after us but who looks after those we care about most! Let’s rejoice with Kathy and Rick today over this incredible miracle of life…and be grateful that OUR GOD SAVES!!!
Growing Pastor Kathryn into New Opportunities
So, I have some very exciting news I’ve been itching to tell you! Are you ready? After much prayer, reflection, and conversation with Kathryn, I am happy to announce that we will be transitioning her into the new role of Assistant Pastor.
As you know, Kathryn graduated from seminary and was ordained as an elder in the Free Methodist Church USA back in May. Go Kathryn!!! One day, she hopes to be a lead pastor. And although she enjoys helping to lead worship through music as necessary, we have identified together that her strongest gifts and passions are in other areas of ministry. For instance, Kathryn is incredible with children and teens; she is a great communicator and public speaker; and is very organized with impressive attention to detail. Lord, help me to be more like Kathryn! (Haha!)
With that said, I believe it is time to grow Kathryn into this new role of Assistant Pastor as we restructure to meet our current needs as a church and give her greater responsibility. In her new role, Kathryn has agreed to oversee our Next Generation ministries from cradle to college. This includes overseeing our Nursery, KidZone, Wyldlife, and Young Adult Group. In this role she will help recruit, train, and resource our leaders and volunteers for those various ministries. She will also oversee church communication, various administrative tasks, and our social media platforms. Finally, I look forward to Kathryn preaching more and am excited to see how God continues to use her at Eastside, producing rich fruit through her life and ministry!
New Direction for Eastside Worship!
Now, I imagine you’ve been asking this whole time, “Hey! What about our worship through music!?! What’s happening there?” Great question! Well, I am equally excited to share that Tim Lambert has agreed to be our new Eastside Music Director!!! For those of you who may not know much about Tim, he and his lovely wife, Shelly, are good friends of ours and have been attending Eastside for several months with their three awesome sons, Jack (15), Micah (13), and Jude (11). You may have noticed, as well, that Tim has also led the worship team a few times for us on Sunday and has been such a blessing!
Tim currently teaches music in the East Rochester School District and has many years of experience leading worship through music in a number of settings. In addition to his amazing skills as a musician and leader, I have found Tim’s strengths to be his contagious joy and love of life; his heart-felt thoughtfulness and authenticity in leading worship through music; and his ability to inspire, invest in, and develop those who serve alongside him. When Tim is not playing an instrument, he is most certainly playing a board game! In fact, their collection of games is most impressive! Perhaps one day he’ll launch a board game Grow Group at Eastside…any takers?
So, when does Tim start? Well, he already has but he will officially begin on Sunday, September 11th, which is our Fall Kickoff. He will personally plan and lead every other Sunday while growing and developing his team of leaders to lead the other Sundays. Moving forward, my heart is that our worship experience and culture, from the music to the message to our just being together, will be exciting, engaging, and Spirit-filled! I believe Tim helps facilitate that kind of environment at our church and will help build that culture with us.
Please join me in welcoming Tim on board! There are great days and great worship experiences of encountering God’s loving presence ahead of us!
I do want to note, however, that given our current financial situation, we are unable to compensate Tim financially or increase Kathryn’s income but I do hope that with the many ways God is moving at Eastside, the wonderful new faces we are seeing, and our efforts to strategically and prayerfully move forward, we will be able to do so.
So, please continue to pray for our church and trust that “he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ return” (Philippians 1:6). And don’t forget to thank Pastor Kathryn and Tim for all the ways they are being a blessing at Eastside!!!
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV).
This past Sunday, I received the following text-testimony from our very own Kathy Murtha. She said I could share it with you! I’ve been waiting all week to do exactly that! Here it is:
“Good morning! I wanted to share how God worked in our lives this week! I got a text message from my daughter. Our three-year-old great grandson in Georgia fell or jumped into their pool. When they found him and pulled him out, he was blue. Fortunately, his grandpa was there and gave him CPR. When he turned him over on his side, he vomited and they immediately rushed him to the hospital. We prayed and he is fine! I believe God breathed life back into him! The mistake that was made is the ladder was left in the pool. Once he was able to speak, he told his Daddy and Mommy what he remembered. He had wanted to go swimming and the next thing he remembers was seeing a light and then waking up in the hospital. God saved our great grandson!!!”
Wow! Praise the Lord! We serve an awesome God, don’t we? The world we live in can be a scary place–a wilderness full of dangers. If we let it, fear can paralyze us from doing anything, can’t it? But Kathy’s testimony reminds us that we serve a faithful God; a God who loves us more than we can imagine; a God who stays true to his promises and keeps covenant with us; a God who not only looks after us but who looks after those we care about most! Let’s rejoice with Kathy and Rick today over this incredible miracle of life…and be grateful that OUR GOD SAVES!!!
Growing Pastor Kathryn into New Opportunities
So, I have some very exciting news I’ve been itching to tell you! Are you ready? After much prayer, reflection, and conversation with Kathryn, I am happy to announce that we will be transitioning her into the new role of Assistant Pastor.
As you know, Kathryn graduated from seminary and was ordained as an elder in the Free Methodist Church USA back in May. Go Kathryn!!! One day, she hopes to be a lead pastor. And although she enjoys helping to lead worship through music as necessary, we have identified together that her strongest gifts and passions are in other areas of ministry. For instance, Kathryn is incredible with children and teens; she is a great communicator and public speaker; and is very organized with impressive attention to detail. Lord, help me to be more like Kathryn! (Haha!)
With that said, I believe it is time to grow Kathryn into this new role of Assistant Pastor as we restructure to meet our current needs as a church and give her greater responsibility. In her new role, Kathryn has agreed to oversee our Next Generation ministries from cradle to college. This includes overseeing our Nursery, KidZone, Wyldlife, and Young Adult Group. In this role she will help recruit, train, and resource our leaders and volunteers for those various ministries. She will also oversee church communication, various administrative tasks, and our social media platforms. Finally, I look forward to Kathryn preaching more and am excited to see how God continues to use her at Eastside, producing rich fruit through her life and ministry!
New Direction for Eastside Worship!
Now, I imagine you’ve been asking this whole time, “Hey! What about our worship through music!?! What’s happening there?” Great question! Well, I am equally excited to share that Tim Lambert has agreed to be our new Eastside Music Director!!! For those of you who may not know much about Tim, he and his lovely wife, Shelly, are good friends of ours and have been attending Eastside for several months with their three awesome sons, Jack (15), Micah (13), and Jude (11). You may have noticed, as well, that Tim has also led the worship team a few times for us on Sunday and has been such a blessing!
Tim currently teaches music in the East Rochester School District and has many years of experience leading worship through music in a number of settings. In addition to his amazing skills as a musician and leader, I have found Tim’s strengths to be his contagious joy and love of life; his heart-felt thoughtfulness and authenticity in leading worship through music; and his ability to inspire, invest in, and develop those who serve alongside him. When Tim is not playing an instrument, he is most certainly playing a board game! In fact, their collection of games is most impressive! Perhaps one day he’ll launch a board game Grow Group at Eastside…any takers?
So, when does Tim start? Well, he already has but he will officially begin on Sunday, September 11th, which is our Fall Kickoff. He will personally plan and lead every other Sunday while growing and developing his team of leaders to lead the other Sundays. Moving forward, my heart is that our worship experience and culture, from the music to the message to our just being together, will be exciting, engaging, and Spirit-filled! I believe Tim helps facilitate that kind of environment at our church and will help build that culture with us.
Please join me in welcoming Tim on board! There are great days and great worship experiences of encountering God’s loving presence ahead of us!
I do want to note, however, that given our current financial situation, we are unable to compensate Tim financially or increase Kathryn’s income but I do hope that with the many ways God is moving at Eastside, the wonderful new faces we are seeing, and our efforts to strategically and prayerfully move forward, we will be able to do so.
So, please continue to pray for our church and trust that “he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ return” (Philippians 1:6). And don’t forget to thank Pastor Kathryn and Tim for all the ways they are being a blessing at Eastside!!!