September
6, 2013
Dear
Eastridge Family,
Old
guy and a bucket of shrimp...
An
old man, named Ed walks down a Florida beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of
shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the
pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on
the beach. Standing out on the end of
the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.
Before
long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come
screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing
there on the end of the pier.
Before
long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping
wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp
to the hungry birds. As he does, if you
listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'
In
a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave.
He
stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.
When
he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the
birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they,
too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes
his way down to the end of the beach and on home.
To
the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant ... maybe
even a lot of nonsense.
His
full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a
famous hero in World War I, and > then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the
Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men
survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.
Captain
Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By
the eighth day their rations ran out. No
food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no
one knew where they were or even if they were alive.
The
men adrift needed a miracle. That
afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap
over his nose. Time dragged on. All he
could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft...
Suddenly,
Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!
Old
Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the
gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving
crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With
it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait . . . and the cycle
continued. With that simple survival
technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found
and rescued after 24 days at sea.
What
was that sea gull doing hundreds of miles away from land? Only God knows.
Eddie
Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the
sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull... And he never stopped saying,
'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of
the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.
We,
too, were saved by a Sacrifical Visitor.
We, too, were rescued by One who journeyed far from God only knows where.
And
we, like Eddie Rickenbacker, have every reason to look into the sky…and
worship.
From
Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm”
- Saturday Morning Prayer Service
Each
Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. here at the church Pastor Daniel will lead our
prayer service. Everyone is invited to
attend.
- Church Board Meeting
Sunday
afternoon we will have our monthly church board meeting at 4:30 in the
Fellowship Hall.
- Spanish transmitters
We
have recently had a good problem, more people who attend the worship service on
Sunday morning who also need the service translated into Spanish. To remedy this problem we need to purchase
some more transmitter/receivers. We
estimate the need to be about 7-10 more at the cost per unit of a little more
than $100. If you would like to help
with this need you may mark your check or offering envelope “Spanish Ministry”
and we will use that money to purchase more transmitters.
- Alabaster Offering
The
Alabaster Offering provides funds for property and buildings around the
world. While we understand the church
consists of the people of God and not a building; the Alabaster funds do help
provide land for many Work & Witness projects, and the entire Alabaster
Offering goes toward the purchase of land and construction of churches,
schools, medical facilities, and homes for missionaries and national workers.
The
Alabaster boxes are located on the information table in the entryway of the
church. We will collect our Alabaster
offering on Sunday September 22nd.
- Missionary Books
Our
Missionary President Muriel Murray has the missionary reading books. If you would like to learn about what is
going on in Nazarene Missions check out one of these books. We also have the books on CD so you can
listen as you drive if you would prefer to listen instead of reading.
I’m
looking forward to worshiping with you Sunday.
I plan to preach a sermon entitled “Help Me” as I follow up the message
from last Sunday “Follow Me” we will look at Luke 5:27-32 and Matthew 9:35-38
Pastor
Andy
- Quotes to consider
"You
must seek Him in the morning, if you want Him the rest of the day".
“Sin need no longer reign in the
heart. An outpouring of God's love into
the heart 'excludes sin." - Diane Leclerc
“Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project
not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the
life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.” - N. T. Wright
The end goal of the Christian life is not to switch sides but
to enter a new world and whole new way of living. – David Fitch
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