Hey MABC family & friends,

Sherry and I hope you had a great day of worship yesterday.  Thank you for the time away with our granddaughters in the KC area.   It was a busy weekend with recital practice, recital, and a couple of rec league volleyball games.  Sandwiched in there was Sunday worship with one of our granddaughters.  And other than a “little” Kansas wind, the weather was beautiful.   As you know, our current method for working together was based on having the time to do just that in my “retirement” years – spend more time with family.

On the Sunday after Easter, I shared with you the importance of church membership and what I thought the commitment of a church member should be.  I told you that I have a vision for every church member of one hour of worship, one hour small group of some sort and one hour of service weekly.  If we tithed on our time to the Lord that would be 16.8 hours.  Three hours hardly seems like much compared to that.  I have a great way for some of you to join me in getting in your one hour per week of service and be engaged in some outreach.

Lawrence Elementary School is just down the road a piece on Maple.  They are needing volunteers to come and make an impact in their school.  They can use help in the Library shelving books and maybe reading to children.  You may just show up for an hour at lunchtime and visit with kids in the cafeteria.  If you are more active you can go out to the playground!  If you don’t like kids (gasp!) but want to serve, they will make arrangements to work in the office and make copies for teachers.   I have met with Cindy the principal and she is excited to see how we can be a part of what they are doing.  Next year will be a busy year as they absorb some students from Payne Elementary located on Harry and Meridian.  It is one of the schools being closed down as part of USD 259 budget cuts.  It is easy to volunteer.  I am including the link to the volunteer sign up.  It is of no cost to you and takes very little time.  I filled out the form Wednesday about 3:30 pm after meeting with Cindy and was approved the next morning.  Just click on the “Fill out form” link in the colored box.  Use the side bar to scroll down on the form.

            http://www.usd259.org/volunteerregistration

Let me know when you sign up!  We also have the opportunity to make an impact on the staff!  May 6-10 is Teacher Appreciation Week.  I know how much you all love desserts as witnessed by the room full of them when we had the lunch for Sherry and me.  I will have a sign-up sheet out in the foyer and would love to inundate the teachers and staff with goodies for the week.  They do not have to be individually wrapped for the faculty/staff lounge.  Let’s end the school year on a big note and signify that we are ready to partner with LES in making a difference in our community.

We also have an opportunity for “in-house” service with our tech team.  We need additional people to learn sound and audio/visual production for our worship services.  As we look to expand our production for outreach purposes, we will need your help.  Reach out to Phil or Stacy Roenne if you want to know more.

Thanks again for the Sunday away.  Look forward to our new series on the “Growing Christian” this Sunday.

Pastor Rick