Anniversary Sunday 2009

It’s been a busy week here at our house, so I’m just now getting the photos up from Anniversary Sunday. Each year we celebrate my father-in-law’s anniversary of coming to pastor our church and have a homecoming-type service like you would have at a smaller country church. This year marks his 38th year as our pastor. We had a record attendance of 4,142 in Sunday school with over 1,300 riding the buses, more than double our regular attendance. 173 people trusted Christ as their Saviour around the property in services being held for children, teens, and adults. We have since heard reports of more people getting saved later in the day as workers had a chance to talk more in-depth with them.

I spent the Sunday school hour under a big tent with all of the teens. We had so many that we had to open up the back of the tent to accommodate everyone. You would think that there would be chaos with close to 500 teens, but they were very well behaved. 🙂

After Sunday school I headed over to the main auditorium and listened to my husband preach a great salvation message. It was so exciting to see people walk the aisle during the invitation. Several folks were also baptized. You could really feel the Holy Spirit working!

After the preaching service there was a big party on the football field that included rides, games, and free food. The kids had a blast! I mostly supervised ‘Lil Nut and Curly Girl; Bookworm and Mickey were able to fend for themselves. 🙂

Here come the buses!
The calm before the storm.
We had Teen Church under the big tent.
Fun at the bus party.
The teens played a game to see who could eat the most Star Crunches.
Some of our volunteers in the food tent.
Lil’ Nut playing a game.
Curly Girl was so excited to have her teacher paint her face. She was a tiger. Grrrr.

Curly Girl and Grandpa
Daddy with two of his favorite girls.
If I could sum up the day in one word, it would be FAITHFULNESS. We have been blessed with a faithful pastor who has preached the word of God without compromise for so many years. His ministry reaches around the world, yet he is a very humble man. We also have so many faithful church members who worked hard to get folks to church, participated in a 72-hour prayer chain, and volunteered in so many ways to help out. Most of all, we serve a God who is faithful, and all the glory goes to Him.