Tonight is Christmas, 08!

One could not ask for a better Christmas. For our family, we had Christmas at our house on Main Street in Van Wert, Ohio. Our son, Aaron flew home from China, and our other son and his family, Matt, Jenny and our granddaughter, Miley were all with us for Christmas Eve and all day Christmas. We opened a lot of presents Christmas Eve, opened our stuffed stockings Christmas morning, and watched our 16 month old granddaughter open up her "big ones" under the tree this morning. In a time of recession and economic lows, God was faithful to us as He always is!

We slept in today, drank a lot of coffee after we got up, and ate turkey and the trimmings in our family room about 12:45. After a tour of our new church building, Matt and Jenny went home, leaving Miley with Uncle Aaron and Grandma and Grandpa Burns for the night. After eating left overs tonight, Uncle Aaron and I treated the girls (including Scotty Dog, Cabbie) to a tour of Christmas lights at the Van Wert Co. Fair Ground sponsored by our local 4 H Club. It was real pretty. If you click on the address below, you can see our son, Aaron's Face Book page of even more Christmas Pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=196331&l=0bc74&id=610120649

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is Jim C. Burns, Pastor of the Liberty Baptist Church in Van Wert, Ohio

FIRST SUNDAY SUCCESS!

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9).

God did it!

Yesterday was one of the most victorious days I've ever experienced in 33 years of ministry. Our church people and even a couple of guest volunteers worked tirelessly last week to move "stuff" from our old church building into the new building. Many took vacation days to help, and others worked some nights till midnight to make things ready. I was so excited, I got up at 5:45 Sunday morning, drove "up" to our new building and called Travis Kittle at 6:28 am to see if he could clear the snow off the parking lot. (Sorry Travis). I then walked into our new building and broke down. With nearly a year from the purchase date and seven months of hard work from our wonderful church family, we are now "in!"

On our first Sunday in our new building, we saw our Sunday School record broke with 102 in Sunday School, and we were blessed with 162 total for our morning worship hour. It was so "awesome" having all the extra space! I could stand at my new pulpit from our big blue adult classroom we are using for our make shift sanctuary and see kids walking to their new classrooms with big smiles on their faces. And, the teachers were smiling too! For the first time in 15 years, our children's Sun. School Teachers got to use a classroom with real walls and real doors! We had ample parking space on both sides of the building, and a new lobby about three times the size of our old one!


God has been so good to us, and we are just praising His name for how He gave us such a tremendous first day in our new church building!

That's Something to Think About!