Life @ Montrose, July 28, 2010

WORSHIP THIS SABBATH
Gunnison (11 AM): Pastor Campbell is going to be preaching a message from the book of Lamentations entitled "Learning to Listen: A Challenge of Compassion."
Montrose (11 AM): Please come for a sacred musical concert for our worship service led by "Simply His"--a musical group led by Don Mohl.

GUNNISON CHURCH SOCIAL THIS SABBATH
Rebecca Grice wanted me to let everyone know that if you're up in Gunnison this Sabbath that you're invited over to their cabin for Sabbath afternoon. Please bring your own portable chair, and in the evening there will be a hot dog roast. They will provide a nice camp fire and condiments--you just need to bring the veggie burgers or hot dogs to go between the buns! A fun time will be had by all so please plan to come for this fun church activity.

NEW SCHOOL WEB SITE
A special thank you to Staci Nelson who thanks to her hard work our church school is blessed with a new web site: www.springcreekadventist.org. The web site looks up to date and classy! For those of you online I would strongly encourage you to stop by for a virtual visit.

THE PASTORAL PERSPECTIVE
This week I've been blessed to be able to minister to the church members in Hope, British, Columbia, who have gathered here for their camp meeting. It certainly has to be one of the most beautiful camp meeting sites in North America (rivaling the Redwoods campground for those church members living in northern California). I've never had the privilege of being here before so I'm so thankful for the invitation to be here to share. They've been working me hard. In addition to a daily two-hour seminar on Ellen White I've also done one of the early morning worker's meetings, and this morning I filled in at the Junior tent with a devotional message for the kids there, too. It's such a blessing to be able to be here.

On a personal note I was able to visit with my great-aunt and great-uncle, who love near Penticton, on the eastern side of British Columbia. They are church members. It was only after my grandparents passed away some years ago that are family discovered that we have a whole wing of Adventist relatives who are a part of this wonderful Advent movement! Last night we went out for supper, learned new stories about her family, and on the way back stopped by to visit some additional relatives who I didn't know I even had. They had a family tree that filled in some gaps for me as I learned about our family's past. We've had a very colorful history with great villains as well as other people who have made significant contributions (I'll try to focus on the more positive angle though!). I was proud to learn that some of my family were famous in Russia for their ability to ride horses.

Genealogy is important--it reminds us of who we are and where we have come from. I'm thinking that must be why the Bible has long lists of genealogies. They appear at first to be rather mundane and boring, but I think that really they tell us stories that our Savior, in particular, was a real person just like us. He had some "shady characters" in the closet as well as some notable individuals such as King David (who even his career wasn't exactly untarnished you might say), eh? (I couldn't resist throwing that in there!).

I'm thankful for those of you who were able to help out at the school (while I was flying to camp meeting) this past Sunday. Although we changed the date for school registration we still had at least 11 young people register for school this year, which is a great start. If you weren't able to get your child registered you will want to make sure that you call Michelle Caviness at the school (249-5500). Also, right now is the time to register your child for either Adventurers (call Staci at 275-3705) or Pathfinders (call Tavia at 417-4886).