Archive for February 2008
What has been happening?
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:20 PM by David Zavadil
I noticed that my last entry was on the 6th. Where has the month gone? We have been very busy at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. We began our revamped Sunday School and have doubled our average attendance since the new beginning. I currently have 5 adults in our inquirer's class and am excited about the new possiblities.
The last week in January I had lunch with Pastor Kim of Eden Korean Presbyterian Church. They meet in our Chapel on Sundays. Pastor Kim asked if they could move their worship time to coincide with ours. He expressed concern that some of their children speak better English than the parents and would appreciate being involved in our Sunday School. We are now having joint Sunday School classes with adult classes in English and Korean and the kids and youth all meeting together. Our next joint venture is to begin ESL classes in the spring/summer season.
Our IT elder and I have been busy trying to upgrade the church website to Joomla 1.5. This has proven a bigger undertaking than we first thought. I hope to have the site up and ready by next week sometime.
February 17 - 20, 2008 we held our FIRST Evangelism and Apologetics Conference. Attendance was good, with three times the participants for the evangelism class than we had planned to have. Clete Hux with Apologetics Resource Center was our Keynote speaker. He taught on world views during the week, enlightening us on the Postmodernism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Word of Faith Movement. It was a great time, too bad Clete was fighting the flu the entire time.
This last week we have all been dealing with that same flu bug. Over half of the congregation was out sick last week with the flu and various other ailments. Many more have fallin ill this week. Sickness is running rampant through our body.
For those that might be interested. I am down 20 lbs and only about 5 pounds from my target weight. I am feeling better and stronger than at any time in my life. I really encourage everyone to watch what they eat.
Pray for us. Easter is coming, one of the busiest seasons in the church. Pray for the physical health of our congregation. Pray that God will give me the words to say on Sundays.
Posted in Family happenings (RSS), Locarb (RSS), Ministry (RSS)
What is the Deal with these People?
Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 10:52 AM by David Zavadil
I have determined that this is the most sickening display of politics I have ever seen. I had determined early on to leave commentary about politics to the radio personalities and the politicians themselves. All of the fore mentioned have enough to say without me chiming in. After yesterday's wierdness and weeks worth of "you called me this" and "she said this," I have had enough.
As a conservative, fiscally, socially, and governmentally, I have decided to abandon our two existing parties. As I look at the leading candidates, I see the same person, just different skin, gender or age. I do not anticipate that any of our current candidates are capable of enacting any positive change for our country and so I wash my hands of them all.
Some may be asking, "Are you going to vote?" Their argument will be , "No vote is a wasted vote." I agree and so I will be casting my vote for the only third party candidate I trust. Me. I have determined to write in my name, that is unless Pogo runs again. I am forming the Common Sense Party. Our platform is simple. If you govern as the constitution was meant to be used and do so with basic common sense, an implied desire of the founders, then you will govern well. So, with that in mind, I will now consider myself as the onlycandidate worth considering, well at least for my vote.
Posted in Commentary (RSS)
Puritan Challenged
Posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 at 12:18 PM by David Zavadil
As most of you know, I have been taking part in a modified form of The Puritan Challenge . I January I began reading, Grace Abounding for the Chief of Sinners. I have to confess that this has been a tougher read than I first expected. Though it is not an easy read, compared to the latest Olsteen book, it has been most challenging. I spent the first two weeks wondering, "When am I going to get to the slave trade?" Only after reading a while did it click that this is Bunyan's story not Newton's. After beating myself up for my idiocy, I pressed on.
Bunyan's constant struggle with doubt and his own selfish lusts proves convicting. I am amazed how many of his struggles and issues were similar to those we experience. Like Bunyan, I have often wondered how God could love and forgive a sinner such as I am. Like Bunyan, I seek God's grace as the chief of sinners. It is so amazing to see the truth of Scriptures revealing to my heart, as it did to Bunyan, the abundant grace of God.
Though I have not finished this wonderful book, I will continue to plug
on at the same time beginning Flavel's Mystery
of Providence (Puritan Paperbacks) (Puritan Paperbacks)