No One Cancels Jesus' Party

Satan tried to cancel Jesus' birthday party last night at Awaken. Some of his lame ideas included:

A severe windstorm. FAIL. Jesus has a habit of controlling the wind.

A power outage. FAIL. We had luminarias ready to roll.

Street closed because of a downed tree. FAIL. It's called a detour.

Blow our banners off the sign and down the street and let a car roll over them. FAIL. I run fast. I caught it. I'll bet we got that driver's attention!

We arrived at the church yesterday 2 1/2 hours before service began to sound check and do some last-minute set-up. I took luminarias outside and set up the banners on the street as everyone inside sound checked. I ran back inside to grab something and went back to the street right in time to see our banner get whisked away like a kite. It introduced itself to a car's windshield and the underside of someone's tires before I finally caught up to it. It was just fine. Very sturdy banner. We brought it inside right in time for the power outage. Never fear, the luminarias are here! We lined the sanctuary with luminarias and lit the place up. At that point, we were kind of hoping the power didn't come back on!

The power did come on 10 minutes before service began. We powered up the projector, turned the sound system back on, and turned the lights OFF. It was a fun night as we had different people come up and read portions of the Christmas story intermittently between Christmas songs. What a great night. After songs, the Christmas story, and a short message about the simplicity of Christmas and the Gospel, we had all the kids come up to the front and sang happy birthday to Jesus. They blew all the candles out, then the feasting began!

One thing I love about Awaken is that normally we have to kick people out - nobody wants to leave! That's good fellowship! Make sure to swing by the website and check out the pictures of the night.

Merry Christmas to all. We hope your day is blessed and you experience the simplicity of God's love and the sacrifice He made to prove that love to us. Christmas can get busy, but remember what it's really all about: THE SAVIOR WAS BORN!