Life in the Big Potato

Please pray for direction as we try to lead our church forward.  Ask God to direct us concerning: The youth ministry.  We have a few who are committed. Children's ministry.  We are lacking any real programming for school-aged kids. Life Groups.  We need more leadership and more training. Preaching ministry.  I need to deliver a true word from God each week. Prayer ministry.  We need greater commitment to this from the church, and our times of prayer need to grow in depth. Missions.  We have several opportunities to be a part of some international trips.  Who should go on which ones? Evangelism.  We need to become a church that is increasingly sharing the Gospel with our community. Campus.  I feel like there needs to be outreach to the NIC campus. This list of prayer requests is a list of things that we don't know how to handle.  It is scary for me to think about, but it is exciting to wonder what God is going to do about each one of these situations.

southern miss to the top sleeping beauty

Just wanted to give another plug for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. They've fed more than 2 million meals in hurricane affected areas in the past few weeks. The story is on NAMB's News site . Please pray for Glen from NorthStar church as he is somewhere in the midst of all that feeding.

We don't hate women.  We don't hate gays.  We are no longer racists.  We don't want to turn the country into a theocracy.  This is what we do: Communities pounded by Hurricane Ike last weekend are still experiencing a major infrastructure crisis. Water, sewage, electricity and fuel supplies have all been impacted. Even gas stations that have fuel are unable to sell it without power. Residents, unable to heat or cool food, are limited to canned items and what they obtain from charitable groups.“These kinds of issues are the reason we have trained our units to go into an area and be self-sustaining,” said Caison. “We have our own fuel. We bring in large tanks of water and have the ability to purify water. We bring generators.” If you don't know about Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, I suggest you get up to speed. Make a donation. If you are Southern Baptist, consider getting trained so you too will be ready to respond when disaster strikes.   Don't ask if it is Go...

For those of you who are used to receiving a newsletter from us every few months, I must apologize.  We feverishly put together a newsletter last week with color photos and inspiring articles, but something weird happened to my computer.  The file is still there, but it is completely blank.  So we are back to square one. In the mean time please feel free to email us, call us, or even Skype us.  And don't forget to check out northstarchurch.us to see what's been happening with the church.  There you can see some more recent pictures or even subscribe to church updates .  If you are on Facebook, we do have a NorthStar CDA group.  Let me know if you'd like to be invited. Additionally, if you know people who would like to keep up with and/or pray for our ministry, please point them to these methods of keeping contact with us.  If you have never recieved a newsletter from us via US mail, just email your address to bennett@globeoutreach.org .  We'll be in touch.

I wanted to briefly share, while it was fresh in my memory, about this past Sunday's service. This past Sunday NorthStar did not meet in the building that we rent. Instead we met at the edge of Lake Coeur d'Alene. It was a beautiful day, sunny with a high of 75 or so with a slight warm breeze. We met on a lawn maintained by North Idaho College that overlooks the lake right on the beach. Everyone brought food, and we grilled burgers. There were about 40 people there I guess, with their lawn chairs and picnic blankets. Rich and Tom led us in worship, and we sang to the God who created the beauty around us. I preached a short message from Luke 9 about the cost of discipleship and what it means to publicly proclaim Christ. Together we prayed that our church would be commited to publicly sharing the Gospel. Then we shared a meal. After we ate together we gathered on the shore. We baptized three people in the chilly water; all three of them adult believers fulfilling obedie...

L explores the wilderness for the first time. Sometimes it is good to get away from all the stress of sleeping, eating and fouling up diapers. NorthStar Church: Lake Edition L was helping to keep daddy warm. "Hey dad, I think I see some nature over there."

Jana and I received a card from the RA's of FBC Morganfield, Kentucky. It is a handmade card with a printout of praying hands glued on the front. On the inside right fold they transcribed Acts 1:8. The "M" in "my" is decorated with three crosses rising from the three points of that letter. On the lower left is a sticker with a picture of a cartoon bear catching a fish that reads, "U can do it!" On the left fold they signed their names. Micheal adds, "Love in Christ" Judd used a big red marker and slanted his name across the whole page. Noah and Sharbey (I think) made sure their names lined up properly along with the last guy who really needs to work on his penmanship. (I understand, my only C in grade school came in handwriting.) I share this with you all to let you know that there is still something special about being Southern Baptist. The way we are doing church means that we are connected with a small group of boys in a small town...

This is what we get for a halftime show. Kids playing on the field.

L is two months old today, and time is flying. My dad came for a short visit to escape Gustav. But I think it was a good excuse to come see his precious granddaughter. While he was here we finally caught a good picture of L's smile and you can notice that the hair is falling down a bit. She is doing great, sleeping through the night, and providing lots of entertainment for her new parents. During the day she likes to ride around the neighborhood in her stroller, play on her jungle play-mat, and listen to mom read stories. She is getting really good at sitting in church services and prayer meetings- a good little preacher's kid we think.