A Sunday for the History Books

This past Sunday was a remarkable day for our church, Emmaus Baptist Church.

We opened and dedicated the new Worship Center!

(This picture was taken last night. I missed getting the stained-glass window that is just through the triangle. It is so pretty).

I'm not even sure why I'm trying to blog about it because there are so many things to say and some of it is just indescribable to me.

I was proud of our church and the leadership within our church. On Saturday evening we had a one hour prayer service. The purpose: to cover the church in prayer, to dedicate the building to God, to pray for the services on Sunday, and to make sure we realize God's church is not contained just in this building. We don't want our focus to be a pretty new building. The focus must be on worshiping, serving, and honoring God. We want our foundation for this new building to be GOD and PRAYER and HIS WORD.

This is our pastor (on the far right) and his wife (on the far left) along with the pastor & his wife from a church in Malta.

Bryan and I before service started Sunday.

I promise he isn't mad. He is really trying to keep his eyes open. We had already taken a picture that had to be deleted because his eyes were closed!! :) Bryan had told me my top looked like the top half of a dress from the 1800s!!! But then he told me he himself had no sense of fashion!!!

Bryan with our very good friend, Joe Don.

We love this family! They are such genuine people. Joe Don's little boy Jackson says I'm his girl and Bryan is his guy!

Bryan served on the building committee that worked with the architects, engineers, and general contractor. They spent several hours and several meetings throughout the past year planning and discussing the Worship Center. At the end of the service, the pastor on behalf of the church gave each one of the committee members a plaque. It was very meaningful to me to have Bryan serve in this capacity because my Poppy (who is in heaven now) helped to build the first church he and my Granny served in for many years! Poppy actually poured concrete and laid bricks! Bryan didn't do that!! :)

Can you spot Bryan? He's the handsome man in the suit!!!

This video is somewhat out of focus but I wanted to play it for you. I thought this was such an appropriate song to open the new Worship Center with. The words were so fitting. I hope you can understand them. Plus, it gives you a quick look at our fantastic choir and half of our sanctuary. The choir was singing as people were walking in and talking; thus the background noise.

This was the first Sunday in several years our entire church was together in one preaching service and it was wonderful!!

Our church is also reading the Bible out loud cover to cover. Each person/couple signs up for one hour increments, signs where they stopped, and then the Bible is going into our time capsule to be opened in 50 years! I loved this idea. It demonstrates our foundation is God and His word and it shows the importance and value of God's word in our church and our lives. On Tuesday Bryan and I read the last chapters of Ezra and then all of Nehemiah. I tried so hard to get to Esther since I am doing the study but it just didn't happened. I did think it was great we read Nehemiah since Bryan is an engineer and we read on the rebuilding of the wall. We also read where they had the dedication service and revival. This was so appropriate for our church today!! I'm reading again tonight and cannot wait to see where I read. I hope it is the New Testament!!

I'm so sorry I haven't got to your blogs this week! I am going to really try to catch up over the next few days. Please don't give up on me!!