Mystery church shopping?

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Recently I heard something on the radio that I had never heard before: an advertisement about mystery church shoppers. In my past I was a mystery shopper for a while and I am familiar with how that works, but I had never heard it applied to churches before. The speaker in the ad stated “Churches know why people stay. They want to know why people DON'T stay.” For a fee, the mystery shopping company will send a “shopper” to your church. Later, you receive a report informing you of the shopper’s experience in your church and their impressions, everything from how clean the bathroom and sanctuary were to how friendly or unfriendly the church members were to the quality of the sermon to parking availability. That set me thinking about what does cause a visitor to decide to return, or not, to a church. As someone who has spent the better part of the last two years being a visitor in multiple churches and denominations, I tried to think about my experiences as a guest and how I felt. When I felt really drawn to a church, what was the reason. Was it a clean bathroom? No, not really, although that certainly matters. Was it the newness of the decor or the size of the building?  No.  Was it convenient parking? Friendly greeters? The music? The sermon? It really wasn't any one of those things by themselves. They are all significant. I think the key difference is relationships. Our God is all about relationships, and as His people, we should be also. When I visit a church and someone there seems genuinely interested in a relationship with my family and me, that blesses me hugely. The priorities in our life are the things we focus on. So I hope the next time I am at church and I see someone I don't know, I make them a priority. Philipppians 2:3 says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” This is my prayer, and something I am hopefully getting better at.

Happy Birthday, Em!

Today was my daughter's birthday. I bought her a rose and her daddy took her out for lunch. Then later today we had a small family party. These videos are for the grandparents, aunts and uncles. The reason there are two videos is because one gift had arrived in the mail and we put it up and forgot to bring it out at first. Happy Birthday, Em! You're amazing and we love you!!!

God can use Facebook

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Today I met a cousin of mine for the first time. We found each other without even looking for each other because of a mutual friend. My friend posted something on Facebook, to which we both commented. My cousin then made a comment about my maiden name being the same as hers and joked that we must be related. So we began to investigate and realized that her father and mine are first cousins, making us second cousins because we had the same great-grandparents. She "happens" to live only a twenty minute drive or so from where we are staying right now, so we met for lunch. I discovered we have some things in common, our love for Christ, our preference for Coke over Pepsi, both happily married twenty years this summer, teenage daughters, bashful sons, and who knows what else. I am so grateful to have "found" this new friend! I don't believe in coincidences or luck. Nothing that happens to me is a surprise to God, and He is not random. I believe He intended for us to meet. Facebook can be an incredible waste of time if we allow it to be, but it can also be a great tool and a blessing.

Back in the U.S.A.

We're back! We crossed the border into the U.S. on June 30th, our 20th wedding anniversary, and arrived at my sister-in-law's home happy but tired. We left the kids with my in-laws and went to a nearby small town B&B to celebrate our anniversary. In case you think the kids got jilted, their aunt and uncle treated them to laser tag, a movie, shopping, and all the junk food any kid could want. It was good for all of us. We are now in Missouri, packing and working on ministry support. It feels kinda wierd going through the checkout line at the store with enough unscented solid deodorant, vitamins, and tylenol to last a family of five for two years. It does make people stare. It also felt a little wierd the first time we went into a store and everything we heard was in English.  That didn't even happen when we lived in Florida, let alone Québec.

Sometimes you need to stop and smell the roses, so on our way down from Canada, we stopped at Niagara Falls. I had been to see the falls years ago, on my senior trip, and wanted to share it with David and the kids.