Pastor Appreciation

The Stamps had such a good weekend. We had our friends Mike and Kacy over to watch the game on Sat and enjoyed pizza and cheese dip as we went nuts while the Hogs ROLLED over Auburn. Mike and Kacy are 2 of the funniest people I know so we enjoyed hanging out with them. After that I went and briefly checked out the new mall (which is GREAT by the way) while Scott watched another game. Then we later went over to Guy and Julie's and hung out and watched a movie.
Sunday was the highlight of my week. It was our pastor's 10 year anniversary and they had a suprise service for him. They cancelled late Sunday school and the service went THREE hours. There were so many highlights. The razorback drum corp came marching down the aisles to start the service and played along with our choir for this WONDERFUL song that is the California Baptist University theme song. It was AWESOME! Our church gave the pastor's wife and her daugher and daughter-in-law a trip to NYC. The president of OBU was there to present an endowed scholarship in Phillip and Laurie's names for a ministry student at OBU every year. One of my favorite things was a retired pastor drew this big picture that we had framed for them of all the churches Bro. Phillip had pastored. We were also celebrating 30 years in the ministry for him. I think it was 5-6 churches including one he pastored while he was a student at OBU. They had videos from a lot of fellow pastors and friends and a slide show. It was a very emotional morning. My 2 favorite things that happened were in the slide show they scrolled through the names of every person who was baptized in our church in the 10 years since Bro Phillip has been here. That was so neat and the list was so long. What an inspiration to see how many people have come to the Lord in his time here. And then possibly the neatest thing was when during the invitation, Bro.Phillip's daughter (who is a sophomore at OBU (and a tri chi!)) came forward and said she had been struggling with whether she had ever been saved and asked Jesus in his heart. I know that was the greatest moment for our pastor. He came up to close the invitation and told us what happened as he prayed with Hannah and he just cried and cried. The whole day was special for me because I understand a pastor's life and just as my dad's church had a big celebration for his 20th anniversary last year - it is so important to recognize the service and dedication your pastors give.
After church, Scott and Mike and Kacy helped Guy and Julie move her piano home (read her blog for a neat story on that). Then we ate lunch at Copelands with Guy and Julie.
Last night we had another special service and then a church wide reception. I got to help with it. We had everything decorated in OBU colors! It was just a wonderful day and such a day to be thankful for my church and our church staff.

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