Thursday, June 26, 2014

An Open Letter to the Leadership of Gaylord E-Free Church


If anything, I tend to over-communicate with the leadership of our church but I can’t help but share with them what God is doing in our church here at Gaylord E-Free!  During our MINION WEEK Vacation Bible School this week, I have been sending them an update email each night to share with them what God is doing.  Today’s update was so amazing, I can’t help put post my letter to our Elders, Staff and Leadership Team publicly for everyone to see!  To God be the glory!

Dear Elders, Staff and Leadership Team:

I have been part of leading or teaching Vacation Bible Schools for 29 years but I have never seen God working in a VBS like He is this week here at E-Free.  The

stories are too numerous to tell but I can tell you that 10 more kids made salvation decisions today which means that through 4 days of VBS we have seen 91 kids make decisions to receive Jesus as the personal Savior! Way to go, God!!!

Today was one little boy's first day at MINION WEEK Vacation Bible School.  As he left, my wife heard him say to his grandma who picked him up at the end of the morning, "Grandma, now I know everything there is to know about God!"

Tomorrow is the last day of MINION WEEK but tomorrow night at 7pm is our family celebration. We have invited all of the parents to join us and all of the drawings for prizes, including the grand price of 4 tickets to Avalanche Bay, will take place then! Best of all, I will have the opportunity to share the Gospel with the parents much in the same way I have with the children every day this week! Even if you have not been able to join us for VBS this week, I encourage you to join us this Friday Night!

Now let me switch gears and show you another way God is working among our children and our young people.  I AM LITERALLY BLOWN AWAY!!!  I told you earlier in the week of the little boy who brought me 15 pennies out of his piggy bank that he wanted to give toward our nursery expansion.  Something else happened in this same arena today!

This morning, two brothers (age 6 and age 7) came up to me at VBS and gave me envelopes with money in it from their own savings that they wanted to give to our nursery expansion project. Their mother told me that they have been talking about this as a family and that it was totally these two boys idea to take a large portion of their savings money and give it to the church to help pay for our new nursery. 

I asked them if they were sure they wanted to give this money for our new nursery! They smiled and said, "YES!" I asked them why they wanted to give it. They smiled and said, "SO MORE PEOPLE CAN LEARN ABOUT JESUS!" I looked at their mother and said, "This is amazing!" Now it was her turn to smile as she replied, "They're amazing boys!" 

I went downstairs and counted the money. One envelope contained $191.00! The other envelope contained $182.00! Between these two brothers (ages 6 & 7) they sacrificed (I mean really sacrificed) and gave $373.00 toward our new nursery! 

If all of our adults would catch the vision for our church that these two boys have, nothing would stop us! Though young, these boys are examples of faith for all of us here at E-Free Church to follow! By the way, these two boys are also planning to do a lemonade stand later this summer so they can give more money to our nursery project.

That’s not it!  I saw on Facebook tonight that 2 of our teenagers are having a bake sale and garage sale tomorrow!  There will be coffee, cookies, lemonade, rice Krispie treats and much more! All proceeds from the bake sale benefit our nursery expansion. Here is what they wrote on Facebook, “This is just our way to do something big for someone little!”

Our kids and teens have caught the vision of our church! I could not be more proud as a pastor! If our kids and teens have caught the vision to the point that they are sacrificing, I think it is appropriate that I ask each of you in leadership, have you caught the vision?  Seriously, what will you sacrifice so that you can give BIG for someone LITTLE?

Blessings!
Scott