The first mission project of The Waters.....

We all have said from the very first time we were conceiving The Waters that we desired for lives to be transformed from the inside out. We believe that for this to occur then we must live al parts of our lives Christ-like. So, even through we meet together and share about God and with God and with each other if our actions are not changed then we have not truly allowed God to transform our lives. So, that is why we desire for actually living sacrifice filed lives to occur we must have many opportunities to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world we live in! So, we will encourage every OG (Organic Gathering) to every now and then go out and "do" something for others in this world to put our Christ centered community into action.

Well, in our first OG, Steve works at a MHMR center on the north side of Cinci. They had a Valentine Day dance and Steve and his wife Kim invited all of us to go to the dance! Whither they knew it or not God offered up our first OG mission trip, heh.

We knew that some couples and other people from the OG could not make it...but those of us who could make it ate dinner @ John and Sylvia's home (thank you so much Sylvia and John) and then headed out for one of the best nights of our lives! We had a blast and I must tell you that God was in our midst! There is nothing quite like loving people who in their very nature is love! They are a people that our society tends to shun and ignore because they are different and time consuming to deal with....but this world could learn so much about Godly love if they would just spend some time dancing with them in their lives!

Needless to say, just like any God inspired mission trip, we were blessed more than we blessed them! So much joy and love in one room! It rocked our socks off!

If anyone would like to see some pictures of the dance then you can find them at my personal blog here.

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Well, next weekend the 1st OG will not meet because of the long weekend most of us will be out of town so we will be starting our 8 week commitment the following Friday (the 24th). The core pastoral team is excited to see if all the hard work we have put into developing the Biblical discussions will be effective at bringing able life transformation from the Word and community! So, start your prayer engines now!

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We have also set the 2nd OG breakfast party to be on Saturday morning March 11th. This OG is made up of people who have said that they are interested in being possible OG leaders somewhere down the road. This OG ideally will be the future core leadership team of The Waters network, but for now we will go through the exact same 8 week commitment that the 1st OG will be doing. Just so they get a feel of the OG and will have already gone through he first 8 weeks so if/when they lead their own OG they will have already experienced it and know a little bit about what is happening and help with discussion.

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I had another phone meeting with the web guys and they are doing a great job at keeping me on track. I am the type of guy that loves to talk about creativity and cool design..and while they are that way too...they are also telling me that they need content and it is holding me accountable to make sure that The Waters can truly be represented via our web presence in words on the screen. And me being a vocal guy putting anything on paper that reads well and is speeelled correctly is a challenge....as if any of you who actually read these blogs don't already know that. I truly believe that Paul and I would get along great, because we have no idea what a run on sentence looks like nor do we care, because we are so excited and passionate about what we are talking about that grammar goes out the window....heh heh....oh well thank you all for your patience and care...and for all of you will be proof reading the website stuff, heh....

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I am also continuing my work with the KY UMC Conference NCCD (New Church congregational Development team) As I have told you all before that I am part of an incubator team made up of other pastor who are excited about bringing new churches/ministries into the KY Conference and we are working through our Ministry Action Plans (MAPs) In each MAP it includes a plan for developing anew church/ ministry including things like prayer strategy, core values, mission, vision, etc... all of these will help focus The Waters and help provide content for the website as well as help others to grasp The Waters and invite them to be a part of it!

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Well, that is about all I can think about right now. I appreciate any prayers you send on our behalf, and please know that they are all being answered in God's time and God's way! We are so blessed to be a blessing! Thank you!

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Pumbaa: It's our motto.
Young Simba: What's a motto?
Timon: Nothing. What's a motto with you?
-- The Lion King

funny this is how I feel when it comes to working with a group when they are trying to come up with a mission/vision/core values statement, heh.... What is in a mission Statement? Who are we writing this for? What words should we use? What's a motto with you? heh heh....