Sorry about last week and we have started the parties of a 2nd OG!!!

Well, last week for some reason the blogger website would not allow me to post a post on the blog....so here is a summary for what last weeks post would have said:

• I have been spending the last few days researching the purchase of an AppleLaptop for The Waters. The only reason we are looking into Apple is because we eventually will be creating and editing digital video to show at each Organic Gathering in the future, so we will need a laptop that will allow me to be portable, as well as, for its capabilities of video editing! In all the Information Technology circles I contacted, every one of them suggested Apple for the software called Final Cut (in total this is an expensive purchase, but one individual @ Florence UMC as already graciously given $2000 for this purchase! God is good!
• I am also planning meetings with experts in the fields of worship, biblical theology of worship, and United Methodist tradition of worship, to make sure that what we are doing with The Waters is biblical, Wesleyan, and UM! (and in reality...we would just like to have the support of all of these and talking with experts in the field will help us support what The Waters is experimenting to be!
  
• I am still developing the MAP (Ministry Action Plan) for The Waters.
• The possible future OG discussion leaders will be eating breakfast @ Bob Evans this Saturday and I hope to have lots of people there to share with them how they could be involved and to answer any questions they may have. I also hope to see if they could help the future developing OG parties and eventual maybe potentially lead the discussion of the OG’s at the end of this year.

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Now, let me sum of what is going on now and in the near future:

The potential future OG leader's OG party @ Bob Evans went great! And some people were very excited about the possibilities of The Waters! We immediately set up our next party that will meet this Saturday @ Panera Bread, so we can get to know each other a little better and after they have a week to think about what I shared last Saturday they can ask me any questions about the Waters experiment. I will even close this blog post out with a poem/song that one of the attendees wrote from being inspired by God and what God will be doing with The Waters!!!!

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I have purchased the Apple Laptop, with the Digital Video Editing software, and a case to carry it around with! With a little help from the church and the generous donation of a FUMC member we will hopefully be getting it sometime by the end of this month in the mail! And I have found several friends that I have have worked with this software for several years and are willing to teach me the program for free and might possibly help out with filming the short videos for each of the OG's each week! Very good news and once again God is blessing us all over the place!

And we also have a few people @ Florence UMC that do digital video filiming/editing for a living, and I am having lunch with one of them this Thursday to talk about the basics and what we might need to do to prepare for the filming.

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I am still working with the potential future house hosts of the OG parties in the summer, and hope to have talked to them together within the next 2 weeks.

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The first OG that meets on Friday night is still going GREAT! Everyone loves it and they are even continuing the scripture discussion online during the next week after we meet! Everyone loves it and everyone is also still trying to invite others to be a part of their OG!

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All in all, I am so blessed and excited to be a part of The Waters! It is amazing to see how people’s lives (including my own) have already been blessed by this ministry! I hope and pray that you who read this blog continue to keep The Waters in your prayers and thoughts, and that you too are blessed by your involvement in The Waters!

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Here is a song/poem that Ben wrote while inspired by the excitement of God's working through The Waters. I will leave you all with this blessing and please never forget to KUTPs!:

Water is an ever living, moving, changing entity.
Full of energy, life giving, and all around us.
The Waters surrounds its members in love,
struggling alongside them in good and bad,
and gives them new life.
Jesus is alive through us all,
moving in and around our lives,
changing, changing, changing...
The best part,
is that water is a mighty force to be reckoned with.
With momentum, and the love from its first offspring,
the waters will keep moving,
keep loving,
and never stop.
We can't stop, because we live and we love.
God is with us, God is with us.
"It's such a good feeling, a very good feeling."