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Another Monday upon us! A fresh start, a clean slate, a new chunk of time to tackle our primary mission - glorifying our creator!

It’s a short week in the office for me, as the MVMNT Conference Team departs at 3:15am on Thursday morning for Northwest Montana! We’ll be attending a youth conference hosted by Fresh Life Church in Kalispell, Montana. The conference has six sessions of worship and teaching with several of today’s leading youth voices.

I’m nervous and excited about this trip. I’ve asked before for prayers on travelling logistics and mercies, as those details have been challenging leading up to this week. I’m excited for this group of teens to engage in new faith experiences as we learn and worship together. You can be prayerful for 1) hearts that are open and receptive to the ways God is going to reveal himself to these teens, 2) safety and health for each of our bodies as we have long travel days and exciting Montana adventures planned and 3) traveling mercies - specifically for our flight details to go smoothly!

A big thank you to those of you who joined us for breakfast yesterday and for those who donated to our trip! Yesterday’s breakfast fundraiser brought in $2,100, helping us meet our goal! We’re grateful for your generous support of our youth! They’ll share about their conference experiences with the congregation on Sunday, August 10th. 

We’ll arrive home from Montana on Monday evening, just in time to kick it into full swing for FAMJAM 2025! If you haven’t registered yet, you’re missing out!!! Remember, pre-registration is expected for all ages! You can register online HERE or Adults can register via the “adult-only” schedule which you can find at the FAMJAM display in the Gathering Area. Also, don’t forget to Invite your friends and neighbors, of all ages! Remember, FAMJAM is for ages 0-100! Young or old, come worship and learn with us August 1st-3rd! Feel free to take postcards to share! Share the Facebook event found on the MGCB Facebook page!

More than anything, pray for FAMJAM! Sign-up to be on the prayer team, or just commit to pray each day leading up to FAMJAM Weekend! HERE is a list of some very specific prayer requests. Grab a printed copy in the Gathering Area. Save these prayer requests as your phone lock screen!

A lot of things moving and grooving around here! Trusting the Lord to give us just what we need each day to “do the next right thing, in faith, with excellence, for the glory of God!”

 

What WE’RE Learning This Week: A nugget of what our Lil’, Youth and Adults Roots heard this week

Our Family Theme: Wisdom for Daily Living

Our Root Text: Proverbs 2:1–22

Verse of the Month: James 1:5

How Every Generation Lives This Out: Discuss how we should seek out God’s wisdom and put it into practice.

 

What I’M Learning This Week: Sharing what I’m reading and listening to lately

I’ve been running a way, overfull schedule for most of the summer. Feeling behind and run down and ragged 90% of the time lately. So I’ve been asking God for “just enough strength.” Just enough to meet whatever my needs are requiring in that moment for this day. Not for tomorrow just yet, because “tomorrow will worry about itself, each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).

Simple strength has produced the fruit of simple joys. When I’m asking God for just what I need for that day, He, my perfect portion, opens my eyes to the ways he’s producing goodness in my spaces and my places. Goodness that most of this summer sometimes was hard to spot. And on a day that those simple joys have been hard to spot, I’m drawn back to pictures of ones that God placed before me days before. I’ve been making an effort to snap pictures of these simple joys - ones like blueberries picked right off my bushes, bare feet in the flower garden, zinnias in a freshly picked bouquet, my nephew splashing in the kiddy pool, wash hanging on the line, eating summer suppers with Scott. 

Simple strength, simple joys. I’m preaching to myself a bit today. I need to be reminded of this as much as I need to practice it. We’ve been reading in Matthew 6 this week on the FAMJAM reading plan. The end of that chapter talks about all the things we worry about, stress over, get consumed with. I like how the Message translation wraps up this chapter. It’s encouraging me as I preach to myself today. Maybe to you too?

“What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:33-34 MSG

 

Make Every Week Count: Parenting, Grandparenting & Spiritual Mentoring Resources

Another week of FAMJAM resources!

Something to Read: It’s not too late to get in on our FAMJAM Reading Plan! Grab a printed copy in the Gathering Area (adults and kids!) or view it here.

Something to Listen to: Yay!! The FAMJAM playlist is LIVE and ready for your ears! Listen on Spotify or on YouTube!

Something to Follow: The Truth Seekers: Bible Stories for Kids podcast has a summer series on the Beatitudes! It would be a great listen for your family this week! Check out "Influencers for Jesus (Living the Beatitudes).

 

How Can You Pray? Prayer Requests and Praises from Roots Ministries

PRAY for the Sr. High Youth Roots Crew headed to the MVMNT Conference! 

PRAISE for the many volunteers coming forward for FAMJAM!