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Happy Fair Week!! Can’t you just smell it in the air! I am so looking forward to fellowshipping with many of you at the fair groups this week! Don’t forget to send pictures my way as you snap them! You can text or email, I’ll compile our memories into a fair slideshow to share on Sunday. 

Many thanks to those of you who have been signing up to help in the milkshake stand! Spaces are filling up, I am grateful! We still will be grateful for help in the afternoon shifts, so if you’re free, I can guarantee you a good time!

September has meant the start of “normal” schedules for some things around here. Lil’ and Youth Roots have started back to a regular Sunday School program and they’re learning about our Root Truths. These are some core belief statements for Roots Family Ministry. They’re phrased a little differently at each level, (adults too!) but are designed to guide us what it means to be and live as a believer. Kerri Kreider and Laurie O’Donnell, our Roots Sunday School Coordinators are faithfully assisting in writing the curriculum for this “unit” and it’s turning out great! 

Something that we added to this curriculum is a little “passion project” of mine that’s been talked about for a long time but never had the right opportunity to launch - a podcast! So it’s out and live and new episodes will drop each Wednesday, for now, as a take-home discipleship tool for families and spiritual parents. You can listen to and follow along with “The Dig” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or this website. The podcast is designed to help deepen learning from the week prior, build excitement for the learning that will take place during the upcoming time together and grow ALL disciples! Give it a listen!

We’re finalizing the roster for the volunteer needs on Wednesday Roots Nights. There’s still time for you to get involved! Remember, we’ll start that time together on October 1st with dinner at 5:45pm in the Family Life Center. Age-specific discipleship activities will start at 6:30pm. 

Also coming up over the next few weeks is another Grace Marriage Date Night, another Mother’s Ministry Gathering, a Dutch Blitz tournament and the start of many of the Adult Grow Groups that you saw highlighted in the Gathering Area yesterday. How blessed are we to do life and ministry together!

I’m not sure if I’ll have a column for you next week or not. While many of you will be recovering from the joys of the Solanco Fair, I’ll be gearing up for the Lampeter Fair! For my whole life, my family has been very involved in the fair. I look forward to serving our community there, alongside my family, each year! Maybe I’ll see you there?!

 

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

Our Family Theme: God’s Word Leads Me to Him and His Truth

Our Root Text: Psalm 119:33-34 NIV

How Every Generation Lives This Out: Discuss as a household... if we were made to know GOd and know that god’s word is true, what is one way we can hide his word in our heart this week?

Check Out This Week’s PODCAST EPISODE

 

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

I've been reading the book of Ezekiel the past week or so in my Bible reading plan. A roller coaster of a reading, really. And rightfully so, God’s people are disobedient and hard-hearted. They’re now in exile in Babylon. So Ezekiel’s responsibility, like other prophets, is to call God’s people to repent and return, but also to offer hope - God’s not done with his people and his story. 

The book starts with a vision of the glory of God and ends with a vision of the new temple, the dwelling place of God’s glory. 

It starts and ends with glory. The middle is a little messy, it always is actually. But God, in the midst of his people’s messiness and busted up hearts, says I’m not done here. Glory is still to be had. He says in Ezekiel 36:11 ESV, “And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

The Bible Recap talks about this passage and says “God, who has always been good, looks at a bunch of sinners and says He promises to be even better.”

Even better despite us in the messy middle. He’ll be increasingly better until the day his glory will be fully revealed.

 

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

Something to Read: I love a good boardbook for our littlest Roots! Here’s a collection that would be a great gift or addition to your bookshelf - Big Theology for Little Hearts Pack

Something to Listen to: This podcast (and her books) are excellent resources for navigating cultural topics and conversations as a family. But this episode is definitely one to cue up… How to Help Your Kids Process the Loss of Charlie Kirk.

Something to Follow: One more shameless plug for “The Dig”! Listen and follow along on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or this website.

 

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

PRAY for a safe and healthy Solanco Fair week!

PRAISE for the many hands who are helping make the fall launch of various ministry programs possible!