First Preview Service!

We had our first of 3 preview services last Saturday and it went great! Thank you all for praying.

We spent the day rehearsing for worship, having lunch with our friends visiting from Indiana, making last changes to powerpoint slides, setting up equipment and refreshments for the service, and finally enjoying the service. It was a full day, but also full of God’s presence and joy.

Deanna (Cameron’s sister) and I led worship and children’s church together. Mom ran the makeshift nursery for the toddlers. Dad was the head usher. Caleb did the powerpoint slides. My brother-in-law, John, ran the sound system. Basically it was all hands on deck for the family! And even our friends chipped in to help with everything here and there. So thankful to have JB and Naomi as part of our first service team!

Cameron preached on The Meaningful Life and it was a word in season. Everyone responded at the end to live their lives more meaningfully, the way God intended. You can watch his sermon on his Facebook, which is what I did at home that night as I’d missed it during the service (being in children’s church).

We had visitors, some we didn’t know were coming and who surprised us! And others we’ve met and reached out to during our time here. From talking to them these last few days after the service, it seems they’ve enjoyed their time in the church and are looking forward to the next service, and even being involved in serving the church and the community! That’s really encouraging and exciting to hear, as it is exactly what we’re here for: to bring the gospel to the lost and to engage God’s people in fulfilling the task with us!

Here are some pictures from the service:

We’re also so thankful to have help from Singapore on design work. Thank you again, Rasey! And here are some of the print media we had for the service. The Chinese card was what we gave out as part of our Chinese New Year blessing outreach plan. We gave a little love gift in ang baos (red packets) – Cornerstone ones from a few years back! – together with the card that had my contact details, to Chinese immigrants working around here. We had quite a bit of Chinese food to eat last week as we visited the restaurants! One of them came for the service! It was great to see her. And we pray that God will continue to bring people from all nations to Cornerstone Michigan, just as He did in Cornerstone Singapore. Missions at our doorstep, missions in our blood!

Our next service will be on February 25 and we appreciate your continual prayers for us and the church. We will be having another service in March before we officially launch weekly services from April 16 onwards.

A prayer pointer we would appreciate prayers for would be for a more permanent venue we can rent for use throughout the week and not just on Saturday or Sunday. We have plans for weekday activities and community outreaches and it will be much easier to plan all these when we have our own place.

Thank you for Walking with the Walcotts!