Food / Allergy Alert!

Hi guys, it has been brought to our attention that some people in the group have allergies that have the potential to be lethal if brought to our meetings via the food snacks. While we TRULY appreciate everything that everyone brings we just want to make sure that everyone in the group is safe and remains healthy!

At this point please make sure that there are no BRAZIL NUTS in any of the food products brought to the house. This includes not only the nuts themselves but also the paste and the oil associated with them!!

We will be asking at Group on Sunday if anyone has any other allergies other than this one. Please let us know about your children as well. The obvious allergy for children is the Peanut allergy but as of yet we do not have any knowledge of a problem in this area. All you have to do is let us know and we will pass this along to the group.

We want to provide not only a loving environment for the entire group but also a SAFE one!

Thank you and we'll see you on Sunday!

Prayer Request July 30th!

Hi all! Gail has pulled something in her back this morning and is in severe pain at the moment. I urge all of you to pray for release of pain and quick recovery. I am sure any of you who have had back trauma know what she is going through so in advance we say Thank you!!!!!!

Praise from Carla

Carla has just informed us that her father is home from the hospital and doing well. The doctors feel that with both time and medication he will make a full recovery. She wants to let everyone know that she truly appreciates your prayers and is very thankful you are in her life.

God is awesome!!!!

Prayer Request July 28th

We have just learned that Carla's father is in the hospital in Kansas. He was having chest pains and was scheduled for a heart cath this afternoon.

Please everyone pray for her father, Dean Robbins, as well as the rest of her family!

If there is anything we can do to help please do not hesitate to let us know.

We love you!

Dennis Y baptized!!!

Congratulations to Dennis Y who was baptized yesterday as well. We are all so very proud of Dennis and his walk with the Lord. He has started out with baby steps and is getting into a full blown stride! We look forward to seeing him stay with us all along this walk with Christ and cannot wait to see where the Lord leads him.

CONGRATULATIONS Dennis!!!!! We are soo proud of you!!!

(and don't think just because I don't have a picture of you to post yet that I'm not going to get one. Get ready for the next time I see you and make sure you wear your most flattering shade of lipstick! :) heehee)

Preston and Madison Baptized!!

Hi all! What an awesome day we had today. I know this isn't exactly a Life Group announcement but I had to include this info. Preston and Madison were both baptized this afternoon at the North Star baptism up at Lake Allatoona! It was a reaffirmation of faith for Preston and Madison's very first baptism. How absolutely awesome is that?!?! I am totally in awe of these two wonderful people God has put into our lives and thank Him continually that they are now part of my family in Christ! I am sure I speak for all of us when I say that we LOVE you both and are so filled with joy that you are with us on our journey together. Thank you for coming into our lives and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!

Notes from July 20th meeting

Hello to everyone.
I really enjoyed our study together Sunday night. You are one awesome group of Christians and I am so proud to be a part of this Life Group. I don’t know about each of you, but for me, this study of The Purpose Driven Life is hitting a bull’s-eye in my life right now. I also think it is a great study of direction for us as a group, as we part on this journey of the study of God’s word. Thanks to everyone for attending and participating.

Please continue to read in your book. The next section is ‘You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure’ and should be read before we meet again on August 3rd. Do not complete the workbook until we are in our study together. Be sure to also study and memorize this week’s memory verse:

"Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength. The second is this, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Thanks to all that brought food, helped clean, setup, etc. It was greatly appreciated. Thanks so much to Cindy for providing the Child Care. Bet that was a surprise to everyone!! She told me that she really enjoyed meeting everyone and that the kids were great. Thanks to everyone for their kindness to Cindy and making her feel welcome.


One big announcement: Next week the life group is going to start at 3:30!! Yes you will probably get a zillion emails from me reminding you of the time so bear with me. I promise to not do this often and only when it is absolutely necessary (which it is for August 3rd.). Please mark your calendars.


Have a great week and I hope to see everyone in class and worship on Sunday. Also, don’t forget about the baptism at the lake, Sunday (27th) at 5:00. Madison and I would love for you all to be there and share in this special & important day for us. Details are on the Northstar website: http://www.northstarchurch.org/.

Prayer Request July 20th

Kim
Her father (Grady Reese) is having surgery to unblock a carotid artery in the morning. Please pray for those performing the procedure as well as her father's healing.

Carla
Her family to have safe travels.

Praises from July 20th!

Here are the Praises from some of our group members. . .

Preston - Mom is doing Great!

Debra - Joseph is doing well after his surgery.

Pat - Son is doing well

Ken - Thank you for God's healing hand in his life!

Kim - Thank you to God for allowing her to travel with new friends to the dance
as it turned out they were all together in helping each other out in sickness!

Gail - Many people showed to her Life Group after she was worried. Many people who
had not called or shown in a while.

Cassandra - God has answered her prayer to surround her with great friends

Ellen - Returned home after a great trip with her family. Had a great time with her
sister with whom she has been distanced for awhile.

Carla - Good time with visiting family

Michelle - Realized she needs to give God the credit for the 'Little Things' in life.

Our First Official Study Meeting!

I am looking forward to our next Life Group meeting on Sunday, July 20th. We are going to need to cover a few more things at this session so I am asking everyone to arrive at 5:15. We will still break up around 7:30.

Your kids are absolutely welcome for this study. If you will be bringing your kids, please email me back with their names and ages. Getting a headcount is especially important for this week.

We will begin our first study of The Purpose Driven Life. Hopefully, you all have been reading the first section in the book. Please be sure to bring your study guides, Bible and a pen with you to the meeting. If you picked up a study guide and/or book at the last meeting but didn’t pay Dawne, please be sure to settle up with her on Sunday. We still have extra Study Guides and books for those that missed last week.

How is the memory verse coming? This is a tough one to start out with but I think it is one of the most important scriptures in the life of a Christian; especially a single Christian. For those of you that missed our first meeting, I have attached the handout that includes our memory verse for this week. Please take the time to learn it before Sunday. Remember also to bring an affirmation that influenced your week in a positive way to share with the group.

Bambi and I will be the first to go with our Positive Insights section with Sharona on deck, if we have time. We have set aside 15 minutes each week for this so let’s try to keep these to about 5-7 minutes per person. For those that missed last week, Positive Insights is a section of our study that we learn about each other. Everyone will have an opportunity tell about yourself using only the positive attributes of your life. I am writing a prep guide for this and will hopefully have it finished by Sunday. This is a great exercise for us all to learn about each other and also for you to acknowledge the positive things in your life that have helped form who you are.

I want us to take a little extra time this week to discuss our community and the exchange of our personal contact information among us. If we are going to do this, we need to set some boundaries and rules that we all need to adhere to. We will spend our extra time discussing this.

I am going to pass around a book this week in which you can sign up to help with different needs of the Life Group (prayer, scripture reading, food, clean up, etc.). Please be thinking about how you would like to serve to help our group.

Thank you all for joining us on this journey and I cannot wait to get to know each of you better!

Prayer Requests July 7th

Kim
She has asked that we all pray for safe travels for her and her daughters. She is traveling to Florida for a dance competition. Let's pray for strength, willingness and a positive attitude for everyone involved in the competition. Good Luck Sidney and Nicole!!!

Debra
She needs prayer for wisdom and guidance concerning her house in Alabama. She is not sure whether to sell it or keep it and needs us to pray for her to hear what God's plan is for her concerning where she calls home. Also please pray for her son Joseph. He is having another eye surgery on the 17th. Let's all pray for her, Joseph and the people involved in performing the procedure!

Dawne, Ellen and Phil
Their children have graduated highschool and are looking towards college. Let us pray for all of them as they go through this hard transitional time.

Preston
Safe travels for both him and Madison as they are on their vacation.

Quick Reminder

Hello to everyone. This is another reminder that our Life Group begins this Sunday, July 6th at 5:30 at my house.

I wanted to announce that we are going to start with the study of ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren. This is an awesome study and a great starting point of our many journeys of spiritual and personal growth through the study of God’s word. It will last for 6 sessions and then we will move on to other studies to be announced.

We have had some additional people sign up since my last email so I will include it below. It has the directions to my house at the end and also reviews what we will be covering in this first meeting.

Everyone, please be considerate of my neighbors driveways when parking and be sure to leave room for other cars to get by in the street.

I look forward to seeing all of you on Sunday evening.

Preston

Agenda for our first meeting

In case you didn’t hear, we have moved the start date for the first life group meeting to July 6th. We will meet at my house at 5:30 and will end at 7:30. Follow on meetings will happen every other Sunday (next one will be July 20th). Childcare will be provided at all of these.

This first meeting will cover the following:

Introduction to our first study topic and series
Setting the ground rules and boundaries for the Life Group
Discussion of the childcare and expectations there
Letting each of you verbalize to the group your expectations of the Life Group:

o What should this Life Group look like for you?
o What do you hope to find through this Life Group?
o What would make this Life Group a meaningful experience for you?
o What other studies or topics would you be interested in pursuing?

· Taking the Lord’s Supper
· Breakout of time within our two hour sessions
· Introduction to our Life Group Blog
· Any other items we need to discuss, relative to the Life Group

I want to mention that there will only be some soft drinks, water and light snacks at these sessions. Please plan accordingly, especially with your kids.

This is going to be an amazing journey of worship to our Lord and spiritual growth and self discovery for ourselves. We will have a great opportunity to get to know our sisters and brothers in Christ on a much deeper level. There is no doubt that God had great things in store for this group. I thank you in advance for your commitment to attend and your participation.