It's the Holiday Season

First and foremost, please read matt's entry below and keep the Hotman's in your prayers.

I wanted to update everyone on what's going on in our class! This Thursday night is the girls Recipe Exchange Dinner!!! It is at the home of Angela Kincade at 7:00 p.m....She is compiling a recipe book so send her 2 recipes A.S.A.P! Also, bring something (pot luck) when you come for the meal! Her home is at 2315 Pinehurst!

We (Green Acres) are well on our way to meeting our goal of 1,000 pair of shoes for Shoes for Orphan Souls. Please bring NEW children's shoes, sizes 6-13, to sunday school next week or bring a donation and someone can shop for shoes for you! For more information, call Todd Martin at 903-530-2027

Andrew is also finding out about our ministry opportunity at the juvenile detention center and we should here from him next week on that so get ready to minister! We are still in 2nd Samuel for this week and we'll cover Chapter 13-24. After this week, we'll move on to 1 Thessalonians.

Please make an effort to come when you can and invite friends to our class! Also, let's make all our visitors feel welcome when they do come!

Thanks to the Rowan's for some fun at the farm!

Payne Hotman--prayer request

All:

As each of you know, Payne has been in each of our prayers for months now... Please remember him and his parents--Chris and Rachel--tonight and this week. I will continue to update everyone as we know more... Please read the e-mail from Lindsay Gillen.

I don't know much, Jennifer Denson just called and said they are life flighting Payne to Dallas. He was very lethargic and had a low body temp. We don't know any more, but I will let you know as soon as we find out.Please pray for him and Chris and Rachel. Thanks so much...Lindsay

Pottery Night

Everyone: Please find the following note.reminder from Lindsay Gillen on the upcoming Female excursion to Pottery Cafe':


Hey Girls!

Here are the details for Pottery night... Date: Thursday, October 23rdTime: 7:00-9:00Place: The Pottery Cafe (next to Albertsons/Daniel Boones) Here is the website...http://www.potterycafetyler.com/If you have any questions please email me, Amy Freeman or Jamie Willis. Hope you can all come! It is going to be so much fun!!! Also, we are going to have a few snacks. Please bring your own drink if you don't mind!!! Thanks a bunch and look forward to seeing all of you there!

Save the Date--November 2

Hello everyone! Hope everybody is having a great weekend and enjoying the weather. I wanted to post this message to remind everyone to save Sunday, November 2 after lunch on their calendars for the Bentley SMBS Family Party. We will be having the party at our family farm, just outside of Edom, Texas (about 35 minutes from Tyler.) I will post directions to our place as the date draws nearer. We will be having hayrides for the kids (and for those "kids" of all ages), bounce house and generally provide acres and acres to allow the young ones to run, run, run.

Rest assured that though it is called a "farm", we do have indoor plumbing and air conditioning! I'll give enryone more details on this as it get closer. But, I wanted to reserve Sunday afternoon for this event.

Returning Home

All:

I have received word from very reliable sources (my wife) that we will be having Sunday School this week in the Family Life Center...in our old room...as usual. (Cue applause!) I know that the highly mobile and random schedule has been difficult to follow over the last few eeks, but I assure you it was worth it to allow the Church to help those evacuees of Hurricane Ike. We appreciate your flexibility and understanding as our Sunday School's location evolved week to week (and, that dear friends, is probably the only time you will see the term "evolve" on this Blog!)

So... please join us all as we have Sunday School with our original teacher in our original room. We look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday.

I am informed that the ladies had a social/meeting last night and that a great time was had by all! (And, do not worry, ladies, those husbands of yours "enjoyed" the opportunity to learn how to appreciate the myriad things you do all day through the experience of a few hours alone with kids...plus, it gave them (me) the opportunity to let them eat sugar and watch football...okay, it really gave them (me) the opportinity to catch up on the dramatic twists and turns in that joyful narrative called "Dora the Explorer" and witness the amazing ways that progeny can manipulate allegedly educated adult males into doing whatever they want you to by the liberal use of screaming, crying or pouting.)

In the interest of social advancement for the guys' side...(and under the heading "turn about is fair play") let's put our heads together to see what the gentlemen of the group would like to do for their get-together. Just let me know.

We will be having another family social event on November 2. Please put that date on your calendars.

Hope all is well with everyone and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Matt

Sunday Update and Prayer request

(Amy Freeman has informed us all that the Bentley class will be meeting at the McDonald's in front of Albertson's during the Sunday School hour (10a.m.) to fellowship and catch up with everybody as we will not have access tour room. Andrew will most likely teach a great lesson or test everybody for cholesterol (whichever is more applicable!). We look forward to seeing everybody there!)

I wanted to forward a prayer request that we received from Angela Kincaide:
"I hope you all are doing well. Please pray for a friend of ours - Alfredo M. He owns a small Italian Restaurant in Texarkana, TX. He has a wife, a 4 yr. old son, and newborn baby girl. Alfredo was in a terrible car wreck and was air lifted to UAMS in Little Rock, AR. He has been in a coma for the past 10 days. He cooks and runs his own small business and they are struggling not only for his life, but also to keep the family business open to generate some income to pay the bills. Please Pray for his full recovery, for God to provide for this family and their business, and for Alfredo's salvation (unknown)."

This Sunday--Ike Schedule

Hello everyone! Drew Gillen, man about town and knower of all things that need to be known, sent me this e-mail. I wanted to post it as soon as I got it to allow everyone to know of the change in the schedule. We will see everyone in the Chapel on Sunday.

Everyone:

Hope you all are doing well. I just received word that because Green Acres will be housing evacuees from Hurricane Ike, all SMBS classes that meet in the FLC will be meeting in the Chapel on Sunday morning. We will have a time to spend together as our class in there before hearing a lesson with all the other classes.

I'm sure that I don't have all of our class members on this email, so please forward as necessary. If you have blogger status, please post to there.

Thanks.

Drew

Schedule modfications

Happy Tuesday everyone! Upon reviewing these last few posts, I have realized that I have been updating the blog every Tuesday for a while. There is nothing special about Tuesday, per se, I guess it is the time of the week when I have digested all the information from the weekend and am unable to acknowledge that I am in a new week yet. (Or it is just when I wake up from my reverie and remember that I need to post on the blog...probably the latter...)

Anyway, I hope everyone had a safe and fun Labor Day weekend! As each of you no doubt know by now, Gustav has modfied several things at the church. On this past Sunday, we were unable to meet for Sunday School as usual as the FLC was occupied by 140 of the evacuees from the Gulf Coast. At present, no one is quite sure when the authorities in Louisiana will allow the evacuees back to their homes (though , encouragingly, it seems the storm, while pretty bad, did not wreak the havoc Katrina did 3 years ago). Therefore, this Sunday's schedule is flexible as we want to be as accomodating and helpful as possible to assist everyone from the Gulf Coast return as safely and efficiently as possible. So, stay tuned to this blog (which I promise is probably the first and only time this blog will ever be considered to contain "breaking news"!) and we will let everyone know when and where (or if) we will be meeting.

On a slightly related note, I regret to inform everybody (and don't say I didn't warn you all) that I am slated to teach this Sunday as Andrew will not be there to share his wisdom. ( And, before you ask, no, I am not sure how many people he went through before settling on me, but no doubt it was plenty!) The plan (as of Tuesday) is that we will begin our study of I Samuel. (this will allow Andrew to come back the next week, correct all the inaccuracies and get us on the I Samuel train...)

I hope everyone is maintaining their grip on sanity as we face all this rain and the inevitable "cabin fever" the little ones will get. We have DVDs of Barney and Max and Ruby loaded and ready to go if necessary. (For Amanda and Hammond, and any of you lucky enough to not know who "Max and Ruby" are: they are a jaunty pair of bunnies who are brother and sister and who have little adventures...the older sister is bossy and a bit of a nag and the younger Max is a rebellious troublemaker...they apparently have no parents, but live in a house and are visited frequently by their doddering and partially senile grandmother. All in all, a joyous little bit of animation that shows that even the craziest idea could potentially be a hit for kids...)

Let us know if we can be of any help this week, or if you have any prayer requests.

Matt

School Daze

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everybody is having a fun and exciting week. I know that for many of us this week ushered in that most beloved of times, that glorious dawning of the first day of school! It is moment filled with the promise of blessed silence from the overworked DVD player, the hope that Barney in all his overexuberant purple-ness will not be on constant loop in our subconsciousness, the unfettered joy of knowing that a surprisingly aerodynamic foam pirate sword will not be launched from one progeny to another in a fit of aggravation or assault.

Our Caroline began her journey in kindergarten this year. It was a bittersweet moment to walk with her up to her classroom with her enormous pink backpack that was six times bigger than her, and watch as she ran in the room and turned to tell us in that sweet voice "Okay Mom! Dad! I'm here...you can go now..." rolling those eyes at those two dorky parents who refused to just leave the school. We left feeling happy that Caroline is ensconsed in learning and hopelessly depressed that the rumors of my old age have been sadly confirmed. Now, if I can just get Kathryn to quit singing "Freedom, Sweet Freedom" at the top of her lungs, all will be right with the world! I kid, I kid...sort of..

I hope everyone's first day of school or continuation of Barney viewing (or continued happy isolation from the wonderful world of a seven foot tall "uber-happy" felt dinosaur) has been great this week. We had a great crowd this Sunday and look forward to seeing any of you that were unable to make it. We had a informative lesson on embracing our Pauline tendencies. (Though I will fully admit that for most of the lesson I was very confused about why we would want to emulate the nice lady who fries up catfish at her "Country Buffet" restaurant on Gentry Ave., but then I realized that Andrew may have meant to be like Paul...) Andrew will be finishing our tour through Acts this Sunday. The following Sunday we will be beginning a study on I Samuel.

Continue to let me know of thoughts or suggestions regading the guys' gathering this fall. Any preferences will try to be honored. We look forward to seeing everyone this Sunday.

On a side note, as the election season begins in earnest, I did want to make sure that we all pray for a safe, honorable, and wise process for this country as we seek to elect our next President. Our leaders should always be the subjects of our fervent and frequent prayers, and this election is no different. Regardless of your affiliation, we hope that our new leader will seek God's will for this country.

Matt

Someone Get This Kid a Sequined Onesie!

Sometimes videos just speak for themselves....

http://apostoliclive.com/play.php?vid=492

I bet this kiddo is tons of fun saying his nightly prayers!

Matt

Of Donuts and Gatherings

Good afternoon everyone! As promised, I have updated the e-calendar attached to this Blog with the dates you all signed up to bring donuts and other morning artery cloggers through October. I will not bore each of you with the details of my Sisyphysian attempts to access or edit said calendar, as it involved the epiphany that I am unable to work computers at a level equal to my five year old daughter and also included some very "non-Sunday School" phrases hurled at the screen. Suffice it to say that it's done and ready for everyone to peruse. (On a side note, I am very aware that "Sisyphysian" is not a common word that anyone under the age of 157 uses...as Mr. Freeman and Mr. Gillen know, I tend to use weird words in my e-mails. It's kind of like a built in activity for readers. Most just ignore these words and move on...which is wise.)

Secondly, I have been asked by our Fearless Leader, Dr. Bentley, to arrange a Guys' Night to fellowship and possibly watch a little football. We are going to try and set up social events like this for the guys once a quarter(?) as this is the period of time it takes to get us to organize anything. My thoughts were to gather for football, but we are not beholden to that. Let me know your ideas and we are open for whatever suits the group (or is approved by the wives).

To the women of the class: Never fear, your social is coming up soon...I just do not have any information about it, as I am neither a woman nor informed.

(And don't worry, we are not going to just do gender specific socials, we will be planning group socials as well. We just wanted to start the discussion for these. )

We will continue through Acts this week. We have two more Sundays of Acts and then we will begin a study of 1 Samuel starting in September. (No really, Mr. Freeman! 1 Samuel! I thought, like you did, that this day would never come!)

Please keep Jason and Jenni Holman in your prayers this week as Jason will be taking his Boards. To Jason we wish a clear mind and the opportunity to show all he knows and has learned. We know you'll do great. To Jenni we offer our prayers for having to live with someone who is taking their Boards this week. She knows better than all of us how truly "fun" that can be!

Feel free to let me know of any other announcements that we can post. I'll try to keep everyone informed. Feel free to send comments or post something as well. Otherwise, it just seems like I am having some weird electronic conversation with myself (and I paid good money for my therapist to get me over that problem!)

Matt

8-8-08

All:


I hope this post finds everyone well! I know it has been a busy week for many. I hope no one was unlucky enough to get caught up in Edouard earlier this week! We just received a picture from some of our friends showing the devastating damage caused by this massive storm.















Well, as some of you can see I am not Amy. (I am also very good at extremely obvious statements, apparently.) For reasons inexplicable to me, and no doubt confusing to you, I have been asked to assist in posting on the Blog and updating our fair class on all the "goings-on" both within the class and in each of our lives in general. I guess that makes me the Sunday School equivalent of a MySpace page, without all the cheerful LOL!'s and RFOL!'s or a large e-shrine dedicated to the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana. Lucky you...


Anyway, I hope that my little posts will be informative and entertaining. I will fully admit at the outset that I tend to interperse things with my admittedly off-brand sense of humor. I apologize in advance.


As to announcements:


* Please be reading Acts 18-19 for Sunday's lesson. (I have it on good authority that Andrew will not be providing a 97 page PowerPoint presentation on this passage, so reading ahead will be helpful.)


* We need to sign up again for Refereshment Duty. According to my wife (who is much wiser about all things organized) we should just send out a sign-up sheet for each upcoming Sunday. Such a sheet will be available on Sunday. So, be thinking about which day you and yours will want to bring donuts and/or kolaches. We will sign up for August and September.


* This Sunday, August 10 at 11:15, the Children's Ministry will be having a meeting that will be discussing the new construction and changes to the check-in/check-out systems. It is important to have as many parents as possible there so that we can have our input. The meeting will be in the Chapel. Please attend if you can make it. (I am not sure if Kathryn and I have our "quarterly" PALS duty that Sunday (though in all likelihood, as that is a day that ends in "day" we are probably on the list!)). It is an important opportunity to have your say in how the Children's Ministry runs.


I hope this post finds everyone well. In all seriousness, we are so glad to have each of you as a part of this class. Kathryn and I are blessed every Sunday by Andrew's teaching and the group's fellowship. Please encourage anyone you all know to come and attend if they are looking for a Sunday School. They are always welcome in the Bentley's class!


Matt

Sailing into Fall

This summer is flying by! I can't believe August is here! We HAVE to get together soon as a class. We have had so many visitors and new members this summer. I had mentioned doing a social on friday, august 8th, but didn't realize that I will be gone. We are looking at the end of august on a thursday or friday night for our next one so we will let you know when that is planned.
Congrats to the Kincade's on their sweet baby girl! They are so excited about getting meals from all of you and we now have them spread out over the next 4 weeks! I am going to put those on the calendar link so you can check it if you forget what you signed up for! We are still studying the book of Acts and it looks like we need to read chapters 16-17. Can't wait to see you there!

holding on to this truth...
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
Psalm 103:11-12

July 13th

Hello friends! I haven't posted a blog in a long time so I thought I might need to update everyone on what's going on with the Bentley class! We are zooming through the book of Acts and are now on chapter 11:19- 12:25 for this next sunday. Andrew has incorporated drama into our class and if you missed last week, you missed Matt R. playing the role of Simon Peter and Michael playing Cornelius! Pretty funny! We have had LOTS of visitors this summer and are so excited to see where this class is headed. If you're in town, try to come because we want our visitors to get a good idea of who the regulars are! Michael and I will be gone this week, but can't wait to see you on the 20th. We also need to start filling up our calendar for August refreshments!

This is a link to the passage for next sunday if you want to read it online!
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2011:19-%2012:25&version=31

Bentley's

Just wanted you guys to know that the Bentley's came back early from mexico. Andrew is really sick so they came back Tuesday night. He has been having headaches for a couple of weeks and they got really bad when they got down there. They spent the night in the brownsville E.R. monday night and had some bloodwork done there. They decided to come home and wait for the results here. He is at home, but being treated when needed by Dr. Yeatts. They are still waiting to get all of the tests back and will know more in the next couple of days. The kids stayed in Mexico with their grandparents and aunt and uncle. They are certain that he got sick before they left for the trip which is ironic. Joan is doing well and not too worried, but would love prayers for healing and also for the children. As far as this sunday goes, we need a teacher! Would anyone like to volunteer? I am asssuming it will be a small group so don't be too nervous!
We have the leader guide that we will loan anyone that will give all the details and background knowledge over the passages. The lesson will be over Acts 6-8. Hope to see you sunday!

Sunday, June 8th

If you missed last weeks opening study on Acts, no worries. Andrew set us up for the study with some great insight on the book and overall concepts...here is a quick review.

1. Luke wrote the book and it is thought to be Vol. 2 to his 1st book, the gospel of Luke.
2. Luke was a doctor (whatever that means in those days) and wrote the book to show that christianity and the church were not a departure, but a continuation of God's purpose in the Old Testament.
3. The main things that happened in chapter 1 and 2 were that Jesus ascended to heaven and promised to send in his place the Holy Spirit. The disciples were all together in the upper room of the temple when the holy spirit came and they received the power of the spirit.
4. The disciples began to form the first "church" and also began spreading the gospel with the overall theme that anyone can be saved.

These are very general points but you can read ch. 1 and 2 yourself if you want more details!

So for this sunday on the 8th we are reading Acts 3:1-5:42.

You don't want to miss this study. We are flying through it, but there is so much wisdom and guidance for christians in this book!

Also, most importantly, there are still dates in june and july to sign up for donuts! Just click on the calendar link and the date you want to bring them.

Sunday, June 1st

So we met in our new BIG room for the first time and it was great! It's in the FLC 200, which is on the track, first room on your left. We finished our study on Ruth and will begin the study on Acts next week. It is going to last for 16 weeks and we will cover Chapter 1 & 2 next week so read up! We also decided to have our next social next weekend at the Bentley's! They are going to open their home to us next sunday afternoon at about 4:00 (after naptime)! All kids are welcome and bring swimsuits, they are going to blow up a water slide/jumper! I am going to list some ideas for what to bring as far as food and you guys can sign up by making a comment on the blog! That will force everyone to try it! Also, Joan will you leave directions to your house on your comment or if you are not comfortable with that, you can just send an email to all or wait until next week to tell us! Here is what i was thinking would work for the menu...these are just ideas so do whatever you want!
Fried Chicken - The Gillen's and Freeman's will pick up a few buckets and tenders for the kiddos
Sides - Pasta Salad, Fruit Salad, Mac and cheese, corn casserole, green beans...ANYTHING!
Dessert - Some one could pick up a cobbler, cookies, or make anything!
Drinks - Bentley's (i thought you guys could just do drinks, tea and water)

Ruth

Michael informed me last night that we are supposed to read Ruth chapter 1 for this sunday! We are starting a new study on the book of Ruth. We also heard from Tim Roberts that we are getting a bigger room in the Family Life Center starting May 25th. It is going to be FLC 200. So go ahead and tell your friends to come on the 25th! Also Lindsay is sending around a sign-up for the Denson's meals soon!

The Denson's

I spoke with Jennifer on Wednesday and they were heading home with baby Jake! They are all doing great, but Jennifer wanted me to ask for you guys to pray for Jeff's grandmother. She fell on Tuesday morning and broke a few bones. They are really worried about her and his grandfather. They do have a lot of family here to do meals and babysitting for Ella for the next week or so, but I told her we would start our meal schedule soon after that! Keep the Denson's in your prayers!

Love me some Louie!

This is a link to a great video of Louie Giglio talking about how we were created in God's image. I had to share! It's long, but watch if you have time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4zgJXPpI4&feature=bz301

Thank you Gillens!

The first bentley social was a huge success! Thanks so much to the Gillen's for opening up their home. The food was delicious and the fellowship even better. So glad that most of you could come and we look forward to planning the next one! Here are a few pics!

April 11th Social

So, this friday is the first social at the Gillen's. I hope all of you can come and there are more details from Lindsay's comment in my first post. Michael and I are going to go through the steps to set up a google account for him so I will know how to tell you guys in more detail what to do to set yours up! Clear as mud, huh?

We have a blog!

So we officially have a blog set up! I am so excited, but have no idea what to do! Let's just play it by ear and we can learn as we go. Hopefully, this site will be available for checking any calendar of events for our sunday school class and will also be available for open discussion!