Fall Picnic 06 at Grace

One of the highlights of the year at my church, Grace Bible, is our annual Fall Picnic. Usually it is the last weekend in October at one of our founding member's home. We just had it this last Sunday afteroon. Almost everyone from the church comes and we often friend visitors. My favorite tradition that I found out about last year and took advantage of this year was our "soup sampler" idea. Everyone brings soup or meat to be grilled. Shepherding Groups that our church is divided into each are assigned different dishes to bring, like dessert or a side dish. Last year, I saw men standing in line with a muffin pan. I
finally asked why they had muffin pans. They said it was so they could try all different kinds of soup in each different section. It was a genius plan that one of the men in our church came up with. The top picture is of my tin. The only down fall is that it gets pretty hot on the bottom. Otherwise it works great. There is Jon on the left demonstrating "the soup sampler."



One of the cutest kid moments that I had was when some younger boys came in carrying some lawn chairs. One of them said, "We even brought a whole sofa." I asked him if I could use it. He said it was for their baby sister. Well, here is their baby on the sofa. They crack me up.

The guys always get a game of football together. I dont' think that anyone got too seriously injured this year. Someone getting injured isn't a tradition we like to carry from year to year.
Tony always gets out the tractor for hayrides for the kids. We also have a man who brings his two horses for horse rides.

It is a great time to sit around and fellowship in way that we don't always get a chance to before and after services at church. Usually the deacon closing up the church has to kick people out at least an
hour after the service ends, but we like any chance we can get to
fellowship some more. Some women bring their knitting or crocheting while they are fellowshipping.


Often we also have a pinata for
the kids. This year I called it
"Killing Nemo."


At about dusk, we all gather around the bonfire for a time of singing from our church song book "Songs of Grace." It has most of our favorites in it. Then our pastor gets up at shares a short devotional with us. It is a perfect ending of a great day. A week ago Sunday, Champ (our pastor) announced his resignation. He is not sure that being a pastor is where God would have him and so he has resigned to see where God leads him. He and his family will be staying as regular members at Grace until God leads them elsewhere. So this was our last church picnic with Champ leading it as our Shepherd. We are excited to see what God has ahead for the Throntons as well as for Grace. We are learning to depend on Him and trust His wisdom, goodness, and sovereignty. Champ was sharing on Wednesday night how God has all three of these charactristics and so we don't have to worry about what the result will be. It will be perfect as we trust Him and let Him lead.