Isn’t it great to be a part of a vibrant church family!! We’ve seen that in many ways over these last few weeks.

What a blessing it is to hear of the faith of our young people and to see that faith acted and lived out in so many ways!!

We are thankful for recent baptisms!! Hannah Larson and Nichole Mattacchione were baptized recently at Carolina Bible Camp. Also Kristin McDaniel, who is a friend of our Logan Lowery, was baptized at CBC last week as well. We owe a special debt of thanks to so many of our adults who spend some of their time and energy at CBC ministering to our children and so many others. Camp experiences are some of the most vivid memories our children make during these years, and has a great impact on them spiritually as you can see.

Several of our young people are at Camp Carefree this week, ministering to children with Spina Bifida. Each of them has a child assigned to them for the week. David reports that our young people have done a lot of ministering this week, as well as personally growing themselves through this work. What a blessing they are, and what blessings they are receiving!!

We have had several babies born to our families, with more to come. One of life’s greatest joys is the birth of children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews. As we were raising our daughters in the church in Arlington, Texas, years ago, they knew that they had several sets of parents, several brothers and sisters, several grandparents. There was no blood relationship, except for the relationship that we shared through the blood of Christ. They also knew those relationships were real and valued and much appreciated. What a blessing the church family is!!

Central to the growth and maturing of these young people, young Christians, and young adults, are loving, caring, unselfish, mature Christians who see their ministry as reaching out to others who are less mature in the faith to help them connect with Christ and with His church. I am so thankful for the many, many mature saints we have here at South Fork, and appreciate so much your willingness to put your own needs and preferences aside for the sake of others who are at more vulnerable times in their faith journey.

I spoke with one of our former members recently, who had moved away a while back. They spoke through teary eyes of how difficult their church life was, because they had not found a good church home like they had when they here at South Fork.

Do you appreciate your church home? Are you actively trying to minister to others, to help them in their lives and to do everything you can to make them feel “at home” in their church home?