God has given us a lot of opportunities. Below is a brief recap of some of those major opportunities during October.
October 1 -3 – Preached at the Indian Field Camp Meeting in St. George, South Carolina
October 10 – Preached at St. James United Methodist Church in Montgomery, AL. The church is studying of the Treasures of the Transformed Life.
October 11 – Preached at Camden United Methodist Church where Ed Shirley is the pastor. I also had an opportunity Monday afternoon to meet with the Wilcox Academy football team.
October 12 – Drove to Jackson, Mississippi, to preach at the inauguration of the new President of Wesley Biblical Seminary.
October 15 – Preached at the Friday Focus at Dexter Avenue UMC in Montgomery.
October 17 – Preached again at St. James UMC where Lester Spencer is a wonderful leader. They have three morning worship services. Two of the worship services – a contemporary and a traditional – are held at the same time. On October 10, I preached in the contemporary worship and it was carried on video screen in the traditional service. On October 17, I preached in the traditional service and it was transmitted on the screen in the contemporary worship. You should see the huge oyster that was built and used as a part of the Transformed Giving series. You will notice that the key picture on the book Treasures of the Transformed Life is an oyster. The oyster built by Alan Brewer and his team is about 6 to 8 feet long. It was a great teaching tool as my first point dealt with the decision to open the oyster. With a remote I activated the hydraulic engineering and the oyster opened. It opened about 5 feet high. I then talked about the pearl in the oyster and all of a sudden a white pearl-looking balloon was blown up from within the oyster. I then said that some people could receive more treasures. Then the balloon expanded larger. I then commented that you could receive a lot of treasures and the balloon became larger. They suggested we only have three different sizes as sometimes balloons do pop!
October 17 – Preached at Frazer Memorial UMC on Sunday night.
October 21 – Spoke at a banquet honoring leaders in the Pike Road area as they had a ribbon cutting for the new Pike Road Town Hall.
October 24 – Preached at the Brewton First United Methodist Church. Ed Glaze is the pastor and they are studying Treasures of the Transformed Life.
October 24 – Drove down to Atmore, Alabama for the District Rally for the Bay Pines District. My friend Frederick Outlaw is the District Superintendent.
October 25-27 – Drove to Nashville for the meeting of the United Methodist Publishing House Board. I serve on that Board and serve as Chairman of the Investments Committee.
October 31 – Preached in the three morning worship services at the Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Atlanta. Glen Etheridge is the pastor. That church was completing its study of Treasures of the Transformed Life.
Thank you for your support.
For the Cause of causes,
John Ed Mathison
