Good evening everyone. For those who were able to be in church this morning at Nashville UMC, you saw us during the service. For those who were not at church, we were able to join during the children's time via Skype. It was so great to hear you all, although we could not see you. We appreciate the opportunity for the communication on our last day here.
Kay had the days devotion and she talked to us about God's love, when planted within us, is like the mustard seed. The mustard seed is the smallest of the garden seeds, but when planted and nourished, and allowed to grow, it will grow as big as a tree. God's love is just like that. Although God's love is not small, our faith starts that way. Kay also shared the story of the cracked water pot. When the servant collected water for his master, he used two clay pots to carry the water in. One pot was perfect with no cracks, and the other had cracks from which the water dripped along the path to the master's house. After some time, the cracked pot apologized to the servant for being less than perfect and leaking water for so long. The servant showed the cracked pot the row of beautiful flowers that flourished during the time the pot leaked. The purpose of the story is to show that no matter what our flaws, we are still a blessing to others, and we are God's perfect children.
Consider this.....this group of us, the building team, are all individuals, with different gifts, but also with multiple flaws. We are like the cracked pot. We are not perfect and occasionally, we leak. We sin, we upset folks, we get angry, we gossip, we ignore those we love and we criticize others. If you looked at us and spent enough time around us, you would most definitely see our flaws. But, thank the Lord God does not see those flaws as we humans do. God sees us as perfectly made.
We have talked this week about so many things, but one thing really. Love. God's love for us and our love for God. His love for his people and His creation. But as important, our love for each other and our neighbors. We have so much to give, like the cracked clay pot. We need to be able to see the positives in ourselves and our brothers and sisters. Amen? Amen!!
We were so blessed today. After being with the folks at Nashville UNC, we were able to spend the day on the beach with the congregation of Fuenta de Gracia. The beautiful ladies who have been cooking for us did it again. They prepared a perfect meal of barbque chicken, yucca and salad. Marielos got up at 4:30am this morning to cook the chicken. How much more could she have done for us? But she did it out of love, not obligation. She could just have easily fixed peanut butter sandwiches, and we would have been equally fed. Wow, talk about love for others. So the beach was amazing, very few people other than our church family were there, and the weather was perfect.
We are back now, packing our bags, showering, on our way to dinner and getting ready to come home. We will be arriving at RDU around 5:45pm tomorrow, and should be at the church around 7:30pm or so. We will certainly miss this place and the people, but we plan to return in another year. As I have said before, if any of you feel the call to join a building team, I encourage you to be in prayer about this one. We will be making plans soon, so let one of us know.
We love you and thank you for following us. Once more, I do apologize for the lack of photos. It will be on my list to figure out what went wrong and have that corrected soon.
Adios from Dennis and Kay Coggins, Janson and Ashley Vinson, Reid and Wanda Hildreth, Damian and Susan Whitley, George Beck, Todd McNeil, Terri Griffin, Dawn Allen and Barry Rehm. Good night and we'll see you tomorrow!!
Scripture reference for today:
Matthew 13:31-32
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