Open House update

So, here is the end results for Open House. What a success! Pastor Charlie said it ran like a fine tuned machine! and it did. this is my 6Th Open House that I've been a part of, and i think my favorite. Yes, it was raining most of the day. Yes, it was cold. But the best part was it stopped raining and we had more people than what we knew to do with! we ended up serving 1,501 people for Open House. Everyone pulled together to make it work, set up extra tables in classrooms, and went to cut an extra 200 steaks. Made sure everyone was taken care of. it's really quiet incredible.
so many people gave us complements, like "I've never seen young people so polite" "i feel like royalty here, is this how it always is?" "everyone is so nice" "the homes are beautiful!" "I'm coming back next year." "What Charlie Sharpe said was right on." and on and on and on, i think i could fill up pages of it, but i won't. i only had people in my van for no more than 5 minutes at a time, but in that short period of time, i saw God's goodness in other people. i know that people saw a side of God that maybe they had never seen before. and it was amazing. I pray that lives and hearts were touched in such a way that they will never be the same again. it's so great to serve a living breathing caring God, who would want to serve any other?
Next year Open House is on the 4Th of July. we are calling it "Charlie's Holiday" we will have a flight show, a mule jump, tractor pulls, all the food you can eat, and fireworks. it's going to be absolutely amazing! can hardly wait!
Oh, yes, i saw my dad on the screen 2 times in his wonderful Army pictures, i did cry a little. just in gratitude for all of our service men and women who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom and the freedom of others.
i know this entry was kind of random, but oh well.
only 21 days until Oaxaca!

Open House

It's that time of year again around Heartland. The time where we lay new concrete, otherwise known as Open House. It seems for the last 3 or 4 years, about a week or two before Open House we lay concrete, almost always to allow for more room to park. If you don't know what Open House is, let me tell you. There was also one in the Bible. Solomon had one.
The story is in 2 Chronicles 9:1-8. i won't type it all out, but i will give you the jest of the story.
But first i want to tell you about Heartland's Open House. it's a great opportunity to show off all of our assets, and that is mostly our people. Starting at 1 p.m. we give guided tours around Heartland and that lasts until 5 i believe, then from 5:30-6:30 it is a free steak dinner. our special Heartland steak that has a special marinate on it with a baked potato, Ozark green beans, and a home made roll. and I'm pretty sure there is some sort of dessert, but i don't remember what it is. it's wonderful food, and the people of Heartland serve and serve and serve and serve. it's wonderful. as we say around here, it's our opportunity to serve our guts out. then from 7:00-7:30 (or something to that effect) there is alive entertainment provided by, once again, people of Heartland. it's such an amazing time of the year. then at the end, Pastor Charlie gets to speak. I guess we could say it's the start of the Heartland Holidays. it's wonderful! it's so full of excitement. At the women's home different ladies will go out to the buses and give their testimonies, and throughout the entertainment people will give their testimonies. this year, i get to drive people from point a to point b. i like it a lot. i hope to see some of you there!

okay, now for the Bible story. it's the story where Queen Sheba comes to visit Solomon because she doesn't really believe all that she's heard about him. but when she gets there, she makes the statement "i haven't even heard the half of it!" she is so amazed at how happy all of the servants are there, and she's just blown away because of Solomon's wisdom. i know so many people (like myself) feel the same way about Heartland. As we read it in church a couple of Wed. nights ago, i realized indeed, this was a story very much like Heartland.

i do invite you all to come and see what is going on at Heartland on the 17Th of October!