About Last Weekend

I finally have a chance to write about some of the good things happening at Freedom Fellowship. A few weeks ago, some one wondered into church who hadn't been in church in a long time. That same person hadn't been sober in a long time either. One thing lead to another and I ended up giving that guy a ride home after the service. We talked about my own experiences and struggles with alcohol and drug use. I gave him my phone number and told him to call me if he was serious about our discussions of getting his feet out of the grave.

I was proud of how welcoming we made him feel without trying to make him leave or convince him that he shouldn't be in church in his condition. He sat quietly and listened to Cliff's sermon, which happened to be about the prodigal son parable in Matthew. Skip forward a few weeks after several phone calls, lots of prayer and hooking up this guy with a group of men on the path of recovery in our church...he is making the right steps toward rehab and recovery. He's been in church the last 2 weeks and you can tell something is going on. He has a long way to go and still needs prayer, support and encouragement (don't we all!); but, I'm glad we are stepping up and helping him as commanded. Please read "we" as Freedom Fellowship, I am only a small cog in the wheel of this story.

Another cool thing is some friends we have invited to Freedom have been twice with great things to say. They haven't been part of a church family in a long time and it's great to hear the excitement of finding a place that you recognize as a home and a place to grow. I know how they feel.

Speaking of feeling...Tricia is feeling better and going back to work tomorrow. She has her color back and her smile. We missed it the last few days. Dylan is feeling much better today and went back to school for the first time since last Thursday. He still gets giggly thinking about Tricia telling him "Good boy, good boy" when he was throwing up into the "bucket" that Tricia was holding for him at 1am. She was delirious from the early hour and the stress. Even in his physical and mental anquish, Dylan saw the humor in her saying "Good boy, good boy" just because he hit the bucket. He told me on Friday, "Daddy, Mommy acted like I was Keller or something when she said that." Tricia said it helped make the awful moments a little brighter and woke her just a little bit. Sorry for the grossness of that paragraph but that's life.

See ya!