Reagan was a little more difficult. It’s a long story but after Brooklyn was born they had to rush Reagan out because she was breech and her heart rate started to drop. It was quite the mad scene. Thankfully she flipped on her own and no surgery was needed but they did have to get her out fast which caused her to be stunned meaning her breathing wasn’t kicking in like it should when a baby leaves the womb. Her brain still thought she was in the womb. NICU had to come to the rescue and get her oxygen immediately as well as get her brain and body to kick in and realize she was out of the womb. All I can say is that it was a VERY scary few minutes. I couldn’t even watch the nurses work on her because I kept fearing the worst. Thankfully she started breathing on her own within a minute. It was a scream that I will always be thankful to have heard.

Even though Brooklyn and Reagan are my 3rd and 4th child the miracle of birth never gets old. God has created something for us to experience that is beautiful beyond words. The complexity and beauty of it all should prove to everyone that there is a God who is the Creator of life. Taylor and I are thankful for the gifts God has given us. We know there are many out in our world who deserve to be parents but for whatever reason can’t and so for them and for the Lord I believe we have a responsibility to raise up these gifts in a home that is both Christ centered and full of love. In fact that’s what Taylor and I prayed for when we got back into our hospital room. With our new little miracles lying in front of us on the bed we prayed over them that God would keep them healthy and safe and that we would make Him proud by raising up these children in a home of love and in the way He desires for them to go.

I want to thank everyone who has been praying for us and encouraging us. You’ve been great friends. Now, I need to end this because I’ve got two little girls who are ready to eat.

• THIS Sunday Church in the Park at Halfway Creek Park at 10:00am! Invite a friend and bring your lawn chairs. It’s going to be a great time.
• Labor day weekend we are having ONE service at 10:00am at the church.
• TONIGHT there will be an outdoor movie night at the church. They will be showing Soul Surfer. Bring your family and friends and enjoy the evening outside watching an inspirational movie.

THANK YOU for all of your prayers and encouraging words. It has meant the world to myself and Taylor. We’ll see you all soon. God bless!

My thoughts on the services for Sunday will be short. Ready? They were good.

In all honesty Sunday’s seem to be running together. But the last few weeks I’ve really sensed the Spirit’s presence in our services. The worship has been great, we’ve seen multiple new families and everyone seems to be gearing up for what will be a GREAT Fall.

I continued our summer series through James. I spoke on the dangers of slander. The primary passage was James 4:11-12. You can listen to the message HERE if you missed it.

Sunday night I had the privilege of baptizing 8 people at the Black River. To me it doesn’t matter if you baptize 1 or 101 it’s all amazing and God deserves the glory. Afterwards one of the people who we baptized came up to me and said, “I feel like a whole new person!” Love it!

Last Saturday our worship team from second service participated in the parade. We had a great time handing out 2,000 freeze pops and 900 invitations to church in the park. I want to say THANK YOU to EVERYONE that helped make the parade happen. We had a lot of great volunteers that worked like crazy to pull something off that only lasted about 30 minutes but it was fun. We heard lots of positive comments from the community.

The only way to describe the next few weeks is to simply say it will be crazy. TONIGHT (Wednesday) we have our Back To School Bash for K-5th grade from 6-8pm. We are going to have inflatables, snacks, games etc. We’ve invited hundreds of kids to come from Sand Lake Elementary, surrounding neighborhoods and our church. I don’t know how many will show but I’m praying for a great turnout. This will be a great way to kick off what’s going to be a great Fall for our Good News Clubs at Sand Lake Elementary and Wednesday nights at the church.

Friday night at 8:30pm we will be having an outdoor movie night. We’ll be showing the inspirational movie Soul Surfer. We’d love for EVERYONE to join us.

Sunday we are having one service at 10:00am at Halfway Creek Park in Holmen. We’ve invited over 1,000 people to join us for an hour of worship and a message. I hope all of you will come and bring a friend with you. You never know what God will do.

In September we’ll be kicking off our Fall programs in our newly renovated education wing which is looking great. We’ve also got a Fall Harvest Party being planned as another opportunity to build community and invite people you know to church.

I’m also REALLY excited about Back to Church Sunday coming up on September 18. Statistics tell us over 80% of people would say yes to a church invite if someone would just ask them. Well this is YOUR chance to make the ask! We are encouraging EVERYONE to invite family, friends, co-workers to church with them on September 18th. The services won’t be any different than what we normally do. The whole point is to take the opportunity to invite those who don’t regular attend church for whatever reason to come and get connected. Not only will they be attending church but we’ll give them the opportunity that day to sign up for a ministry and/or small group to help them get plugged in right away. Pastor Craig will also be offering our Snap Shots (mission and vision of Sand Lake) the very next weekend. Don’t miss this opportunity to make the ask and bring someone with you on that Sunday.

As you can see there’s A LOT happening at Sand Lake with lots more to come. I haven’t even touched on our outreach opportunities happening this Fall and Winter like bell ringing, angel tree, trick or treat so others can eat etc. All in all I’d say it’s a GREAT TIME to be a part of what God is doing at Sand Lake. Thanks for making it your church home. God bless!

1. Kornfest Parade: The Kornfest Parade is happening on August 20th at 11:00am in Holmen. Our second service worship team is in the parade. We’ll be handing out flyers for church in the park and 2,000 freezie pops. We’d love for you to come out and support the worship team and walk with us if you’d like to help hand out the flyers and freezie pops.

2. Baptism: At 4:00pm THIS Sunday we’ll be having a baptism service on the black river. Right now we have 8 people being baptized which is awesome! We’d love to baptize even more. If you’d like to be baptized contact me right away. Also, we’d love for you to just come and celebrate with those who are boldly going public with their faith in Christ.

3. Back To School Bash: On August 24th from 6:00pm-8:00pm our Good News Club leaders are throwing a back to school bash for K-5th grade. There will be inflatable games, games, prizes and snacks. This is going to be a GREAT event. Invite your friends and come!

4. Outdoor Movie: On August 26th at 8:30pm we are having an outdoor movie night! Bring your blankets and lawn chairs as well as your whole family and join us for a movie and some popcorn.

5. Church In The Park: Sunday August 28th at 10:00am we are having our first ever Church in the Park event. This is an end of the summer opportunity for our whole church to worship as one body. Bring your blankets, lawn chairs and a few friends with you. The event is taking plan at Halfway Creek Park at the band shell.

Whew! And that’s just August! There will be other events coming up in September like Fall Kickoff for youth and kids as well as Back to Church Sunday and multiple outreach opportunities. It’s going to be a GREAT Fall!

Overall just great services.

I LOVED seeing so many pray over the Eickmeier’s. When your church family lays hands on you it’s powerful. Wish I had a picture of ALL the people who came up front to pray.

We prayed for them because their daughter Jamie is leaving on the 19th to be a part of an exchange student program in Lithuania. It’s going to be an awesome experience for her.

We’ve taken a beating with attendance and offering this summer. Thankfully I know God ALWAYS provides so I don’t lose any sleep over it but I will be thankful to get into our Fall programming and see more families back. Church in the summer is always a weird time because most of the programs are on break and so many people are coming and going.

I preached part 8 of 10 in our James series. For this message I preached on the danger of presumption. James warns us to not live boastfully believing we have control of our destinies and that tomorrow is guaranteed. Instead we need to focus on the day God has given us and ask how we can live that day for Christ.

I thought the message went okay. I felt like I struggled to explain that it’s not bad to make plans but just make sure that your planning is backed up with prayer and asking the Lord to confirm the direction you are desiring to head. Essentially we need to include God in ALL areas of our lives rather than just some. If He is the Lord of my salvation, he needs to be the Lord of future, my career choice, how I spend my money etc. Ultimately our hearts desire and attitude should be that whatever God wants for us is what we want for ourselves.

You can listen to the message HERE.

The worship team in second service did a new song today called You Are Good. It was awesome.

We also announced Church in the Park on August 28th. It’s going to be a great time! One service at 10:00am. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets.

If you want to get baptized we will be holding a baptism service THIS Sunday at 4:00pm. We have 6 people signed up so far. I would LOVE to baptize even more! Just contact the office and I’ll speak with you about it.

We will also be in the parade this weekend. If you can walk with us in the parade to hand out freezie pops and flyers for Church in the Park that would be awesome. Please contact the office and let us know you can help. The parade starts at 11:00am I believe.

I also want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that donated school supplies and adopted a kid by providing an outfit and shoes. We had around 26 kids adopted which was GREAT for such a short notice. I’m thinking next year we could help 50 kids.

I also forgot to mention that we had one student accept Christ during our 5 day clubs! I never get tired of hearing about people of any age asking Jesus to be their savior.

It’s Monday and there are still no babies. The doctor tells us it can be anytime which makes the time go slow. Tay will be 36 weeks on Thursday. Our doctor is gone which means if Taylor goes into labor now the doctor we’ve worked with this whole time won’t be there to deliver them. That happened with Paige and it wasn’t a positive experience. Hoping that doesn’t happen again.

Have a great week!

So often we get tired of waiting on God don’t we? We pray and pray and pray and get frustrated that we feel like God isn’t doing anything. We get tired of waiting and we want God to answer our prayers RIGHT NOW! But the problem is we don’t see the big picture like God does. We can’t see how God is working behind the scenes preparing us and others to answer our prayer in His timing and in His way. Can you imagine if God didn’t make us wait and just answered our prayers immediately and how we wanted? This world would go into chaos. I can think of many prayers I’m thankful God didn’t say yes to. Also, if God always answered our prayers exactly how we wanted I believe we would often miss out on something even better if we would have waited. Because we can’t see the big picture like God can we can’t possibly know the best way for God to answer our prayers. When we trust in His plan, find rest in His arms, and believe He has everything under control then we can understand that sometimes waiting on Him is the BEST thing we can do. In that time of waiting we are given the opportunity to learn patience, faith and trust. We can know that when the prayer is answered it will be a healthy and strong answer like a baby born at the right time rather than a sick and weak answered prayer. If that makes any sense. I hope it does.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken. Psalm 62:1

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Col. 3:12

I am worn out waiting for your rescue, but I have put my hope in your word. Psalm 119:81

The crazy thing about it is that I didn’t have to preach for it to happen.

I was up Saturday night going over my notes and I just felt this impression or voice or whatever you want to call it that I shouldn’t preach the sermon that was written. I honestly didn’t know what we were going to do but I knew we’d be praying.

Sunday morning I got into the office and scrambled to write a message as a backup plan. Well that ended up not being needed because in both services we just worshiped God through music and then we prayed. The church was incredibly receptive to out of the norm change. In each service we had 30-40 minutes of uninterrupted prayer. People all over the sanctuary were lifting up families, our community, government, sicknesses. We laid hands on people in both services. It was awesome to watch so many come forward and just pray over people they knew and didn’t know.

I think it just goes to show that you don’t have to help the Holy Spirit move. He is perfectly capable of getting his job done without us getting in the way with all the fancy techno stuff.

I’ve heard a LOT of comments since that service two days ago. Multiple people asked if we could do that again. We may just have to do that.

I truly believe that a praying church will be a thriving and healthy church. I’m not sure there is any program, event, fancy sermon that could bring people together and make us feel like one body like prayer can.

We had a great time following service having lunch together and brainstorming ideas on how to bring our church together through different events. Jean Wilhelmson has taken the reigns on this and is doing an amazing job getting stuff organized for the next year. It’s an incredible load off my shoulders to know I have someone fired up and willing to make sure stuff like this is getting done.

I’m excited  that we’ve had 2 people step up so far with helping with Adventure Church. There are SO MANY great opportunities to share our faith through our children’s ministry. We definitely need more help! If you can help at Good News Club at Sand Lake Elementary or on Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings during Adventure Church that would be awesome!

I love this quote from Andy Stanley about children’s ministry. He says, “We are not just babysitting children; we are planting an anchor very deep in their hearts so that if they drift, they will not drift far.” 

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support for Taylor during this time. She is more than ready to have these babies but understands the need to wait so they have every opportunity to be born as healthy as possible. Still, we are hoping they’ll be here in next week or so. Until then we find ourselves a little in limbo not wanting to make any big plans or commitments. We feel a little in limbo right now.

That’s it for this week. Have a great week!

Like countless others I find myself at times making excuses as to why I don’t have time for my spiritual life. Don’t you, more often than not, find yourself thinking about how you’ll read your bible tomorrow, attend church next week, serve when things slow down? We use our daily activities as our excuse for why we can’t give God any time. We like to say we are just too “busy” when in reality we ALWAYS find time to do the things we see as important. It’s funny how I can be to busy to read the word but not busy enough to play video games. We can be too busy to attend church but not busy enough to skip TV or go see the latest movie we’ve been DYING to see.

God has really been challenging me in this area. Rather than place God in my to do list he needs to be placed in the center of it all. I continue to be hit with the thought, “God saved me from HELL! He has set me free from the power and penalty of sin! The least he deserves is some of my time everyday.” This world offers NOTHING in comparison to what God offers us. The older I get the more real this truth has become. At the end of life God isn’t going to care what movies I saw, video games I beat, vacation I took, TV shows I watched etc. He’s going to care about what I did with the time He gave me to accomplish His work and grow in my spiritual maturity. To think or live any other way is to put our selfish desires before what’s more important.

Instead we must follow the words of Christ who said (my paraphrase), “Don’t worry about life but seek first His Kingdom.”

Father, forgive me for allowing the “stuff” of this life to get in the way of what matters most, my relationship with you. Holy Spirit help me to put you first in all things. Help me to remember there is nothing more important than you. Help me to see how EVERYTHING I think, act and do can include you. Help me to learn how to be disciplined in having a right routine and right priorities centered on you. Thank you for your patience and grace. Thank you for putting up with my selfishness and helping me “see” the change that needs to happen in my life. Amen. 

Continued our walk through James. The message was on the tongue. You can listen HERE.

I found out another lady in our church is pregnant! That makes something like 6 pregnant women right now. What can I say? That’s how Sand Lake grows!

We had 1 person step up and say they would help with Adventure Church on a rotation this Fall. If we can get 2-3 more people we’ll be set! Can you help! Let us know ASAP.

I need to say THANKS to all the volunteers who helped with 5 day club last week. I don’t know the final numbers but thought we had around 30-40 kids that participated which is great.

With the twins so close to being born I feel like I am just waiting around for it to happen right now. I’m trying not to schedule to much or commit to anything so that I can take a few weeks off when they are born which technically could be anytime since twins are a higher risk of premature labor. The fact that she has made it almost 33 weeks is awesome. We are praying she goes at least 35 weeks so their lungs will be more developed. The doctors won’t let her go past 38 weeks. So at the very least we know these girls are coming within 5 weeks! That’s crazy!!!

Because of that I am working way ahead on messages which I have NEVER done before. I typically plan out what I want to preach 6 months to a year in advance and will do some basic outlines of the messages so our worship teams can start working on song selection but I don’t write the  message until the week of. Right now I have completely finished my messages through August 14th and am hoping to have every message completed for James and our upcoming Back to Church Sunday by the end of this week or early next week. That would mean having sermons done and ready through September 18th. It’s a TON of writing and bible study but it definitely takes off the pressure of me and Pastor Craig.

I know this has nothing to do with Sunday BUT I am REALLY excited about this upcoming Fall. Right now it’s a little stressful trying to figure out who is going to take over Adventure Church and who will be small group leaders BUT we have TONS of stuff coming up that is really exciting. We have a group of people who are excited about creating opportunities of community in our church. There are going to be lots of upcoming events where you can connect and feel like you are part of the family. We are going to have a back to church Sunday on September 18th that will give everyone an opportunity to get back into the groove of coming to worship each week and give you an opportunity to invite anyone and everyone to come to church with you. We’ll be starting new small groups in September and kicking off our Fall kids and youth programs. We’ve also got multiple outreach opportunities for you. LOTS and LOTS coming up.

And with that I’ll end right there. Great worship services, great to see some missing faces return and excited about everything coming up this Fall. Thanks for being a part of Sand Lake! The best days are definitely ahead.

Great services today. Even though attendance has taken a hit this summer we’ve been seeing some people who haven’t been here for a while return and we’ve seen multiple new families visit which has been great!

A BIG thanks to our worship teams and volunteers again. It’s really tough to get consistent volunteer help during the summer because SO MANY people are hit and miss for about 3 months a year. But we’ve had some great people jump in and help to keep things going.

I also need to thank Jennie Stammeyer who works behind the scene to do all of our volunteer scheduling. It’s a thankless job she has done for quite a while now and if you see her please tell her thank you. Her job can get really stressful at times especially in the summer or when you go through those seasons of losing volunteers and not picking up many new ones.

Great spirit of worship in both services. I love the heart and passion our worship team has in desiring to do their best for the Lord. They are not professionals and they don’t pretend to be but they are people who simply love Jesus and it shows which in my mind makes them awesome!

For second service we went with an acoustic worship service which was GREAT! I think it’s good to mix it up from time to time so things don’t get too stale.

I preached part 5 of our James series Sunday. The message seemed to connect well and that’s always a plus. You can listen to the message HERE.

We had about 10-12 people sign up for paintball for July 30th. You can still sign up next Sunday if you didn’t get to last Sunday. We can take a max of 25 people.

I asked during the sermon if anyone knew if we had a church softball team in the past. People really perked up when I mentioned that. Someone should volunteer to get that going again. I’d love to play or at least be the water boy. Maybe next summer.

Pastor Craig announced that we are in need of a new Adventure Church leader and a Small Groups Director. We are going to need to fill the Adventure Church position within the next month or so. Please be in prayer about this to see if that might be where God is calling you to serve.

I’m really looking forward to the Fall. I believe God will fill the positions we need to fill but there are some really cool things that are coming up such as 5 day club (starts July 18), Paintball (July 30), Church in the park (August 28), Back to Church Sunday (Sept. 18), Small Groups (Sept.) and Student Ministries (kids and teens September).

LOTS of stuff is happening and I’m definitely praying for God to give us an amazing year coming up especially as we get ready to celebrate 30 years of ministry in 2012.

Sunday afternoon for me was spent at the Blank’s home relaxing in the pool and grilling some hotdogs. Love spending time with the church family.

Alright that’s enough for now. I hope everyone has a great week!