Hello All,
Wednesday and Thursday were incredibly busy for us at Calvary Laguna this week. Lela and I took much of the afternoon Wednesday and went looking for a house to rent. (Editor's Note: We have decided to wait on the housing market at this time, due to the continuing downward trend of property values. Our hope is to rent for as short a time as possible and then look for a place to buy.) We ended up looking in a place called "Ladera Ranch." It's a large, master planned community in Orange County. We drove to the condo that we were interested in and along the way, we passed a nice little park, within walking distance of the condo. Lela's eyes got watery and I knew we were probably onto something.
The condo itself was fine, but it's the area that is quite stunning. Great walking trails, that little park and a large pool area for kids, really cemented the deal for Lela. As for me, I just love that she loves it! I can eat and sleep anywhere! The only problem with that condo was that the floors were carpeted, a problem for our spill happy children! Otherwise, this was a great place for us, so we filled out our application.
We put in a rental application, only to find out that someone had just beaten us to it! At present, we are hoping to check out another condo in Ladera that our realtor found for us, this one with wood floors! Please join Lela in prayer that this will be the one!
We got back to church Wednesday night for our service. I got the chance to speak, but beside that, I got a chance to witness something really cool. Before I taught, I thought it would be good to pray together, since it was such an intimate group of people. I had everyone turn around and get into groups of 5 and we started to pray. I joined the group that my wife sat in and we prayed. A couple in our group were brand new baby Christians, just two weeks old in the faith! It was refreshing to hear their story. They had given their lives to the Lord in our church and much of the motivation for that was due to their wanting to spend eternity together! It was a sweet sentiment. But then to hear the man pray, was truly a blessing. His words were filled with thanksgiving to the Lord for saving Him and with promises to serve and love the Lord for all His days. He was so genuine and the emotions were all there as well. It was really cool.
Then came Steak & Study Thursday! This is an all day affair for me, from shopping at Costco to cleaning up after the event, but it is SO WORTH IT everytime! This particular Steak and Study featured the teaching of Pastor Don McClure, who is one of my personal favorite speakers. Don came with an excellent message and we saw several men respond to the Lord's prompting. We had about 170 men come for over 16 different churches. It was a great event!
One of the highlights for me are the many conversations that take place along the way. After we had set up the staging area, one of our guys, who has been through the thick and thin over the years, offered some cool words about our church. He said that our church was different now because we hold to a pattern that calls the congregation to respond to God's Word. He said that it wasn't that way before and that it has served to enliven our fellowship.
As I think back over the last few months, I find that that assessment is true. Pastor Chris has been faithfully delivering the Word and calling people to Christ. I have done the same when Chris was gone, and during the Men's Study. Seeing the couple from Wednesday Night and hearing Rick's encouragement gave me great hope for what we will see in the future. Maybe we will be known as the Church that will always call God's people to more than acquiesence to a point. Maybe we will be known as the church that calls God's people to obedient, repetitive, active faith in Christ. I hope so! If we will be faithful with what we have now, God will give us more to be faithful with.
The end goal of course, is not to be the largest church in Orange County or to be on the list of influential churches (look for that post next!) but simply that Christ will be glorified and magnified in our midst. I pray that we will see Him move in a way that makes us forget about any other movement in recent memory! That would be worth it all!
Pray that we will find the right place soon. We are hopeful that we will be able to move soon, but we ask for your prayers in the process.
Blessings...To Our Friends,
Frank Sanchez
Wednesday and Thursday were incredibly busy for us at Calvary Laguna this week. Lela and I took much of the afternoon Wednesday and went looking for a house to rent. (Editor's Note: We have decided to wait on the housing market at this time, due to the continuing downward trend of property values. Our hope is to rent for as short a time as possible and then look for a place to buy.) We ended up looking in a place called "Ladera Ranch." It's a large, master planned community in Orange County. We drove to the condo that we were interested in and along the way, we passed a nice little park, within walking distance of the condo. Lela's eyes got watery and I knew we were probably onto something.
The condo itself was fine, but it's the area that is quite stunning. Great walking trails, that little park and a large pool area for kids, really cemented the deal for Lela. As for me, I just love that she loves it! I can eat and sleep anywhere! The only problem with that condo was that the floors were carpeted, a problem for our spill happy children! Otherwise, this was a great place for us, so we filled out our application.
We put in a rental application, only to find out that someone had just beaten us to it! At present, we are hoping to check out another condo in Ladera that our realtor found for us, this one with wood floors! Please join Lela in prayer that this will be the one!
We got back to church Wednesday night for our service. I got the chance to speak, but beside that, I got a chance to witness something really cool. Before I taught, I thought it would be good to pray together, since it was such an intimate group of people. I had everyone turn around and get into groups of 5 and we started to pray. I joined the group that my wife sat in and we prayed. A couple in our group were brand new baby Christians, just two weeks old in the faith! It was refreshing to hear their story. They had given their lives to the Lord in our church and much of the motivation for that was due to their wanting to spend eternity together! It was a sweet sentiment. But then to hear the man pray, was truly a blessing. His words were filled with thanksgiving to the Lord for saving Him and with promises to serve and love the Lord for all His days. He was so genuine and the emotions were all there as well. It was really cool.
Then came Steak & Study Thursday! This is an all day affair for me, from shopping at Costco to cleaning up after the event, but it is SO WORTH IT everytime! This particular Steak and Study featured the teaching of Pastor Don McClure, who is one of my personal favorite speakers. Don came with an excellent message and we saw several men respond to the Lord's prompting. We had about 170 men come for over 16 different churches. It was a great event!
One of the highlights for me are the many conversations that take place along the way. After we had set up the staging area, one of our guys, who has been through the thick and thin over the years, offered some cool words about our church. He said that our church was different now because we hold to a pattern that calls the congregation to respond to God's Word. He said that it wasn't that way before and that it has served to enliven our fellowship.
As I think back over the last few months, I find that that assessment is true. Pastor Chris has been faithfully delivering the Word and calling people to Christ. I have done the same when Chris was gone, and during the Men's Study. Seeing the couple from Wednesday Night and hearing Rick's encouragement gave me great hope for what we will see in the future. Maybe we will be known as the Church that will always call God's people to more than acquiesence to a point. Maybe we will be known as the church that calls God's people to obedient, repetitive, active faith in Christ. I hope so! If we will be faithful with what we have now, God will give us more to be faithful with.
The end goal of course, is not to be the largest church in Orange County or to be on the list of influential churches (look for that post next!) but simply that Christ will be glorified and magnified in our midst. I pray that we will see Him move in a way that makes us forget about any other movement in recent memory! That would be worth it all!
Pray that we will find the right place soon. We are hopeful that we will be able to move soon, but we ask for your prayers in the process.
Blessings...To Our Friends,
Frank Sanchez
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