Halogen Thanksgiving

This year the Sun. after thanksgiving our church Halogen decided to do a different kind of service. We decided to have an all church Thanksgiving dinner, which was really fun to sample everyone's different side dishes, and share what we were thankful for. It also happened to be the first Sun. of Advent and Izzy (our pastor) asked Greg and I to do the advent reading on HOPE. I love the fact our church is such a tight community, it truly feels like family.

Encouragement from those who have gone before

JR Mahon was a guest speaker at Halogen last Sunday evening and challenged us to get out of our comfort zones and love people, all people. How easy it is for us to walk down the street and easily overlook the homeless or those that don't fit into our neatly scheduled lives. If we say we are who we are then we need to invest in loving people, investing in relationships. JR invested in reaching out to foster children and last year he and his wife adopted a sibling set of three. After the service Greg and I had JR, Devin (host of real fusion & one of our pastors), Andy (producer of real fusion), John (Adoption Advocate) and a handful of others over to our house to talk about how we are going to challenge the American church to do more for the orphans. After all, it is a biblical mandate to the church to do such - calling it the only "pure religion", to take care of the orphan and widow. It was a blessing to be encouraged by JR and John and his wife Terry - who adopted 5 foster children- as Greg and I are going through the very process they went through.

Special Guest speaker - JR Mahon

For those of you in town (or who would like to make a trip ;-), JR Mahon, will be speaking at Halogen this Sun. evening, Sept. 30th at 6pm. JR is the author of Starving Jesus and will be sharing his message at Halogen, "Love Everyone & Candy", which challenges people to foster, adopt, befriend, love and care for the American Orphan. Come on out this Sun. to hear JR's compelling message and his own story of adoption.
(Click on the Halogen website for address & directions- hope to see you there)
Also, Devin has JR on as a guest for the week on Real Fusion so check it out too!

Halogen Hamburger/Hotdog Hangout

Not to show you up Devin, but our house not only had the hamburgers but the hotdogs too...and should I mention five different types of ice cream treats...For the month of June, Halogen church decided to have two different locations people could hang out at after church. Of course there was our house and the Deloziers opened up theirs too. The announcement Devin gave at church said we were "simply" having hamburgers while his house was going to have a "hot dog bar"... my neighbors came over with a whole box of hot dogs and buns from a BBQ previous that day and donated them to our cookout. Greg was the master BBQ front man while I served potato salad, BBQ baked beans, chips, cherries & grapes, washed down with some soda's and an ice cream to boot. As always it was a good time of fellowship and friends although we did miss seeing some of the usual faces that were enjoying the evening at the other house church. It was exciting to hear that over 50 people attended the Delozier's home and we had close to thirty! I think that was more than the head count at church :-)

Baptism

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

***This slide show was "borrowed" from Traci, so when it says "my hot hubby" you'll understand :-)***

Today, Greg and I were baptized together in the Ocean! It was an absolutely perfect day in every way...being baptized outside in God's beautiful creation at one of my favorite places, the beach...baptized by dear friends Izzy & Devin...witnessed by my closest friends and family...and finalized by a wonderful outdoor feast at Deb & Larry's. Both Greg & I were baptized as infants but when the class opened for Halogen to hold its very first baptism Greg began to show interest in wanting to make that decision as an adult. I too realized I wanted to make this incredible public expression as a physical sign of what God has done in my life. It really was a special day and I am so honored to have shared it with my husband. Greg shared his testimony of giving his life to the Lord at Angel Stadium during a Harvest crusade and that he always thought he would get a standing ovation for playing baseball there...that never came to be but God did give him his standing ovation as the entire stadium stood and applauded for those new decisions given that night. That was over 10 years ago. Praise God for his faithfulness!

Greg...my superstar!

Greg has a debut on Real Fusion. For those of you who never got to see him back in his baseball days this will give you a small taste...he should have gone pro I tell you...and I'm not being biased ;-) To see him in action, go to the archive of shows for Wed. May 23rd. "Turfburn". Enjoy!

Light & Life 1st Annual Heart Gallery

I can hardly believe how fast time flies! It seems like only days ago that I suggested Halogen sponsor a Heart Gallery event and now it's already here and gone. The event was even more than I had expected. I had a wonderful troupe of friends that helped me set up the sat. before...thank you to my faithful friends, Jason & Traci, Izzy & Audrey, and my incredible husband Greg who supports me 100% in whatever I do. Fawnda, from DCFS (Dept. of children and family services) came that evening to help set up as well, thank you Fawnda for all your hard work too! Sunday morning Larry let me address the congregation on the importance of being involved in some capacity with the foster children in our own community. In the Lakewood/Long Beach area alone, there are at least 800 foster children waiting to be adopted! After speaking at both services I had a booth out front to answer questions and take sign ups for those interested in doing more. We had 47 names on that list by the end of the morning and several families were interested in specific children in the gallery. My next step is coordinating an informative class at the church where these interested families can come for more information and get signed up officially to start the paperwork in getting them approved to be host families, foster families, tutors & mentors, and some signed up to be a part of remembering the birthday's of foster children. The day continued with a special service at Halogen's evening service. Johnston Moore, a foster adoption advocate from His Children Inc., came as our special guest speaker and gave a compelling testimony of his own family (they have five children - three they adopted from foster care & two they are fostering that are in the process of being adopted) They were so inspirational and challenged the church on what they are doing to take care of the orphans. Devin followed up with a compelling message that also tied into the need for us to care for these children. During slow worship the church was asked to go around the sanctuary and read the children's biographies and look at their pictures and even more importantly, to pray for each one specifically that they would be placed in a loving family. I want to thank all of you who played a part in making LLCF Heart Gallery a hit, I can't wait to put it on again next year and bring even more attention to the need of our Foster children and what the church specifically can do to make a difference.

Heart Gallery May 3rd

Light & Life Christian Fellowship is hosting the Los Angeles Heart Gallery this Sun. evening at the Halogen service 6 p.m. at 5951 Downey Ave, Long Beach. If you can't make it for this special service you can view the portraits at the 9 a.m/11 a.m. services.

May is the National Foster Care Month - so come on out to learn more about what you can do to make a difference in a young person's life!

Mexicali 2007 Part I Pictures

Halogen Gathering

One of the things I love most about our church - community! Greg and I have been blessed that we can open our home once a month for dinner after church and share food and friendship. In Jan. we started out with around 20 people and last month we had just a tad under 50! We're going to have to get a bigger house if it continues on like this. It's even inspired us to get a jump start on finishing our back yard so we can expand the party outside and take advantage of the beauty of So. Cal.

Halogen Winter Retreat