Friday, September 3, 2010

Encouraging Note

I thought I would share a note that we received from Ryan and Jenny Jones. As many of you know Jenny just had surgery to remove Thyroid cancer. Jenny and Ryan's letter I hope will be encouragement to you.

Dear Church Family,

First, we appreciate your prayers immensely! The need for prayer is probably tremendous for a congregation of this size, and for hundreds of various situations. In addition to praying for all of these needs for the congregation, each of you have your own personal concerns to pray about, and even prayer for people or events outside of the church.

In spite of this great demand for so much prayer and attention, all of you have taken the time to include Ryan, me, and our family in your prayers. We are truly thankful to all of you for your prayers and thoughts for us.

Second, I'm not sure if words can express the "warm embrace" we have felt from all of you, and, really, the whole church. As you know, Ryan, I, and our children are fairly new to the church. When we found this church, I was quite closed-minded, thinking that there would be no church that could possibly be as wonderful as our church in Colorado...How wrong I was!

I strongly believe that God has led us to FCF. Through out my Christian walk, I have never felt so "on fire" for Christ as I do now. I just want to please Him, and want Him to shape me into an instrument for Him. I have never felt this strong of a desire in my heart until recently. In addition, the warm, welcoming, friendly "embrace" from this church has been a magnificent blessing from the first day we walked through the door. When we received a lot of sorrowful news in June, none of you really knew us extremely well at that time. Yet, all of you reached out to us with unreserved love, and surrounded us with care, comfort, and prayer. I thank all of you for that.

I am happy, blessed, and even proud to be a part of this congregation. I thank Jesus for sending us to this church. I am thankful, too, for such a great children's ministry. I have even seen my children growing spiritually. I know God will take care of us in His was. What an amazing, mighty God we serve!

Ryan, Jenny, and Family