Empty church but still praising our God........

After the service yesterday, we drove up to our church and took some pictures of the other side and here you can see to the left where the dirt and rocks caved in....
Took the fence with it......
You can see how close the steep dirt wall is to our church....... and this is just the beginning of the digging.....it goes alot deeper.......
This is the saddest part.....a memorial........
This is our empty church as of now but fortunately "the church" is not a building but the people.........the service yesterday was a blessing and we are still praising our God who works in mysterious ways..........a chuckle ran through the congregation when Pastor Anthony announced the second hymn, "How firm a foundation". I especially like the second verse:

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid;

I'll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand."

For our family this church has been such a blessing. We were here right at the beginning stages of this church and have gone through the ups and downs of the building aspect of it as well as the spiritual ups and downs. I especially remember a spiritual "up" when 3 families came one Sunday and filled three rows of chairs. Who would of thought that one of the men that attended that day would eventually design the sanctuary we have today. Many hours of physical labor, many hours spent at the church, almost every night of the week and many times where we gathered together to pray, maybe just two or three of us or many of us. A tremendous amount of hard work but a tremendous amount of blessing, tears and laughter came along with it along with the promise that God was with us no matter what and "It was to God that we give the glory to" (which was another hymn we sang yesterday)

Jim and I and the girls actually rented part of the church and lived there for 10 mos. at one point while the men turned the garage into a place where we could hold our services so I guess the actual house and yard have a special spot in our hearts......it was Nancy's first home.......she was our church baby........we got our first cat there to take care of the mice that wanted to make the church their home so Tigger became a special part of our family especially for the girls.....Gramma A. found Susanne, still delivering flyers in her sleep (she had a tendancy to sleepwalk only it was hymn books that she was placing carefully at each bedroom door) one night after spending all day with us and other families delivering "invitation to our church" flyers to the houses around the area. Heather scaring the "beejees" out of us one night when she swallowed a penny, screamed so loud that I thought for sure she was being kidnapped (she was trying to recreate the trick that Uncle Ron had showed her and was showing Susanne) and she was sure she was going to die. I don't think I have ever ran up a flight of stairs so fast in my entire life!!!!! Needless to say, I assured her that it would appear........eventually!!!!!!!!

So many memories....looking out over the city of Calgary at night.....what a beautiful sight......seeing God's creatures.....deer, rabbits, weasels and all kinds of birds make their home in the trees.....even a bear walked through the property one time.......and the people of our congregation....our pastors and their families.....the families that attend....all part of God's family and so dear to our hearts......all these things come back to my mind now as I think about our church.

I am so glad that God knows the end from the beginning..........