Great end to summer!

We ended summer in a great way yesterday, wrapping up our Jesus by the Water series and our Hot August Nights. Wednesday night we welcomed the Waldo and Cascade Fire Departments, who led us in some great fire fighter games. You can see about 30 pics in the gallery to the right. Although it was not a "Hot" August night, we still had a lot of fun.

We ventured to the "Jordan River" in the afternoon, learning a little about baptism and pooped out coffee. You see, in Asia they produce the greatest coffee on Earth, called Kupi luwak. In Europe it goes for about $30 a cup, and in the US you can pick some up for somewhere between $100-$600 per pound (and you thought Starbucks was bad!). What makes this coffee so great and so expensive? Well, it's because it the coffee cherry, containing the little bean that is used to make coffee, is first eaten by a little cat called a Kopi or Civet. The digestive juices in this cat bring about out some amazing flavors in the coffee bean. The coffee bean then "exits" the cat (I don't need to say any more do I?), and is then collected by farmers (a job I would NEVER want). Despite tons of attempts to bring out these amazing flavors in a laboratory the only way to truly get the best coffee remains through this interesting feline process. So why, other then the fact that I'm strange, do I bring up this story? Well, because just like this process is the only way to make this coffee the best possible, so only through God can we be the best possible. Although baptism is not itself the process by which we are saved, it represents that process. When we ask for forgiveness God cleans us up, removing the bad stuff from our life and keeping the good there. God makes us the best possible. Our challenge then is to live that out, allowing others to benefit from the life God has changed.