Comedy Night Inviter Event. . .

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This was one of our more succesfull outreach events of 2007. We had over 200 guests mostly unchurched at this venue. Members of Davis Park - start inviting people now! Last year we had 705 in attendance, I know we can do better . . .

This event is a great way to introduce your friends and family to this congregation and Jesus Christ. Out comedian we make your sides hurt with laughter. Come and enjoy!

Buddy Gray

1020 Tenaya . . . Habitat/ Kaiser Build

The lunch program went very today. Our team cooked for approximately 200 people. Special Thanks to Wayne Smith who took charge after I double booked myself. Our volunteers were John Bailey, Lee and Sheila Walls, Ernie Yoshino,Gary Laguna and Brian Smith. Sheila Smith did a job with photography for the volunteer day for Kaiser. Wayne cooked up a "killer" pot of beans. I know the Kaiser volunteers enjoyed their warm food, hot chocolate and coffee. Thanks for making a difference today.

Buddy Gray

Habitat for Humanity . . .

Habitat called today needing someone to help prepare 225 meals for Monday's lunch. I said yes and have now realized that I am officiating a funeral at 1:00 pm the same day. I am now recruiting cooks and servers for this project. Kaiser will have their employees at three different sites and Habitat needs help. This will be a great way for us to lend a hand to the community on a project. Now I will try to figure out the details. If you are interested let me know that you can work.

Buddy

Outreach by Movie . . . Comedy Night Coming Soon!

Today was the Veggietale Outreach event. It was the greatest vegetable outreach event we have ever had. In all 211 individuals were at the event. Well over half of them were non-members. The Baileys invited 27 guests and 24 of them came to the event. What a great way to let your friends learn about Christ in an unobtusive enviroment. In the next week we will send out follow up letters inviting these folks to our next inviter event, which will be a comedy event at the buidling on February 9, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Our comedian this year will be Chris Blackmore from Los Angeles, CA. We have great expectations for this event. Start praying now for our next event.
At the theater we were able to give out a half dozen books to theater patrons who were wondering what we doing there this afternoon. It was great to be outside the walls touching people we could not otherwise touch.
More about our continuing response to communities later.

peace,

Buddy Gray

VeggieTales . . . Pirates Premier!

This Sunday at 3:00 pm we will be hosting a movie premier event at the Riverbank Galaxy Theater for the movie, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". We are providing tickets for non-members who want to see the movie as a guest of one of our members. Veggetale movies are great for teaching biblical principals to younger children, while in a subdued fashion through humor also teaching adults. We expect over 100 guests (non-members/non-christians) to be at this event. Pray that we make a positive impact on the community as we respond through this cultural event.

Peace,

Buddy

If your interested in the movie and want to see it please come.

Notifications . . .

One of the least favored times of ministry as a chaplain is when you are called upon to perform a death notification. These notifications can happen for a variety of reasons, sometimes the deceased has been killed in an auto accident, or something of that nature. Ocassionally we are called upon after homicides, or police involved shootings to go with an officer or deputy to tell a family they have lost a loved one.
Last night I was called upon to deliver a message from another agency in a different part of the state that a man had died. Rather than a cold telephone call law enforcement agencies perform mutual aid avtivities such as this to make a hard message have a softer edge. Telling this father that his son had passed was not easy, but I am glad that he heard the message from a person and had someone with him as he steadied himself from the shock of the news.
My prayer today is that this father can have peace and comfort from God to work through this loss.

Buddy Gray

Spencer Ave. Fire. . .

A couple of nights ago I was awakened at 4:15 a.m. by a call from the Red Cross. Calls in the middle of the night for a chaplain are never good. . . This call concerned a housefire on the West Side of Modesto and involved several families. I was called because one of the ladies was having a difficult time with the loss. Loss by fire is rough on individuals, a few hours earlier pictures and memorablia were secure and in the spot where she could grab and hold them when she wanted, a little while later they were incinerated beyond recognition. I have not experienced this type of loss, however, I could empathize with her in that moment. She was outside, 39 degrees and a little mist in the air. The only clothes she had to her name were on her back and they were her flannel pj's. The coat she was wearing was the camo jacket out of my truck. Her shoes were some deck shoes from the fireman who carries extra shoes for times like these.
One of the little known facets of the Red Cross is that they take care of needs like this initially to help people back on their feet. The Red Cross team provided her with two nights in a hotel, some provision for food and an allowance for clothes.
I have been volunteering with the Red Cross for five years and I am still amazed that this is a service they provide. It still baffles me with the "Christ Resources" we have in the United States that there is no coalation of Christians meeting this need. Granted the individuals that do much of this work for the Red Cross in Stanislaus County are Christ followers and I am blessed to work along side these indiviuals.

Buddy Gray

Winter Storm Warning in the Sierras. . . Standby as this dvelops

From the National Weather Service . . .

STRONG AND POTENTIALLY DAMAGING WIND GUSTS ARE FORECAST.
FOR THE SIERRA RIDGES...WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 80 TO 100 MPH WITH GUSTS NEAR 145 MPH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON.
FOR THE EASTERN SIERRA SLOPES AND WESTERN NEVADA...WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 25 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 65 MPH EARLY FRIDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON. GUSTS IN WIND PRONE AREAS ALONG HIGHWAYS 95 AND 395 MAY EXCEED 80 MPH. WINDS WILL ALSO CREATE AREAS OF BLOWING DUST WHICH MAY LOWER VISIBILITIES BELOW 1 MILE AT TIMES.
WINDS OF THIS MAGNITUDE MAY DOWN TREES....UTILITY POLES...AND DAMAGE FENCES AND ROOFS. HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES MAY OVER TURN IF ATTEMPTING TO TRAVEL IN AREAS OF STRONG CROSS WINDS.

For Full information follow the link marked severe weather warnings on the this blog.

Pray that the conditions lessen so that the intensity decreases.


Buddy

Happy New Year . . .

Well 2008 has rolled in and now we have a new year before us. God has given us 365 days of new year to work with. I am excited about a lot of opportunities that we will have in this new year. I just hope we can embrace the moment when opportunbity stares us in the face. Many times it seems I am looking the other way when opportunity brushes by. I am going to try to live with eyes wide open.
Today a lady came by that we had helped a few months ago. She came by to say thank you to the congregation for helping her restart her life. She was homeless and we helped her get into a home. She now has a job and is providing for her two children nine and ten years old. It was encouraging to have someone come by to say thank you.
I hear a lot of stories about bad experiences when we interact with people in our benevolence ministries. Usually, around the holidays the bad experiences seem to be multiplied because we are giving out at a much faster pace than we ususually are giving. Many of us have been surprized that there are people who take advantage of the system at "Christmas". I wish I had a good answer to this issue. I do know that we do alot of good despite the people working the system. The family that I partnered and helped were in great need. It was a blessing to share with them.
Laura and Cindy did a great job on both of holiday programs this year. If you have a chance thank them for taking on this huge responsibility.
Hilltop officially shutdown there operation on the first of January, if you link to their website form the bottom of the page you can see that we did a large percentage of the projects completed by them in Ramona.

Buddy Gray