This Is Why We Love to Do Worship At Church. This is Why We Love Church

We know and understand that lot's of you don't have the best of feelings about church.  Many have had funky experiences with people which have hurt us, made us feel judged, pushed out or rejected.  This is the cunning scheme of the enemy to keep us from having fellowship with each other in the context of church.  So we all must try as hard as we can to recover from hurts, and find a body where we can connect so we can continue to thrive on the vine and be ingrafted into the family of Christ.  This is essential for our growth and kingdom life God wants us to have.  Below is a post on our church group, and illustrates that we are so grateful to keep hanging in there through thick and thin so we can bless each other in the joy of the Lord:

    From Nancy LaLande:
You all were AMAZING and truly AWESOME today!  I felt the presence of the Lord very strongly during 1st service…  And Jeff you looked so at peace today during worship…  almost as if you were floating on air : )

I am so grateful to Shelley and Cal for telling us about ECF almost 10 years ago!!

Loving you all!!!



Thanks for all you do….



Nancy

Guest Artists at Spencer Butte Middle School MLK Assembly

We were invited to play and speak at the Spencer Butte Middle School Martin Luther King assembly.  It was to be Jan 9. 2012.  We arrived at 8:00 and quickly got our gear into the gym on the stage where some of the kids were practicing a dance they were going to do.  That middle school atmosphere came rushing back as we've spent many hours in the schools working with kids.  We were greeted warmly, and just felt good about what we were going to do.
After they watched two videos we were on.  Shelley started U2's "Pride, In the Name of Love" and had the crowd enthralled within a few bars.  That song went over really well.  We then sang Bob Marley's "One Love", and were thrilled to see the kids swaying, clapping, and eventually all on their feet singing with us.  The next song was "My Favorite Things".  Then Cal gave a short speech, encouraging the kids to know that they are unique, and no one can put them down.  MLK taught us that if people rise up in a non-violent way, they show their oppressors the err of their ways. He told the students that they can be proud of how they look, what they like, and bring out the best in others.  Each of us has talents and gifts to contribute to the world, and NO ONE can take that away.  There is only one race, the human race!!

We then ended on "It's So All Right", and danced with the kids at the end when we all got together to dance.  We had an amazing time.