VBS is free and open to any child age 3 to 12, you don’t have to be involved with Sunny Hills already to enjoy VBS. Call the church office at 228-7599 to register your child today.

To all the dads out there … happy father’s day!

I am grateful for the upbringing my own dad provided for me.

Billy Graham has written a wonderful little article reflecting on his role as a father with his, now famous, son, Franklin.

The slammers are awesome! Today we played in the rain … and I mean RAIN. It poured. At first I thought we’d quit, but then everybody just kept playing, and it was muddy, and sloppy, and just totally cool. We had a great time today, lots of hits, I think we scored a lot of runs! The other team played really well and the game was close; but, I think we edged them at the end, probably because when they were batting the rain was so fierce they had a hard time seeing the ball and gripping the bat.

A big shout-out of thanks goes to JOHN for being the best and loudest fan ever. Some of our fans had to leave due to the yucky wet conditions (it’s WAY funner to play in the rain than to sit, cold, watching in the ran); but JOHN just kept hollerin’ for the Slammers and it was great.

After the game I took a hot, soaky bath and it was just terrific.

Mom, there’s a big tournament this Saturday at 9:00 a.m., can I stay until then, at least? They really need me.

– Big Al

Thanks again for sending me to summer camp with the Slammers. They are really a cool group of guys (and some real awesome gals too, that catcher they had today was fearless!) who just wanna have a great time with church softball. After two games we are learning how to be better hitters and fielders. We’ve had plenty of help with extra players. Overall, our spirits are great.

They don’t keep score here, but IF they did, and they don’t … but IF they did we’d be 1-0-1, undefeated! Today vs. the Presba-Lutherans we had a couple rough innings and had to fight our way back in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game. Those guys can really hit, but our mid-to-late order really came through for us.

We had some great NEW players today:  Ron, Steven, Drew, “Danni” (go G-dub!), and Mike. All of ‘em played really well and added to the team.

Our next game is at 3:30 next Sunday. I asked the coach, and he said I could stay another couple weeks if I wanted to. Go slammers!

– Big Al

We discover that the entire cast is dead and now waiting for Jack to arrive for their final gathering in a church setting. There are hugs and smiles and an odd confluence of emotions as Jack meets his father with the question … “How are you here dad?” The response … “Jack, how are YOU here?”

Jack’s father encourages us not to think too darkly about death; instead, we are to adopt a more cavalier approach acknowledging that death comes to us all and that it is “moving on” to a state of timeless reunion.

For me, the ending scenes were a bit dull, albeit emotionally deepening. The highlight for me was when the dog joined Jack in the Bamboo forest and licked his face and laid down next to him, as if to say “in death you will not be alone.”

Another high point was when, after performing back surgery Jack discovers the nick on his neck bleeding, an apparent “leak” between LOST’s alternate Universes where time means nothing.

HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE FOR ME:  Lost seems to be saying “relationships matter most.” It’s the fabric of who we meet, touch, know, and draw near that gives meaning to life. Jesus put it this way:

1 John 1:5-10 ⁵ This is the message we heard from Christ and are reporting to you: God is light, and there isn’t any darkness in him.
⁶ If we say, “We have a relationship with God” and yet live in the dark, we’re lying. We aren’t being truthful.
⁷ But if we live in the light in the same way that God is in the light, we have a relationship with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from every sin.
⁸ If we say, “We aren’t sinful” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
⁹ God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we’ve done wrong.
¹⁰ If we say, “We have never sinned,” we turn God into a liar and his Word is not in us.

The Ultimate relationship is with God through Christ. As we tend to that key relationship our “earthly” relationships become deeper, clearer, cleaner, and more spectacular!

I want to be careful to distinguish between the popular theology of LOST and the eternal truths of God’s Word. It’s pretty cool to watch a T.V. event and find yourself considering the deeper things of God.

A final thought from Matthew 18:11, “For the Son of man came to save that which was lost.”

• Jonathan Falwell, pastor of TRBC.
• Charles Swindoll, next to Billy Graham, perhaps the most influential pastor of the 20th Century.
• Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C.
• Ed Stetser, Missions and Research leader with LifeWay Press.

If you are looking for a great community club to get involved with, I highly recommend the Ruritan Club.

• Alan and Kim
• Byron and Barbara
• Mark, Anita, and Katie
• Valerie
• Gail
• John and Pat
• Katie, Jesse, and Andy
• Steven
• Joyce

We had several of our Sunny Hillers run the 1/2 and Full Marathon at the Flying Pig in Cincinatti, OH. Congratulations to each of them, especially for running in poor conditions (terrible rain!). Here are their names, linked to their results page.

• Mark Wagner.
• Anita Wagner.
• Katie Wagner.
• Danny Sturgill.
• Lisa Jonas.

By the way, Danny ran an 8:01 pace! That’s kinda awesome.