Vici United Methodist Church: Youth Sunday

    


     A few weeks ago, I received a call from an old friend from the Vici United Methodist Church in the small but dear town of Vici, Oklahoma. While I didn't recognize the number, I immediately recognized the voice that graciously invited me to visit their church on October 11th and present the message during their annual Youth Sunday. I quickly agreed to do so and was thrilled to be returning to this church that is so dear to my heart.


     I cannot remember a time when the Vici Church (as we often refer to it) wasn't a part of my life. This small town church has been a dual parish (meaning we share pastors and financial obligations) with my little home church of Lenora for well....at least 35 years or so.  I began to become familiar with the people of the Vici Church as a little girl during church meetings and when my mom would fill the pulpit at their church and bring me along to sing a special. From the beginning, they always made me feel so welcomed and loved. Little did I know at the time, that my own true love was being raised right there in that church with those same beautiful, loving people as a little boy sitting in the pews right there between his mom and grandma.  Years later (well not that many years actually, since we were only 20 years old), we walked down the aisle of their newly completed sanctuary to say our vows before God and our joint church family and friends.  Then this very same church continued to bless us as they provided me with both college scholarships and my very first ministry opportunity as an extremely young and foolish youth pastor with a desire to serve. This church has been such a huge part of our lives, so of course when they asked us to return, I said yes (even though we'd actually been saving Vici church until Christmas.)

     As time grew closer, we received another call requesting that our daughters provide some special music for the service as well, and I also discovered that the youth and their leader were hoping that I could provide a message having something to do with bullying, which honestly made my job just a little harder as I attempted to tackle a very difficult subject and ask God what He would have me say about it.  I thought and prayed and read and thought and prayed and read and by Oh, approximately 7:30 that morning, I had put together what I thought was an acceptable message to present.

     We spent the night before with my husband's family there in Vici after celebrating his grandfather's 90th birthday, so we only had a few blocks to travel to get to church on time.  The Vici service begins at 11:00 which gives the current pastor, Rev. Don Whitman time to drive from his 9:30 service at Lenora to Vici each Sunday morning. We were greeted warmly as always from all our congregational friends and even met a few new faces as well.  The youth members were busy with last minute preparations, and it was fun to hear their nervous laughter as they got ready to lead each and every part of the service that morning (minus the message and special music, of course.)

      I have to admit that my heart saddened a bit as I took note of the absence of long-time members and leaders in the church Chub and Joy Shaw who have both passed away in the past few years, and I truly missed seeing Joy in her usual position as song leader and Chub grinning at me from the sound booth. Oh how fabulous it will be to someday reunite with them in glory! 



Preparing for the service to begin. The youth are early and at the front!

     The beautiful sanctuary began to fill up, and the service started with a hymn and a prayer. I loved he prayer of the brave young man who prayed, "Dear God, I just hope this goes okay." I fully understood his sentiments! Other young ladies and gentlemen led announcements and prayer requests, announced hymns and took up the tithes and offerings. My daughters sang their version of I'll Fly Away, and before I knew it, it was my turn at the pulpit. 

Children's Message led by the youth.

 

     The message God laid on my heart went something like this: Steeple Chasing is an amazing learning experience, the churches have been very welcoming, the world is NOT welcoming, there Will be Bullies, there have always been bullies, Satan is a bully, Satan has dominion over Earth. I love the church, Paul loved the church, Paul was a bully, Paul got saved, Paul was bullied! We can learn from Paul. Don't be a victim, grow in spiritual maturity, realize that not everything is worth being offended by. Be anti- Bullying,  don't be anti- Bully. God loves the bully and we need to also. We have to work as a church to find ways to love the bully through their bullying ways. And the church must stop being a bully itself. We must love everyone and find a way to keep our youth in church past graduation. It will take openness and honesty and a willingness to work at relationships and accept change.  It won't always be easy but it will be worth it and it is what we've been called to be! (Read Colossians Chapters 2 and 3, The Message version if you want to know the rest.) It took me quite a bit longer to get all that out, but that's the basic message in a nutshell.

    Afterwards, my girls sang again. This time it was a song that our 9 year old wrote herself and we all worked together to make adjustments to and fit it into a vocal trio.  I was very proud of her work for the Lord and all of them for sharing it with the Vici Church that morning.  Her song is entitled Runnin', and she explained to me that it was about running away from God but never being able to get away because He never let's us go and is always running beside us. Sometimes the spiritual insight of our middle daughter is a very humbling thing. Praise be to Jesus!

Selfie taken by Middle Daughter in the new fellowship hall.

 

    The service ended with some final words from Pastor Don, a time to give our tithes and offerings, and a final hymn and prayer. The entire service was a blessing to me, and I am so very happy that we were able to take part in this inspiring Youth Sunday with a church family we love and feel so much at home with.  There was nothing intimidating or scary or out of our element in our Steeple Chase this week. Instead it was very much like coming home. Thank you all so much for having us! Be blessed!


(P.S. Please forgive my lack of good pictures of this beautiful church. I sent my phone with my younger two girls to take pictures and got home with 500 selfies of them against unrecognizable backgrounds. Insert eye-roll here!)

Cross wall in the gorgeous new fellowship hall.

  

Beautiful Conference at Victory Church

  

     The blogs are getting backed up once again, so I, the oldest daughter, am going to write about the Beautiful Conference. It was a Wednesday  evening when my mother said that we would be going to Beautiful on Friday. I had heard her talk about how fun it was before, so I was  very exited, especially when she told me that my best friend Cati, who I met about 11 and a half years ago, would also be going with her mother and friend.


    We left at about 2:30pm ( I was happy to get out of school early) and stopped at the house to grab our belongings. We then headed to Enid to get Jordan (the bonus daughter as mom likes to call her) and then head to OKC for the Conference. After being in the car a while, we all decided that we were very (and I mean very) hungry. We stopped at McDonald's to grab a bite to eat (I got a 10 piece chicken nuggets, thinking I couldn't eat it all and could share, but I devoured them in 5 minutes flat) and got on the road again.


    After our very long (almost 3hr. ) drive we finally arrived at Beautiful! We went inside and saw some very fun decorations(including which was a dress made out of news paper, which I could definitely wear to prom!) and booths with clothes, jewelry, and a coffee bar (which Jordan took advantage of, she loves coffee). We went inside the sanctuary and found our seats next to our friends (thank goodness).

 

   Then the music started, it was quite amazing, with flashing lights, a full band, and amazing singers. To make it better there were dancers of all ages ,starting with the youngest and ending with the oldest. Then a few speakers spoke. The speakers this year were Laura Story, Wendy Treat, Jon Chasteen, and Barb Swanson. They were really, really good. After a couple speakers, we went with everyone else outside to get our free bracelets (which were BEAUTIFUL) and eat snacks and have a party( which we didn't stay for, I was a little disappointed ).We then went to my mom's friends house to stay the night (we stayed up late talking) and got up early the next morning to head for Beautiful once again.

    When we arrived I forgot my lanyard in the car ( I ran back and got it ) and then we went inside again.We sat down and the music started(it was amazing as always) and the speakers spoke. They played a few videos (Pinterest parody, and You're Beautiful parody, I recommend watching them on youtube) and then it was time to eat lunch. We ate at  Charleston's with the whole crew, and it was very good. We headed back and I forgot my lanyard once a-gin ( as my youngest sis would say ) and had to run and get it a-gin! We sang a little more music, heard a few more speakers and headed home.

    It was a really great experience. I hope I get to go back next year, and I think it was a great place to Steeple Chase with my mom.

 

 

 

 

Willow View UMC- Enid, OK

       On September 27th, we loaded up the family vehicle and headed back to Enid to visit Willow View United Methodist Church. We picked up our bonus daughter, who is 20 and lives in Enid, and arrived in time for the 11:00 service which is known as Oasis. According to the church's excellently informational website, the early service at 9:00 is known as the Blend and is a bit more traditional than the later service. We decided to check out the praise band and more "high-energy" experience because.....well, because we live 45 minutes away and didn't want to get up early enough to be there by 9:00. (Sorry if you were hoping for some deeper, more spiritual reason.)

     This beautiful church is located on the north end of Enid in what appears to the casual observer as a rather affluent part of the city. The building is fairly knew, the sanctuary having been completed in 2004, but the church body itself is more than 110 years old and has a long and interesting history. According to their website, the congregation began in 1902 with 30 members who met in the Garfield County Court Room as charter members of The Enid United Brethren Church. Through the years, they continued to meet together as a church family to worship, learn, serve, and love, even as they underwent denomination changes, new church homes, and even devastating fires. And the gorgeous church building and wonderful welcome we walked into Sunday speaks of a church who will continue to serve Christ for generations to come. (For more information on the history of this congregation, go to http://willowview.org/?page_id=35.)



This double-sided fireplace made for a very cozy entry.
 

      The pastor of this fellowship is Reverend Lesley Broadbent who grew up just down the road from both my husband and I  in the small Dewey County town of Leedey, Oklahoma. His church members say he often references his years growing up and playing ball as a Leedey Bison in his sermons.  He made no such references on this particular Sunday; however, his message was very interesting and enlightening. He speaks in a conversational teaching manner that is very engaging, and even my children were tuned in and able to discuss the message on the drive home. We were all especially intrigued by the extensiveness of the Jewish laws and how caught up in following them to the letter the Pharisees were.

I think perhaps we were a surprise!

     The service started with worship music lead by a talented praise band which helped sooth away the worries of the world and help me focus on giving glory to God. I loved how the service was divided up among a variety of congregation members who took part by praying, reading scripture, doing the children's message, etc. It's always good to see a congregation willing to serve, and a church willing to allow them to take part. We were so fortunate to be there on a very special Sunday and witness the baptism/dedication of a sweet baby girl named Eliana. This was especially enjoyable to our youngest whose middle name is also Ellyana, just with a different spelling. In addition, there were several new members joining the church that morning, and it was such a joy to be there as the congregation welcomed them into their family.

The kids loved the Frozen reference during the kid's message.

   


     While the church has been in existence for a number of years, and Pastor Broadbent has been in ministry there for the past eleven, the church has the feeling of one that is young and up and coming. The majority of those worshiping at the Oasis service appeared to be young couples, many with children. They have wonderful challenges like outgrowing their children's Sunday School space and the need for plenty of volunteers for the variety of ministries taking place. There are several Sunday School opportunities provided for people of all ages, mid-week activities, and several ministry and service opportunities in the church as well as the community. The people were welcoming and made us feel right at home, and I'm sure if you have the desire to Steeple Chase at Willow View one Sunday or make this lovely congregation your permanent church family, they'll welcome you with open arms as well.


    Our God is so good, and He loves His church so much. May we strive to love Him and his Bride just as beautifully in return!