Dinner at Vitoli's

We're meeting at vitoli's in Robertsdale tomorrow (8/17) @ 6PM!

Here's some directions just in case:


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Also, here are some cool facts about COTES that we learned last Sunday:

Over the course of the past 12 months, COTES has…

Ø  Grown from one campus to three campuses plus a weekly Sunday service at LifeTech (in Thomasville) which runs over 100 men in attendance in each week.  And this has all been done without incurring any new debt!

Ø  Baptized 131 people.

Ø  Had 375 adults complete our Accelerate new member class.

Ø  Seen our total average Sunday attendance grow by almost 30% this year.

Ø  Sent nearly 60 members on mission trips to Cuba (twice), Haiti, Ukraine, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Kenya, and Guatemala (coming in October).

Ø  Medically treated 3,500 patients in the bush regions of Tanzania during our June trip.

Ø  Led over 2,600 people to faith in Christ in Tanzania during our June trip.

Ø  Adopted well over 150 children in March through Compassion International.

Ø  Sent our first full-time career missionary (Mary Purvis) to Guatemala.

Ø  Created a Child Survival Program outside Arusha, Tanzania which is caring for 50 families (and is fully supported by COTES).

Ø  Held our first “Taking It to the Streets Sunday” which involved hundreds of volunteers taking part in dozens of local of mission projects.

Ø  Spent more than $250,000 on missions this year.

Ø  Paid down our current church debt by more than $400,000 this year.

Ø  Seen 97 adults saved through the Hope Center.

Ø  Seen the Hope Center treat 1,767 patients on our campus this year.

Homecoming

Welcome Home, Jeremy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Church has Left the Building

Yesterday we had the priviledge of participating in the church-wide "Taking it to the Street" community service day.  Each small group was able to chose a service project to do sometime yesterday.  The services were abbrevated so that we could get out into the community and get busy.

Our group chose to take breakfast to the Ronald McDonald House.  I don't know that any of us really had an idea of what it would really be like, but I think it far exceeded all of our expectations!  We all left wanting to come back and help at RMH!

Working hard...or hardly working!

The sweet boys ready to help serve.

We were able to get a tour of the facility and there are 2 McSuites - I love it! (I pretty much still call chicken nuggets Mcnuggets - ha.)

Look, there we are!

The spread - delish!

Thank you, Ronald McDonald House, for letting us bring breakfast yesterday.  I hope you were blessed as much as we were!

St. Patty's Day

I love how our dinners have a theme and this week did not let us down - we celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  We had a wonderful spread of the most tender pork tenderloin, a super yummy potato casserole, green bean salad (to go with the "green" theme) and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.

We are still working our way through our L.O.V.E. book.  This week we talked a little more about what exactly each of us are.  There are 2 main questions that were asked - 1) Are you project or people oriented and 2) Are you fast paced or slow paced?

Once you answer these basic questions you can catch a glimpse of your personality style.  Can't wait to hear about the rest of the group and finish reading the book!

L.O.V.E.

We are taking a break from the sermon series and doing our own independent study - "L.O.V.E. - Putting Your Lovestyles to Work for You" by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott.

Tonight we went over the first chapter and it was a good introduction to what is to come!  Brad and I took the online assessment test and found out that what we thought our lovestyle was and is different from what the assessment test said we were (I hope that makes sense).  I thought that was really interesting and I can't wait to dig deeper!

Christmas Fun

So, I am way late on this but I wanted to share some pictures from our Christmas party!  We missed everyone that couldn't make it!  I hope Michael had a great time playing his first-ever Dirty Santa!

Restart Your Career

We are in the middle of the series "Restart Your Life" and this past Sunday's message about restarting your career.  It is refreshing to hear these real life applications of the Bible!  I thought I would take the outline and bring out a few key points.

1) Change is more invitable than ever, so expect to make multiple career changes over time.

Example - Joseph (Gensis 37: 3 - 4, 28)

Changing jobs is not a declaration of failure; your willingness to change can be how you embrace what has next.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 - There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven (makes me think of the movie "Footloose")

2) Your self-worth should come from who you are and not from what you do.

Genesis 39:4, 20 & 22

Colssians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

3) Employers want people with current skills and insights so be a life-long learner and embrace technology.

Genesis 41:39 - 40

Proverbs 19:8 - Those who love learning will succeed.

I think COTES has really embraced this and God is blessing.  Who knows what else God has instore for the church as we move through 2011.  It is so neat to see the Thomasville campus officially start and see the Gautier, MS campus find a building.  I never would have dreamed a church could form through an internet feed of the pastor being projected through - so awesome!  I thought it was neat to hear Pastor Mark talk about the Church on the Eastern Shore really being the church BEYOND the Eastern Shore.