Dear Church Family,
How would you react if you knew you were suddenly going to die? (I know…what a question, right?)
But that’s exactly what Pastor Tim Bourman and his wife, Amanda, faced this week. They were onboard Southwest Flight 1380 which was forced to make an emergency landing after one of its engines exploded and a window shattered causing one passenger to get partially sucked out. As the plane depressurized and plummeted to earth, everyone on board had about 20 minutes to prepare to die.
As quoted in a New York Times article Pastor Tim said, “I grabbed my wife’s hand and I started praying: ‘Dear Jesus, send some angels. Just save us from this.’” Amanda managed to connect her phone to the plane’s Wi-Fi. She began texting to convey a message to their three daughters:
Pray. Plane blew an engine. We are going to try to land. Tell the girls we love them and that Jesus is with them always.
And God be praised! Jesus answered their prayers. He sent his angels. Their plane landed safely, sparing all but the life of the one poor woman who got sucked out the window.
But it makes a person consider, How would I react if I knew I was suddenly going to die?
This Sunday as we continue our message series Act II – The Rest of Your Story we’re going to learn from the example of another young man who knew he was suddenly going to die. His name was Stephen. You can read his story in Acts chapters 7 and 8. It’s an incredible story about how the resurrection victory of Jesus can make us steadfast in faith too…even when facing the very worst. We have a Savior who loves us unconditionally and promises to work out everything for our eternal good.
I hope you can join me for worship this Sunday at 9:30 AM for our English service, or for our Spanish service at 11:30 AM. All are welcome!
Parking with the Pastor – This Sunday the 1st graders from DSA will be singing. We are looking forward to welcoming them and their families to worship! So to make sure we have plenty of parking spaces available at the front of the church entrance, I will be parking my pastor-mobile in the parking lot north of the high school. If you’re able to, I would encourage you to do the same so no one will be discouraged from attending worship with us. In fact, if you see my 2006 Buick Rendezvous with WI plates and park further out than me you will be eligible to receive a special “pastor prize” that I will award this week!
The WELS International Youth Rally will be held at Bowling Green University in Ohio from June 26-29. Any high school aged young people from Divine Savior Church are welcome to attend. The cost is $345 (until April 30) PLUS transportation. If you are interested in attending, please let Dr. Landwehr or one of the pastors know ASAP to arrange the specifics.
Building Volunteer Teams – Musicians have been reaching out which is great! We want to build a large team of people to serve joyfully on a rotating basis. So please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re interested in serving. Contact me or reach out to my wife Sarah who will help you find your place on the team. Also a quick update: 3 people responded this week expressing an interest in helping build slides for the screens for worship. So I’m super excited about that. Thanks for reaching out to me!
Livestreaming to the Next Level – First of all my apology if you tried watching the service from this past Sunday and discovered there was no sound. We are fixing an equipment issue this week so hopefully that won’t happen again. Then over the next couple weeks we will be upgrading to a new streaming platform with the vision of building on online community, increasing engagement, and archiving our weekly messages so that we have a resource to share.
Livestream Hosts – Sometime in the near future we will be using a new online platform. This means we’ll need a volunteer each week to be an online host. This person will sit at the tech booth with a computer. Their role will be welcoming online guests to worship, inviting them to fill out an online connection card, directing them to ways they can give online, receiving any online prayer requests and simply being a friendly person to interact with and help answer any questions that people have about the service or our church. Many people feel more comfortable checking out church in this way before attending in person. Please let me know if you might be interested in serving as an online host.
Divine Savior Church – On Wednesday this week I got to go up to Delray Beach to spend some quality time getting to know Pastor Joel Schulz and his wife Dawn who serves as our Campus Coordinator. What an incredible campus they are building there! It is beautifully planned and will serve the needs of both the church and school there very well when it opens. // Tomorrow in Sarasota I’m attending a conference called “Telling the Next Generation” to learn more about developing a harvest strategy between a church and school. Ryan Loberger from DSA here in Doral will be attending too.
Worship Arts Center Update – The behind the scenes work on the Worship Arts Center continues. Josefina Giordano, our resident, member architect has downloaded the complete set of plans. We have gathered input from the people who will be using the W/AC for worship, Biblical instruction, choir, band, theater, and classroom instruction. The initial challenge is to use the interior space as wisely as possible to accommodate as much of the needs/wishes of the church and the school as possible. Josefina is setting aside each Friday after 3:00 p.m. to make that a reality. We are grateful for help. On Monday, Pastor Carl will be meeting with the bankers. This will give us a much clearer idea of the “what” and “when” of the loan.
Weekly Shout Out – This week I’m going to give a shout-out to Luis Herrera who I noticed shared my Sunday invite message with a Doral Community Group via Facebook. I mention that because it’s great when Social media can be a tool used to the glory of God! As a result the video was watched 584 times instead of 242 times the week before. // How can you help our community discover that Divine Savior in Doral is both a great school and a great church? And if you have any suggestions for what you think we should be posting on social media as a church…please let me know!
Sunday Playlist – Here are the songs coming up in this Sunday’s service. Check out the YouTube videos, sing along ahead of time, and help fill God’s house with praise on Sunday. Gathering Song: My Lighthouse. Forgiveness Song: The King of Love My Shepherd Is. Hymn of the Day: A Mighty Fortress Sending Song: Death Was Arrested.
Daily Devotions – The new issue of “Meditations” has arrived. Pick one up on the table after church.
Changing Lives with Jesus,
Pastor Ben
