My sister Amanda & her kids were part of the Christmas Shepherd's program. One of the gifts they received was a $100 gift card to Smiths.

The day after Christmas, her oldest daughter Ashley had emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder.

Ashley is 20, has a job & sacrifices everything to help raise & take care of her little sisters.

They had no gas in the car & no money but thanks to that smiths gift card they were able to purchase gas to transport her to the hospital and buy her medication after she was released yesterday.

Had that card been to any other store but Smiths she would not have been able to utilize it in that emergency fashion.

Truly a God sighting.

Thank you & God bless you.

My daughter is six years old, but sincerely prays to the Lord when she needs help. Last Sunday, she was at the 11:15 service and asked me if she could go up to receive prayer. She wanted prayer to help find her library book and her glasses, which both had been lost for weeks. As soon as we got home, I found her library book in her bedroom that was underneath a pile of her artwork. I also was able to get one of her old pair of glasses found, and fixed so now she can see! Thank you Jesus for caring about my daughters needs!

What is Christian leadership? What should a Christian leader be like? There is no finer example for Christian leadership than our Lord Jesus Christ. He declared, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). It is within this verse that we see the perfect description of a Christian leader. He is one who acts as a shepherd to those “sheep” in his care.

The Christian leader is a feeder and a nourisher of the sheep, and the ultimate “sheep food” is the Word of God. Just as the shepherd leads his flock to the most lush pasture so they will grow and flourish, so the Christian leader nourishes his flock with the only food which will produce strong, vibrant Christians. The Bible—not psychology or the world’s wisdom—is the only diet that can produce healthy Christians. “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

The Christian leader comforts the sheep, binding up their wounds and applying the balm of compassion and love. As the great Shepherd of Israel, the Lord Himself promised to “bind up the injured and strengthen the weak” (Ezekiel 34:16). As Christians in the world today, we suffer many injuries to our spirits, and we need compassionate leaders who will bear our burdens with us, sympathize with our circumstances, exhibit patience toward us, encourage us in the Word, and bring our concerns before the Father’s throne.

A final word on Christian leaders comes from the article “Wanted: A Few Good Shepherds (Must Know How to Wash Feet)” by John MacArthur:

“Under the plan God has ordained for the church, leadership is a position of humble, loving service. Church leadership is ministry, not management. Those whom God designates as leaders are called not to be governing monarchs, but humble slaves; not slick celebrities, but laboring servants. Those who would lead God's people must above all exemplify sacrifice, devotion, submission, and lowliness. Jesus Himself gave us the pattern when He stooped to wash His disciples' feet, a task that was customarily done by the lowest of slaves (John 13). If the Lord of the universe would do that, no church leader has a right to think of himself as a bigwig.”

Question: "What is Christian leadership?"

Answer: What is Christian leadership? What should a Christian leader be like? There is no finer example for Christian leadership than our Lord Jesus Christ. He declared, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). It is within this verse that we see the perfect description of a Christian leader. He is one who acts as a shepherd to those “sheep” in his care.

The Christian leader is a feeder and a nourisher of the sheep, and the ultimate “sheep food” is the Word of God. Just as the shepherd leads his flock to the most lush pasture so they will grow and flourish, so the Christian leader nourishes his flock with the only food which will produce strong, vibrant Christians. The Bible—not psychology or the world’s wisdom—is the only diet that can produce healthy Christians. “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

The Christian leader comforts the sheep, binding up their wounds and applying the balm of compassion and love. As the great Shepherd of Israel, the Lord Himself promised to “bind up the injured and strengthen the weak” (Ezekiel 34:16). As Christians in the world today, we suffer many injuries to our spirits, and we need compassionate leaders who will bear our burdens with us, sympathize with our circumstances, exhibit patience toward us, encourage us in the Word, and bring our concerns before the Father’s throne.

A final word on Christian leaders comes from the article “Wanted: A Few Good Shepherds (Must Know How to Wash Feet)” by John MacArthur:

“Under the plan God has ordained for the church, leadership is a position of humble, loving service. Church leadership is ministry, not management. Those whom God designates as leaders are called not to be governing monarchs, but humble slaves; not slick celebrities, but laboring servants. Those who would lead God's people must above all exemplify sacrifice, devotion, submission, and lowliness. Jesus Himself gave us the pattern when He stooped to wash His disciples' feet, a task that was customarily done by the lowest of slaves (John 13). If the Lord of the universe would do that, no church leader has a right to think of himself as a bigwig.”

God seems to be headed in wonderous ways through us. Since moving to Montana and becoming involved in a new church home, we have already had a youth meeting/bonfire here and we went with the youth on a mission trip to the Whitefish area for a week.

We are working on getting permits to extend our garage, in our home. It will be half for my car and storage and the other half will have two sleeping rooms, two shower rooms, and a good size gathering room overlooking the river.

We also will be getting an old mobile home from the church property (next to free) which we will fix up. We have purchased an outhouse (I can't believe that one!) and are putting together an outdoor solar shower with propane backup.

All of this is in preperation for youth camps - first one should be this winter.

Also our pastor has a heart for ministering to other pastors and their families when they are hurting, burned out, tired, etc. We will have the capability of housing pastors and their families or we will care for children while they are working on their marriages, etc.

Not to mention our place will also be one to teach kids river safety, etc.

The list just goes on. We could never have imagined, although we did have some ideas of what it might be.

WOW! God is so so good.

With much love,

Judy and Wayne Leach

I'm continually amazed at the way I see and know God is at work in us and for us. Even in our heartache, tough situations and just life, I can look back and see that He has been there and that He is always faithful. I'm grateful for so much today but especially for who He is. What an Amazing God!

A reason to praise our father in Heaven! A family member of mine was not happy about my relocation to Utah and after making false accusations against me, my young children were taken from me and put into their custody for five, long weeks. There were many praying for my family and I. After finding Good Shepherd and meeting with one of the pastors we prayed more about this situation. Someone who had been on her knees praying much of this time, said she thought she heard God say "Don't worry, I'm taking care of it". Which gave me some comfort. I had been pleading, and praying to Jesus that he would not only have mercy on me, but give my lawyer the words she needed to have in court, and give the judge the knowledge to understand and make the right decisions also. Compromises needed to be made and I thank my Lord, Jesus Christ, first for helping me to compromise; and I thank him for showing himself in that courthouse, even though it was stormy both inside of the courthouse and outdoors. I thank Jesus that he gave my lawyer the words to speak, and he gave the judge the knowledge to be able to decide what was truly in the best interest of my children. Praises also for the time with my children, which now seem so much more precious. I also thank Jesus for making me stronger. He is a God of justice! THIS IS A CONDENSED VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL STORY.

Pastor Jeff, Pastor James, Jen Cook, Kelli Kirk and myself have traveled to Golden Valley, Minnesota to attend the 2010 LCMC Annual Gathering at Calvary Lutheran Church. The Gathering opened with a wonderful worship service at Calvary with a wonderful message from the lead Pastor from Calvary followed be a tremendous time of altar rail prayer, totally felt like being at home. For me however God has really blessed me through the encouraging and challenging words of Efrem Smith on the entire chapter of Matthew 25. It would take too long to go into great detail however I will simply say that the LCMC is the right place for Good Shepherd to be. God began a wonderful work in the Good Shepherd family and He will continue to move is forward into His awesome plan. It is a deep joy to be serving amongst the people of Good Shepherd, a people that are not afraid to jump over the stumbling blocks and hurdles that we find along the way. I look forward to retuning home and being with Good Shepherd with a renewed sense of purpose and zeal for ministry in the Salt Lake Valley.

More will be posted from Golden Valley in the days and hours ahead. For those who want to see and hear more, you can watch a video stream from the gathering at www.lcmc.net .

There's a fellow employee of mine that has a broken foot so she has this scooter she puts her leg on & pushes herself around the jail that way. She really struggles to get around & is very slow. This particular morning as I was getting off the graveyard shift she was having an especially hard time. I helped her through doors & as we headed outside she became very nervous about falling down. It had snowed during the night, not much but the sidewalks were slick and it was cold. Another gal that worked with her was also helping so when we got outside I thought ok she can help her from here. I headed to my car & watched her slowly inching her way to hers. I got in my car & fired it up to let it warm up. I grabbed my ice scraper & got out to start scraping my windows, still watching as Rosalie inched her way to her car. Then suddenly I sensed God saying go help her. I was thinking I already did help her, besides, her co worker was still with her. But I kept getting nudged to go help her. I knew it was God telling me to help her so as much as I wanted to hurry home so I could get some sleep I decided to be obedient. I went over & helped the co-worker get Rosalie into her car. While she was putting her scooter in the trunk of her car I proceeded to scrape off the snow & ice from her windows. Rosalie was almost in tears and she had her window down thanking us saying how she was worried about how she was going to push herself around the car to clean the windows. I told her it was no problem & asked her if she was ok. She said yes so I told her to drive safe and headed back to my car where I proceeded to clean off my windows. I got in my car & started driving towards the gate to exit the parking lot. I saw Rosalie's car still had not moved. Again I sensed God saying go back & see if she's ok. I was almost out the gate & I thought oh she's fine. She's probably just letting the car warm up so I continued home. After all it was my weekend & I wanted to get out of there. I didn't think much more of it until the following Wednesday night coming back into work when I ran into the other co-worker who helped Rosalie out to her car Sunday morning. She was in tears & asked me "Did you hear about Rosalie?" And I said who is Rosalie, because until then I didn't know what the persons name was we helped. The co-worker said Rosalie is the one we helped the other morning. I replied what about her? She said "She died that Sunday night"! I gasped & asked how? She said she went home that Sunday morning from work & later that day ended up in the emergency room. They had to do surgery on her & she died from a blood clot in her leg. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We talked a little more then headed to our offices. As I thought about Rosalie throughout the day it became clear to me that God had used me to show Rosalie his love for her during her last day of her life. I felt honored to be the one He had chosen to do this for him & I thanked him that he placed it on my heart that it was him talking to me & that I needed to be obedient. As I thanked God I couldn't help but to wonder how else God would have used me that day if I would have gone back & checked on Rosalie one last time that morning... My apologies also for not sharing this story He said to share sooner. Jill Huston

If you weren't able to attend or participate in this years VBS at Good Shepherd, you really missed some amazing God Sightings. Children age 2-years-old through high school, working together and building relationships with each other and with God.

This year at VBS we had over 70 volunteers. Approximately half of them were junior high, high school and college students! What a great testimony to they younger children of God's great love for them. To see so many older kids get together to make VBS a great experience.

This past week, together we learned that God's Word is True, His Word is Comforting, Surprising, Life-Changing and for Everyone! Every day had a different Bible point that repeated over and over throughout the evening. Each time the kids heard the Bible point they'd shout "Let's Go!"

Because of the great staff I had this year, I was able to walk around and participate. As I watched the children really get into the story time, craft, game and even the snack, I was able to see God at work in their lives. I'd like to share a few of the comments the children shared with me during the week.

"Did you see that! God was here!" said a 6-year-old girl. "God is always with us," I said. "Yaw, I know, she said, "but tonight I really saw him!"

"Jesus died, but he's still alive?" asked a 5-year-old boy. "Yep, isn't that cool?" his crew leader replied. "Yaw, but I wish my dad was still alive," he said. "Well, that's the best part,"she said. "Because Jesus died for us and still lives, we get to do the same thing and see those who went to live with Jesus before us. What do you think about that?" "I think that is really neat," he said.

"Thank you for VBS! I didn't know God was fun!"

"Thanks for letting us make snack for the rest of the group! It was fun to serve."

"I can't wait to read more of this story about Paul. Where is it again?"

"So even when I don't do things right, Jesus still likes me?" asked an 8-year-old girl. "That is why God sent him to die for us," I said. "None of us ALWAYS do things right. Not only does he still like you but he loves you all the time." She replied, "that really makes me feel alot better." I said, "I'm glad. All you need to do is tell Jesus you're sorry when you don't do things right and he'll forgive you. Try your best but remember that he gave his life for your sin." "Thanks!" she replied.

There are many more comments I could share with you. I know the Crew Leaders (adults or teenagers who led a team of 3 to 5 kids through the stations this week) could share even more. If you know someone who served at VBS, ask them for a God Sighting. You'll be amazed at what you hear!

Thank you for your support. Please start praying for next years VBS, PandaMania, July 17-21, 2011!

Blessings,
Kelli Kirk

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