Went to our first church service today

The campus encourages the staff and students to attend the local churches so we went to our first service today. It's called Solid Rock Ministries. The local churches send vans to pick us up and bring us back. So kind of them. The Solid Rock Ministries church started in 1990 with twelve people in a hotel and now meet in a warehouse with over 700 people! It has two morning services to accomodate everyone. They started another church on the other side of the island as well. They are starting a church in downtown Honololou at midnight and 2 a.m. to reach the adults that are out and about than. Awesome eh! Also a church in Tokyo, Japan because that is a nation that needs churches. This is a relevant type church with rock music and casual dress. He's doing a sermon series called "Issues of the Heart". Today he preached on the consequences of being stingy and how to prevent it. It was one of the best sermons we've heard on being generous. Have you ever had God try to get the same message across to you every where you turn? This is what we are experiencing. The last few days the teaching here has been on this same topic. We are learning that the nations that are generous seem to prosper while the nations that are greedy and stingy don't do as well. It's the same in our lives. If we have a poverty mentality of everything being about us ie, my needs, my house, my possessions. You know the one, it goes like this, I can't help others because than I would go without.
God showed me a scripture before I left and the pastor read it today. I was so excited, I elbowed Mike when the pastor read it! It goes like this "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another witholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed" Proverbs 11:24,25 You gotta love it! We worry that if we are generous we will get taken advantage of but think about it, we are the ones giving it away cheerfully, nobody can take it from us when we are giving it away! And this doesn't mean just money. It could be anything ie; a listening ear to a friend over coffee, babysitting for a single mom so she can run errands, giving a 20% tip to a waiter who is only making minimum wage, giving a homeless person a gift certificate for Starbucks while looking him in the eyes instead of looking down upon him. If we see through the eyes of Jesus we will become the hands of Jesus to a hurting world. Wow, I'm preaching myself happy! So this Thanksgiving as you are getting stuffed on turkey remember you are blessed so you can in return bless others. Aloha!