We have been attending our church, First Assembly since December of last year. It was the first church that we visited, and the last. We fell in love with the church; the music, the nursery, the people were all so wonderful that we instantly fell in love. We went to First Look, which is a 15 minute or so meet and greet with Pastor Rod and Cindy, and Pastor Steve and Natalie, the same Natalie that you see all over my blog. :) A couple of months after we had been going there, we were invited to have Sunday lunch with the above Pastors, plus a few more staff members, like Ms. Pam, who we also adore. :) During that lunch Mike and Steve hit it off and Mike told Steve that he would come over and help him finish a bathroom remodel at their house...and that was how our friendship with Steve and Nat began. In the last 5 or 6 months or so, First Assembly has really become our home, the place we miss even if we are just traveling home for the weekend.
After Mom died, our Thanksgiving plans changed, since we were supposed to have Thanksgiving dinner with them here in Arkansas. Mike and I decided to go ahead and stay here for Thanksgiving, and we were planning on just having the holiday week to ourselves, but we were invited to have a Thanksgiving meal at P-Rod and Cindy's house with Steve and Nat, and several other friends and staff members from church. We had such a great time, and really felt at home there with everyone, and had a blast playing Rock Band 2...even Roman played the drums! (I will upload pics later...too cute!)
Cut to this weekend. This Sunday was Family Christmas at First Assembly, this being our first time to attend. There are three services, and we typically go to third service, but Steve told us that we definitely should try to attend as many services as we could, but definitely second service. He said he couldn't tell us why, but that we really should try to be there if possible. Later on, one of the children's pastors, Gary, told me that Steve didn't know it, but the church was going to honor him and Natalie, so to be sure and be there. I brought my camera and everything to take pictures of Steve and Nat, because I wanted to be sure to document this day for them. Well, they read the Christmas Story, and the next thing I hear is P-Rod saying that they would like Mike and Tara Henson to come up to the stage! I have NO idea what is going on, but we go up there and sit down on some comfy chairs onstage(the stage was decorated like a living room with couches, chairs, coffee table, etc.). P-Rod starts telling the story of Mom, how she thought she had laryngitis for a couple of weeks. She refused to go to the doctor, because they didn't have health insurance, but finally she was feeling so poorly that she went to the urgent care, where they diagnosed her with pneumonia. They gave her a steroid shot and some medication and sent her home, and she died in her sleep that night.
Then P-Rod started talking about how I was her only adult child, and how my only brother was autistic, and couldn't help with the funeral costs, so it fell to Mike and I. He also told how we had pulled Roman out of Mother's Day Out at church, because we were going to send that money to the funeral home; they were letting us make payments, or there would have been no way that we would have been able to even afford the funeral!
Then they proceeded to tell us that the church was donating a whole YEAR of free childcare for Roman, for both Tuesday AND Thursday (the only days they are open). He was only going one day a week because that was all we could really afford anyway. We were floored! What amazing generosity. Then, on top of that, they pull out this wicked cool 4Wheeler for Roman!
He rode it all over the stage for a minute or two, but then wanted Uncle Steve to help him off. We hugged everybody, said thank you, then were walking off the stage when P-Rod said, Mike, we also need to know what funeral home to make a check out to, because we are going to pay $2,000.00 towards the funeral costs. I started bawling all over again.
Can you believe how good God is to us when we are faithful? It's been such a struggle to pay our tithes, because we have needed every cent that we had, especially around the holidays. But we paid them anyway, and God rewarded us by being faithful to us. Isn't he amazing? I love my God and I love my church!
Love, T.
