Dear NEO family,

This week Karen Patterson, Bud Lauhon and I represented you at the Fall meeting of the Trustees of Southern Nazarene University. I am so thankful for SNU and the way God has used this educational institution for over 100 years to be a part of his transformative work in the lives of students! SNU continues to model the hospitality of grace, the pursuit of truth, and the practice of discipleship. Let’s support SNU and urge our High School students to visit the campus this year. I believe they will be surprised by the quality of the education offered and the availability of financial aid to make it affordable.

I met today with Tim Odom, SDMI Chairman, Jonathan Odom, NYI President, Rodney Durr, Adult Ministries Director and Ken Wheeler, Children’s Ministries Director. A HUGE Training Day is being planned for Saturday, April 25. It will be the place to be for children, youth, and adult workers, as well as Church treasurers and other leaders. Mark your calendars.

Churches, let's continue to be strive to be high impact churches. Our next session of "How to Grow a High Impact Church", will be Monday, Nov. 24, 6:30 pm at Tulsa Central Church in the Kannady Family Life Center. Chip Ingram will be teaching on the Law of Liberation and the Law of Structure. Call me if you have any questions.

District Work and Witness:
Calling on all you folks who would like to grab a (hammer/saw/paintbrush) and help out. Our Northeast District Team still needs a couple more volunteers to help out in our District Work and Witness Trip to the Ukraine. The trip is scheduled for April 13 - 26 of 2009 and will cost about $1,900 per participant. Please pass the word around. Call Jerry Wilburg, right away, at 918-607-8561. Also, perhaps some churches are able to help the participants in defraying the cost of going by having a bake sale or special offering. Please look around and see what you could do to help. During these times of financial crunch it is important that we all do what we can to help out. Thanks so much for your help and your prayers.

AUTHOR APPEARANCE AND BOOK-SIGNING EVENT
Nazarene Authors Dr. David & Lisa Frisbie will be at Mardel's Bookstore in Tulsa, 71st and Mingo, near Woodland Hills Mall on Saturday, November 29th. Hours for the event are 1 PM to 3 PM. The Frisbies will be signing copies of their new book for married couples, "The Soul-Mate Marriage: The Spiritual Journey of Becoming One." This new book has already been endorsed by more than 30 ministry leaders, family counselors, and key denominational executives. "The Soul-Mate Marriage" is about how to build spiritual and emotional intimacy in a marriage, starting from right where you are! It's about becoming closer, deeper, stronger, more intimate in your relationship--- drawing on more than 20 years of marriage and family therapy experience.

Dr. David Frisbie joined the staff of FamilyChurch.tv on January 1, 2008 as Executive Pastor and Pastor to Families, serving under the direction of Senior Pastor Brett Rickey. In addition, David and Lisa are the NEO District Coordinators for Marriage and Family Ministries, serving under Rodney Durr, Director of Adult Ministries for NEO.

David and Lisa would love to meet you at Mardel's in Tulsa! Please stop by and get acquainted with these new NEO ministers. "Soul-Mate" is their 10th published book; they have also published dozens of articles about marriage and family life in magazines, journals and newspapers.

Christamas Decorations Available – Free! John Teel of Broken Arrow First writes: We have redesigned our Christmas decorations at Broken Arrow this year. This has left us with a lot of nice stuff from previous years that we’d like to give away free to any of the district churches. There are also a number of non-seasonal floral arrangements (in good condition) that we won’t reuse since we renovated our facility. Interested parties may contact me via phone at (918) 455-3550 or email at johnt@banazarene.org.

Here’s a sample list of what’s available…Evergreen picks, Pinecone picks , Red berry picks, Mauve poinsettia, Garlands (In 12” lengths), Cranberry bows, Gold beads, Gold bows, White bows with holly and ivy print, Gold ornaments (Shatterproof balls), White ornaments (Religious)
& a wide assortment of non-seasonal (can use anytime) floral arrangements

Sooners verses Red Raiders! Both sound like law breakers needing some good, honest "Cowboys" to keep them in line. Many of us will be watching the game tomorrow night and cheering for the Sooners. But just to complicate things for you, I thought I would let you know that Graham Harrell is very involved at Lubbock First Church of the Nazarene. In fact, one of their members told me this week that they bring him up front every Sunday and pray for him. Last Sunday they gave him the Distinguished Service Award for the Church of the Nazarene. Now that he has this coveted award (who needs a Hesiman), we can only hope that Harrell will have a let down and OU will fight through for victory.

Have a blessed weekend and a wonderful celebration of Thanksgiving!

Dave McKellips