This nation is affluent and has more than it needs. The realization that what we have is a free gift can deepen our desire to share this gift with others who cry out for help. When we bless the fruits of the harvest, let us at least realize that blessed fruits need to be shared.
- Henri J.M. Nouwen, from his book The Genesee Diary

Dear NEO family,

I feel kind of like a kid who has been told that Christmas has been postponed! We have been planning and praying for months for our Spiritual Renewal Weekend with Susie Shellenberger. Anticipation has been building. Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating. This morning I have been doing a "Best/Worst Analysis". What is the best that can happen if we go ahead with our plans this weekend? What is the best that can happen if we postpone it? What is the worst that can happen if we go ahead or postpone? In doing so, it seems like a no brainer to postpone our District Spiritual Renwal services and events (youth, ladies and primetimers) for this weekend and reschedule them for March 5 - 7. Susie and our facilities are available that weekend. Let's just adjust our plans and expect God to work in the change for the good of his people who love Him!

You are invited to attend the annual Forever. For Real. program. Whether dating, engaged or married for years, this event is for you! More than 200,000 Oklahomans have already experienced an Oklahoma Marriage Initiative program, and we invite you to set aside time during the Valentine’s season to focus on your own relationship. This is a free workshop designed to help couples like you strengthen your relationship. Through this one-day event you can learn simple, hands-on, fun ways to improve communication and enhance fun and friendship. We will offer the program at multiple sites so that you may participate in a location close to you. Come be a part of this statewide event!

College and Career Retreat: A college and career retreat has been in the works for a long time. We are proud to offer this event for all of the college students and young adults connected to the NEO District. The event takes place on 2/19-21 at Cave Springs Camp Ground in Quapaw, OK.

Although our weekend activities are canceled, you can use the following section from the Wesley Coventant Renewal Service to renew your own relationship with Christ:

I throw myself upon Your grace and mercy. I cast myself upon Your blood. I trust your saving death alone to save me. I have nowhere else to go, so here I will stay. I’m trusting You ... resting in You ... risking everything on You. On You I’m placing my hope for pardon ... for life ... for salvation. If I perish, I perish on your shoulders. If I sink, I sink in your vessel. If I die, I die at your door. Don’t ask me to go away, for I will not go.

Leader: In the first covenant, God chose Israel to be a special people and to obey the Law. Our Lord Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection, has made a new covenant with all who trust in him, and we stand within this covenant and bear Christ’s name. God’s part of the covenant is to keep his promises to give us new life in Christ. Our part of the covenant is to live, not for ourselves, but for God.
So, friends, let us claim the covenant God has made with his people as our own this morning. Let us give ourselves unreservedly to the Lord.

Leader and People: I am Yours, O God; I reverence You. I dedicate myself to Your service.

Leader: In giving yourselves to the Lord, you are affirming that you will be content with whatever it is He asks you to do.
Let us allow Christ to guide all that we do and are this coming year. Christ has many ways for us to serve him. Some will be easy, others will be difficult. Some will receive applause; others will bring only reproach. Confessing Christ and His name is never easy when it costs us shame and ridicule. It is never easy to sail against the wind, swim against the tide, or surrender our rights and privileges because Jesus Christ is our Lord. See what it is that Christ expects and then give yourselves totally to His will, without bargaining and without reservation. Do not think of making your own terms with Christ, for that will never be allowed. Rather, trust Christ to strengthen you and give you the power to do all these things.
Therefore let us make this covenant with God this morning. Let us give ourselves completely to Him, trusting in His promises and relying on His grace. Join me now in praying . . .

Leader and People: Lord Jesus, if you will welcome me into Your house and own me as Your servant, I will not insist upon conditions. Impose on me whatever terms You wish, and direct me in any way You deem appropriate. Assign me to my proper place in Your creation
Make me what You wish, set me wherever You want, and rank me wherever You choose. Put me to doing; put me to suffering. Let me be employed for You or laid aside for You. Give me many tasks, or have me step aside while you call others. Let me be full; let me be empty. Let me have all things; let me have nothing. I freely give all that I am and all that I have to you.

Hymn: I Surrender All

Lord Jesus, if you will welcome me into Your house and own me as Your servant, I will not insist upon conditions. Impose on me whatever terms You wish, and direct me in any way You deem appropriate. Assign me to my proper place in Your creation
Make me what You wish, set me wherever You want, and rank me wherever You choose. Put me to doing; put me to suffering. Let me be employed for You or laid aside for You. Give me many tasks, or have me step aside while you call others. Let me be full; let me be empty. Let me have all things; let me have nothing. I freely give all that I am and all that I have to you.

You are loved!
Dave McKellips

God, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me whatever you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures. Into your hands I commend my spirit. I offer it to you with all the love that is in my heart. For I love you, Lord, and so want to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve and with boundless confidence. Amen. A prayer of Charles de Foucauld

Dear NEO family,

Next week at this time we will be in the middle of our Spiritual Renewal Weekend. I had a call this morning like many I have received during January. The caller told me how excited she is about having Susie Shellenberger here next weekend and expressed appreciation for the devotions that have been sent out daily.

There seems to be more anticipation of this weekend of renewal than I have sensed in years. I sense a holy discontent among our District family – we are not all that God wants us to be; some are not abandoning ourselves into God’s hands; some have allowed the devil to have a foothold in their lives through flirting with sin or through bitterness and unforgivenss; there is a growing hunger for God’s life-changing touch on our lives. I don’t know all that God wants to do in me and in our District churches, but I am praying and longing for his life changing touch. For all the details of the weekend schedule, go to www.neonaz.com. Be sure to get your reservations in for the Ladie’s brunch and the Primetimer’s dinner by Monday.

I have been so proud of the churches of NEO as I have seen you respond to the human suffering in Haiti! Thank you for being the church! Elizabeth Johnson sent me the following prayer that may express your thoughts:
Lord, I just want to say THANK YOU, because this morning I woke up and knew where my children were. Because this morning my home was still standing, because this morning I am not crying because my husband, my child, my brother or sister needs to be buried out from underneath a pile of concrete, because this morning I was able to drink a glass of water, because this morning I was able to turn on the light, because this morning I was able to take a shower, because this morning I was not planning a funeral, but most of all I thank you this morning because I still have life and a voice to cry out for the people of Haiti. Lord I cry out to you, the one that makes the impossible, possible, the one that turns darkness in to light, I cry out that you give those mothers strength, that you give them peace that surpasses all understanding, that you may open the streets so that help can come, that you may provide doctors, nurses, food, water, and all that they need in a blink of an eye. For all those that have lost family members, give them peace, give them hope, give them courage to continue to go on! Protect the children and shield them with your power. I pray all this in the name of Jesus!!!

Congratulation to Don and Jackie Engie, staff members at Dewey. Don has accepted the lead pastor position at Norwood, MO Church of the Nazarene.

The blog immediately below gives all the details of our recent District Children’s Quiz. Thanks so much to District Quiz Director, Rachel Bess, and to all the local church quiz leaders and parents who helped our kids study and learn God’s Word. Every participant is a winner!

See you next Friday! Anticipating,

Dave McKellips