Happy Holidays

Good Morning Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I hope you enjoyed my last post about our Christmas tree. You will be happy to know that we were able to get a Christmas tree with all of its pieces and it is beautiful.

I want to share with you today something that I did last week. A week ago today I had the privlege of attending the stage production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" . I am not sure how many of you are familiar with this book turned play turned movie. I highly recommend you check it out.

This play centers around a church's annual Christmas pageant. Every year the same children play the same roles in the nativity story. That is until the neighborhood bullies the Herdman's are incorrectly informed that if they come to church they will get refreshments. Hilarity ensues as the un-churched Herdmans attempt to find their way in the pageant.

All throughout the play the majority of churchgoers treat the Herdmans as outsiders. They see them as a bad influence on their children and wish that they would spend there time anyplace but their church. As I sat there watching this play I was struck by something that has caused me to spend a whole week soul searching.

How many times do we treat people like the Herdman family? How many times do we meet people who obviously need the Lord but simply wish that they would go someplace else other than "our" church. The truth of the matter is that the church is not ours to begin with so we need to throw that idea out completely. I firmly believe that all of the people who read this blog have never told anyone that they wished they would just go someplace else but sometimes our actions say it.

This is a time of year when people's hearts sometimes turn towards God. While we do not believe that this is the time of year Christ was born we can still use this time to reach out to people. If people's hearts are turned towards the Lord then by all means lets take them by the hand and lead them to the father.

I hope as you read this that you have never been treated like the Herdman children. I especially hope that as you read this that I have never treated you like the Herdman children. If you find yourself in a position this holiday season to reach out to someone then by all means do it. It was this time about a year ago my family suffered some pretty big blows to our faith. What we remember most are all the people who rallied around us and helped us come to be in the place we are today. I encourage you to seek out the Herdmans in your life and help bring them to the Lord. Merry Christmas, happy new year, God bless!!!!

Be Strong and Courageous,
Paul

Faith In Action

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Our Faith In Action activity which was originally scheduled for this Saturday December 6th is still going to happen the only difference is that now it will be at the Impact Church of Christ in Houston. We are going to help with their Elementary School Holiday party. There will be face painting and other fun activities that we can help with.

We will still leave from the annex at 8:00AM Saturday morning . We will return home around 1:00PM. Let's take this opportunity to put our faith into action.

Be Strong and Courageous,
Paul

Hey Look Paul Is Posting a New Blog

Good Morning Everyone,

Well at the suggestion of my good friend Ryan Parsons and my Sister Melissa I am finally updating my blog. A lot has happened since my last post so I will save you all the boring details of that and catch you up on my last week.

I performed my first wedding this past week. Our minister was not available to marry this young couple so I was blessed with the chance to perform their ceremony. This was a great experience for me and I am glad to say that they are off to a great start in their life as husband and wife.

April and I have both been sick for the last week. When we are both sick not much gets done around the house but we have managed to muddle through just fine. April enjoyed her week off of work as much as she could while being sick and actually got quite a bit done.

Thanksgiving was a great time for the Cartwright family. Because I had to perform the wedding on a Wednesday evening we ended up hitting the road for Dallas on Thursday morning. I have to say that travelling on the day of Thanksgiving may just be the way to go. I have never made it through downtown Dallas that quickly at 3:00PM. We had a wonderful visit with my brother and sister and their respective families. My oldest niece now comes up almost to my shoulder. I am not sure if this is a testament to her height or my lack there of. My youngest niece will be a year old in January and is just about to start walking. Thankfully for us she still enjoys being held.

We left for home on Saturday morning and only met a little bit of traffic as we came into Houston. Since I had preaching duties on Sunday that meant that Saturday evening was spent completing a sermon. Sunday I preached on finding Thanksgiving in your Trials. It is amazing that when you think a sermon will not be strong is when you end up getting the most response from it. I am so blessed to work with so many encouraging people here in Pearland. Sunday evening we attempted meeting at 5:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM. We had our 5th Sunday singing which went well. Since we got out early April and I took off for League City to visit people there we never get to see.

Yesterday I was blessed to spend the day with our Golden Agers here in Pearland. We had a great potluck and time of fellowship. I went to the grocery store for this week's groceries which was uneventful until I broke a bottle in the parking lot at Kroger's.

April and I have been searching for a Christmas tree for the last couple of weeks and my Mom offered to give me one from her attic. I thought this was a great idea considering it was free so we went over and got it last night. We brought it in the house, put on Michael Buble's Christmas CD, unpacked the box only to realize that the tree has no stand. I guess we got what we paid for on that one. Mom is going to look for the stand so hopefully we can decorate our tree sometime soon. Until then our decorations are going to favor more of the experimental side of things.

Let me know what you think.

In this holiday season I am thankful for my wonderful wife, a great physical and spiritual family and the ability to minister to people. I hope you have all been blessed by this little update on the craziness that is my life.

Be Strong and Courageous,

Paul