7th Anniversary

Have you heard?

We kinda have something BIG going on this coming Friday night.

We don't want you to miss it.

It's going to be an amazing night.

MRCC Celebrate Recovery is celebrating our 7th year this Friday night, and we want you to be there!

As always dinner is at 6:00 PM, our worship service will begin at 7 PM.  You will hear an amazing testimony - you won't want to miss it.  It's powerful!   At 8 PM we will have open share groups and then for those newcomers we will have a special class just for you! It explains why we do what we do at CR!   At 9 PM the party will start...complete with anniversary cake and 7-up sherbet floats!  (We had to keep the 7 theme going!) 

I am sure the team that kicked off CR that first night didn't know if the program would last 7 weeks...but here we are now, 7 YEARS later!  Why?  Because God is over this ministry, and He has richly blessed our program at MRCC.

This is a great night to invite folks to check out the program!  You might be thinking, "how do I invite someone to CR?"  Well it's easy....you just say, "I am going to church this Friday night to hear an amazing testimony of how God has worked in someones life - do you want to come with me??  Oh, and dinner's free!"   It really is that easy.  
{Disclaimer: Only invite people if you're ready.}

We also hope that you'll invite old CR friends that you haven't seen in a while. 

It's going to be a great night!!!  GOD IS GOOD!

Grateful Believer,
Karyn

A Message from the TEAM

Well if you weren’t at CR Friday you missed a great night of praise and worship, and you also missed a bitter-sweet announcement.  Micah announced a wonderful opportunity for him and his family – as he’s accepted the pulpit minster position at the Altamesa Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas.   He and his family will make this move June 1^st, 2012.

As Micah addressed everyone after large group, he said, “Some of you may wonder what will happen to CR at MRCC if I’m not here leading it?” Then he followed with, “I WAS NEVER LEADING THIS SHIP!  GOD IS THE CAPTAIN AND WILL CONTINUE TO LEAD AND GUIDE THIS PROGRAM!”  We all understand God’s been working in this program from day one, but Micah has worked very hard with the eldership and his TEAM’s over the years to make sure this program follows the Celebrate Recovery guidelines that Saddleback has put in place.

Micah then introduced the current TEAM to everyone, and shared some less-than flattering pictures of some of us.  (I’m sure we will pay him back at some point!  Just you wait, Mr. Hobbs.)  He talked about the roles that each TEAM member plays and he wanted to reiterate and reassure everyone that CR will continue to “roll on” just as it has.

As a TEAM we’d like you to know that even though we’re sad to see him go, we support Micah in this decision and we are very proud of him!   We meet together as a TEAM to pray for this program often, and we work together to make Celebrate Recovery at MRCC a place where God gets the glory, and you are blessed each week as you work your recovery!

Grateful Believers,

Sheldon & Christi {T’s}

Andrew & Jen {E’s}

Nate & Karyn {A’s}

Travis & Angi {M’s}

Six Years.

Our God is the God who saves and restores.  Six years ago, January 13, 2006, we opened our doors at Celebrate Recovery at Memorial Road Church of Christ.  I vividly remember that it was a cool, but sunny winter day.  I had been very meticulous in setting everything up just right for all those that God had prepared to attend that first meeting.  I wanted everything to be just right.  Warm.  Welcoming.   Hospitable.  I did not want to give anyone an excuse to not come back.  Then, it happened.  The first participant at our Celebrate Recovery walked through the doors at a few minutes before six.  Mike had his head bowed low and was not sure why he was there; but, he knew he needed help and he was hungry.

Fast forward six years to January 13, 2012.  Mike walked through our doors – not alone this time – but with his wife.  God has not only saved and restored his life, but his marriage as well.  His head was not bowed low, but I could see his smile from ear to ear the moment he walked through the door.  This past Friday night at our 6^th Anniversary Service Mike and his wife, Kay, received their six year CR chip.  And that is just one of the dozens and dozens of stories that God has written through his grace, mercy, love and forgiveness over the past six years.  During Recovery Recognition, hands went flying up and people were shouting in joyful declaration, “Two years! Four years! Six years!  One year!”  Our huggers that passed out the chips could not keep up with all those celebrating what God has done in their lives.

After Recovery Recognition was over, I was speechless (this is a state of mind that is very difficult for me to obtain – I know this is hard for many of you to believe – but it’s true).  We were in the very presence of the Almighty Savior that had saved and restored so many lives, and we were His witnesses on Friday night.  That led us into an amazing time of worship and testimony time.  The testimony shared was our program’s first family testimony.  All five members of the Jason Hosch family shared from their recovery journey through CR and the Landing.  It was very inspirational to all in attendance and shows the power of God working not only in individual lives, but in families as well. 

God has been so good to all of us, and Friday night we had a powerful reminder of his goodness and love.  My prayer is that He will continue to do this good work among us.  May we never grow tired of being the witnesses of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ at Celebrate Recovery!    

Grateful Believer,

Micah

The Skit Guys. {Well....we've got one guy.}

Illustrations help us to remember.  They are powerful.  That is why the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, used them all the time.  He told stories that were sticky and help us to remember impactful truths.

This Friday night at Celebrate Recovery we are going to talk about how God recycles pain.  He never wastes a hurt.  So, he takes the pain and shame of our past and uses it to bring glory to His name and comfort and hope to others.  We are going to talk about surrendering our lives to God's will so that He can then use our lives to serve others.  Simply, we are going to talk about saying "yes" to God.

To help illustrate this lesson, Tommy Woodard, one of the members of "The Skit Guys" will be with us.  He is the Skit Guy with the hair [check out the picture :)] and he will help us understand God's love through skits.

I really hope that you can be with us to celebrate the power of Jesus Christ working in and through our lives.

Grateful believer,

Micah

Committed to Giving Back

It has been an amazing five and a half years at Celebrate Recovery. God has truly done some amazing things among us. We have been privileged to witness his work in restoring marriages, healing people’s wounds from addictions, abusive situations, broken relationships, various painful hurts and bringing balance to people’s lives from various hang-ups. We have received so much blessing from the Lord. In 2011 we have decided as a program to be committed to giving back.

We get the opportunity to start CR at our inner city church, Capitol Hill. There are CR leaders on Tuesdays leading Step Studies in preparation for our fall kick-off. And we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for that new CR program.

In addition, several of us get the opportunity to go to Honduras – July 9-17 – to share the good news of Jesus through Celebrate Recovery. We are traveling to Catacamas, Honduras, which is the home of Mission Predisan and Cerepa Addiction Treatment Center. This mission of Predisan and Cerepa is to serve individuals and populations in the Predisan service area so that they can experience wholeness – physical, spiritual, social, economic and environmental – according to God‘s redemptive plan. On our trip in July we have the opportunity to train the Predisan and Cerapa staff and residents how to start and maintain a Celebrate Recovery program. We will also spend our mornings constructing a low ropes course for Cerepa. For more information about Predisan go to http://www.predisan.org/ and for Cerepa go to http://www.cerepa.org/
We are excited about this opportunity and have begun our fundraising. We could use your help to get over the top.


Here’s how you can help:
This Sunday, April 24, we will announce our trip and financial need to the Memorial Road church family. You can give any size of gift that you like. Checks can be made out to “MRCC” and please put “CR Honduras” in the memo line.

Then, on May 27th and 28th we will have a garage sale on the southeast corner of Memorial Road and Bryant (old Piggly Wiggly grocery store). We are accepting donated items for the sale now. You can donate by contacting Andrew Claxton at 410-4230. And we would love to have you come check out the sale too beginning at 8am on both days.

You can also support us by keeping the trip in your prayers. Please pray that God will work through us and we will be able to show the people of Honduras the blessing of a Christ centered recovery program. Thank you for partnering with us in this exciting opportunity!

Grateful Believers,

 Micah and Andrew

CR is always OPEN!

This past Friday night God really blessed our CR program at our fifth year anniversary service.  Delicious food.  Warm atmosphere.  Step Study graduates. Powerful testimony and inspirational worship.  It was a blessing to be there, and I’m so thankful to everyone who commits their time and energy to making our CR run every week.  May God continue to bless us with healing and hope in our lives and in the lives of the newcomers.

We ended the night with an awesome video directed by some of our CR Leaders.  The video reminded us of the way God has worked amongst us the past five years, but it also prepared us for a big announcement that is coming this Friday at our CR Open House.

Now, we all know that CR is always open!  Newcomers are welcome every Friday night; but, we want to make a concerted effort to reach our community this Friday.  So, we are calling our CR Large Group this week an “Open House.”  We are in prayer that this will communicate to people outside of CR that they can come and see this Friday.  We are in prayer that many newcomers will walk through our doors.

What is the big announcement we are going to make?  Well, you will have to show up on Friday to find out!  However, I will say this.  God has blessed so many of us in great ways the past five years.  He has given us healing. Hope. New life. Purpose.  Wonderful people that we call sponsor and accountability partners.  It is now time for us to give back to others the blessings that we have received.

So, join us this Friday as we celebrate what God has done in our lives and prayerfully look forward to what He is going to do through us in 2011!  See you this Friday at our CR Open House!

Grateful believer,

Micah   

It's Time to Celebrate

It's time to celebrate our fifth anniversary of Celebrate Recovery at Memorial Road Church of Christ. We are so excited to see God transforming His children into His image.

I am especially grateful for the work God has done in my life and in my family. Before I came to CR, I was hurting from abandonment and dealing with my hurts in very unhealthy, unproductive ways. I didn't know how to talk to my wife or deal with the hurts in my past.I would get very angry if my wife even brought up the pain of my past. It was none of her business!

I didn't know how to be a loving, nurturing father to our son, who was only 2 years old at the time. Over the last five years, God has shown me that even though I was abandoned by my earthly father, my Heavenly Father does not abandon His children. And I am one of his children! Because of the work God has done through Celebrate Recovery, I am a better father, a better husband, and a better Christian.

But my story is only one tiny part of the work God is doing in Celebrate Recovery. We see this theme of transformation over and over again in the last five years. God transforms hurting, broken people into leaders and ministers of the gospel. What a mercy he has granted us by changing us from broken vessels into instruments of his grace and peace.

So now it's time to celebrate! If it's your first time or the hundredth time, we want to see you at our fifth year celebration on January 14. We'll have a delicious dinner cooked by our devoted dinner team, a time of uplifting worship, a testimony of God's transforming work in one of our participants, small groups, and a time of fellowship and sharing. It all starts at 6pm.

Grateful Believer,

Dan L.

P.S. Do you know of someone who might benefit from being with us at Celebrate Recovery? Do you know of anyone that has problems? Please make a point to invite them to Celebrate Recovery on the 14th. It is going to be a huge, inspiring celebration that will life hearts and focus minds on Jesus Christ. Come to CR on the 14th, and don't come alone!

Fall Retreat

Recently our CR group from MRCC had a fall retreat at Camp Rock Creek in Norman, Oklahoma.  We had a wonderful time!  There is just something amazing about worshiping outside IN nature and praising God!

We arrived to the campsite Saturday, October 30^th around 11 AM and room assignments were given out while lunch was being prepared.  After lunch Sheldon had prepared some games for us, the games required that we work together as a team to accomplish the tasks.  After games we had free time, which mostly consisted of pumpkin carving and letting the kids run around.   

Later that night we had a costume contest for adults and kids!  The kids got to trick-or-treat at each cabin and got a ton of candy!    After trick-or-treat Dan shared with us a wonderful lesson and we were able to praise God once again!  S'mores around the campfire followed our evening lesson – we roasted a lot of marshmallows!!

Several stayed up into the wee hours of the morning playing board games while others stayed awake into the wee hours of the morning due to some coyotes making scary noises out in the woods – very fitting for a Halloween camp out!

Sunday morning we had an amazing breakfast and then got to hear Micah preach on service and giving back.  If you didn’t come this year, you really need to consider joining us next year!!  

We were truly blessed with amazing weather, amazing surroundings, amazing praise & worship, amazing lessons, and had an amazing time that we won’t soon forget!

Well….there are SOME things we wish we could forget…..

Enough said.

Grateful Believers,

Tara & Karyn

Appreciation Luncheon

I’m looking forward to the Appreciation Luncheon this Sunday, November 7th because we really have so many great people who work so hard to put everything together for CR. People may not realize how much work goes into putting on a Friday and keeping our program running smoothly, but it takes a whole group of dedicated people to pull it off. This is a great opportunity to say thank you and appreciate people who serve us on a weekly basis.

Last week’s lesson was on gratitude and being thankful is a great way to keep working your recovery. I am thankful for our dinner team and all the people who contribute to making Friday night not only a comfortable place to be, but a place I look forward to going each week.

Please consider joining us for this great time of fellowship and gratitude!

The cost is $5.00 a person, $3.00 a child or $15.00 for a family. Again the luncheon is this Sunday, November 7th at 12:30 PM in the Summit, final sign ups are this Friday night.  ( If you can't attend but would still like to honor the dinner team you can do so by sponsoring an honoree and making a donation of $5 - $15.  Please see Dan L. on Friday night to make a donation.)

We hope you can make it!

Grateful Believer,
Andrew