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Wow…forgot to do my Sunday night post…a busy, but great weekend!

• Sunday worship went great.  Convicting message on jealousy.  Music was great…the 2nd set was especially worshipful.
• Great news on the worship band…a drummer tried out Sunday and will be starting next week!
• 3 new families on Sunday…which always pumps me up.
• My 7-year daughter won our family’s March Madness competition…she’s got Kansas beating Memphis tonight.  She’s won the most games while watching least (which would be none).
• My Baltimore Orioles are in 1st place and 5-1.  I may not get many chances to write this…so I thought I’d better do it while possible.
• Our 1 of 100 Campaign is steadily moving along…but it’s time to finish what we started.  We’ve raised over $20,000 for this project…we’ve got about $9,000 to go.  Our goal is to get office space by this summer.  Read more here.
• Our youth missions trip roster is now complete…we’re taking 20 teens and adults to Maine this August.  Begin praying for them now and read more here.
• Interesting trend…more people are becoming e-givers…it’s almost 50/50 now…50% of our offerings coming in the Sunday collection and 50% online…pretty cool tool.  Check it out here.  It’s pretty easy to sign-up.

Well…we just got home from Sherri’s ultrasound.  She will be 21 weeks along tomorrow.  The baby is very healthy.  It was amazing to see all the parts of the heart, the spine, the brain…and to hear the sonographer say it all looks fantastic.  What a great blessing and relief.  The baby gave us a little hand wave…got a nice picture of its bulging bicep.  Everything measured out great…within normal limits in every category…so we have much to be thankful for.Oh yea…what sex is the baby?  I haven’t been to shy about saying my preference.  In fact the entire family has been praying hard for a boy…but ready to accept whatever God has for us.  Well…drumroll please…  IT’S A BOY!  (no doubt about it :-)) So we are all pretty pumped about this news!  God is good! 

We, the Markles, are at day 20 of our 40 day fast from ice cream.  As a family, we love ice cream.  It’s our favorite treat.  But we wanted to give up something for the 40 days leading up to Easter.  Something we’d really miss.  So yesterday, my father-in-law was at church and we went to Wendy’s for lunch.  He got a Frosty with his combo.  He offered to buy each of us one…but we had to say no…because our fast includes milkshakes and frosty’s and the like.  It was tough to watch him eat it.

But every time that desire comes up, we have an opportunity to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us…and our little sacrifice of ice cream is ridiculous in comparison.

We are going to have an ice cream party on Easter to celebrate.  We were discussing each of us getting our own pint of Ben & Jerry’s this year instead of Easter baskets…

A great weekend. Love the changing weather. God is good!

• Yesterday’s worship service was awesome. Great crowd and great music with our band.
• At the end, I challenged our people with handing out invite cards for Easter Sunday. I had a few people after the service talking about personally bringing 50 people for Easter. I’m psyched about March 23rd. It’s going to be a record day in the life of LCC. I’m praying for many people to come to know Jesus on that day. Please pray for that!
• Some of my favorite time each week is 10:10-10:30 in the lobby and then 11:30-11:50…I love catching up with people and meeting our guests. I love what God is doing at LCC.
• My wife is now 18 weeks…close to halfway…she and the baby are pretty healthy so far…thanks for the prayers.
• The kids and I spent the entire Sunday afternoon outside…basketball, softball…popsickles…what a great day to be out…man does my body ache today!

Some random thoughts in no particular order…

We had a great service this morning. The message on sex seem to go over pretty well. I went for 45 minutes…I’m usually about 30…but we planned ahead for it. There was a lot to be said. If you missed it, as always you can listen on our website or go to iTunes and search for “Steve Markle” and download the podcast. Great crowd and energy today…there was a buzz in the house today.

Zac and I moved the Bowflex to the basement storage room…out of the future baby’s bedroom. A true sign of the times…we are now 4 months down, 5 to go. We’re getting the room ready to paint…now which color? We hope to find this out in a few weeks.

I’m helping to coach my daughter Tori’s softball team. This afternoon they had an indoor winter workout session. I’m really looking forward to having some quality time with her…coaching a group of girls should be a good experience for me

Speaking of baseball, my son Zac has tryouts Monday-Wednesday this week for the Forest Park JV Team. Baseball is the sport he is passionate about. I’m just praying he is relaxed and does his best. We’ll see…

I’m looking forward to our John 3:16 series which starts next week and takes us up to Easter. Read more about it here.

God seems to be bringing us more younger single adults & college age to LCC. I think it is probably time for us to launch a life group specific to this demographic.

Besides sports, I don’t watch much TV…but I’m missing a new season of 24. It’s a nice escape from reality. Due to the greediness in Hollywood, we gotta wait til ‘09. At least our family enjoys watching American Idol together. So far, I’m picking David Archuleta to win it all.

Sherri just emailed me from work and said she felt the first movements of the baby.  She’s about 14 weeks along and it’s reassuring to feel the “waves” as she calls them. 

I feel so out of whack from being sick.  Funny how blogging falls way down the priority list.  Minimum computer time to avoid headaches is a key to surviving.

• Anyway, I feel like I’m finally starting to show signs of feeling better.  I’m anxious to re-live that feeling of good health.  Amazing how we take that for granted until we don’t have it.  I’m on about day 8 or 9 now…my patience has been tested and I’m sick of television.
• Speaking of TV, the Superbowl turned out great.  Wow.  I thought the commercials were a letdown this year…but the game, especially the 4th quarter…it doesn’t get any better.
• Sunday’s service was good…it was just so odd for me.  I love to be out greeting people before and after the service…especially meeting the new families, etc…but I felt like I needed to stay in the back to conserve energy and keep my germs to myself.  It was just a weird feeling.
• I got through the message…with only 1 bad cough.  God always has a way of shutting down the mucus flow just enough to allow us to do what we need to do.  I’m a little nervous about some of my illustrations…I found myself sharing some unplanned illustrations.  And I’m wondering now if they made sense…you know when you’re medicated it’s probably safer to stick to your notes.  Oh well…haven’t heard any complaints…yet.
• Looking forward to this Sunday…continue our Genesis series and teaching on Lot…and the power of our choices.

Sherri and I went to Fairfax this morning for a 1st Trimester set of tests at a Genetics Institute.  Because she is over 35 (barely) Kaiser Permanente requires this testing to be done.  The cool part was getting to see our baby on the screen this morning.  Technology has definitely improved in the 8 years since our last child.  Our child is only 2 inches long and yet it was amazing to see the detail up on the flat screen TV on the wall.  The great news is that there are no signs of Down Syndrome or other abnormalities…everything looks normal!  Too early to tell the gender…although I will admit to looking hard to no avail.  We’re at 12+ weeks in…that is usually around the 20 week mark…so I’ll be patient.  We are thankful for the healthy baby and fairly healthy pregnancy so far!  God is good!  Due date is now August 4th.

I’m an uncle again as of today!  Scott & Andrea had their 2nd child…first boy - Brayden Scott Stem.  Click here for details and pictures.  Everyone is healthy and happy!

Ok…I’m not transitioning to only a Sunday and midweek post format…but time has gotten away since Sunday! It’s been a full week already…but a good one.

• On Monday I met with a guy who is praying about planting a new church in West Point, VA, which is between Williamsburg and Richmond. If God leads him this direction I look forward to being a coach from a distance. It’s always exciting to see new churches get started.
• Yesterday, we made 3 trips to the county dump with junk from the cleaning out process of the trailer. I’m working on getting my garage back
• Yesterday, I had 2 ministry meetings - staff meeting in afternoon and pastoral advisory team meeting in the evening…I was meetinged-out when I crashed last night.
• I’m already behind on American Idol - our family’s guilty pleasure…maybe I’ll catch up tonight. I’m just hoping the finalists are better this year.
• Today, I took a mid-day break to chaperone on my 2nd grade daughter’s field trip to GMU to see a play, Charlotte’s Web. It was well done…but I’m not sure if they enjoyed the play or lunch at McDonald’s more. Either way it was fun to be with her and her friends.
• We are under a Winter Weather Advisory for tomorrow…could it be? could we really have some measurable snow? I’m ready for a little of the white stuff!
• I’m psyched about preaching this Sunday on Genesis 4. I’m loving this series we just started, In The Beginning. This Sunday we’re going to focus on how we deal with anger.
• God is doing great things in our church. I can see His hand in so many ways. Exciting times at LCC!
• Football Picks…the obvious Packers & Patriots for the Super Bowl…that will make for a great game.
• We need life group leaders and hosts…people to open up their homes at least 2x per month for an LCC life group (small group Bible study). We are praying for a higher level of participation in 2008, but we don’t honestly have enough groups right now to accomodate everyone if they decided to join a group!
• Basics of Life Class. We are going back to an older more effective format for our newcomers/membership class. Sherri and I are going to be hosting this in our home every 2 months. It will be an informal gathering where we share the history, purposes, and vision for LCC. We’ll have Q & A and refreshments. The first one in scheduled for Sunday, February 17th from 5-7:30 pm. Space will be limited. Email me at steve.markle@lifecc.us if interested in attending.
• I’m so sick of hearing about the baseball/steroid scandal. Enough already.  And yes I think Roger Clemens is guilty!
• I got scammed on eBay by a seller. He never produced the product and wouldn’t communicate with me. Unfortunately this was the primary gift for our kids for Christmas. I got the dispute settled yesterday through my credit card company and now this hard-to-find product was on the shelves at Wal-mart…so we finally finished up Christmas on January 15th. Everybody’s happy now! (and I saved $60…so I’m especially happy!)