Kenny Hibbard

As many of you know, last Spring we renovated the Howell Center indoor therapy pool and other outdoor recreational and sitting areas. It was a great experience for our church and was much needed by the people who live there.  The outdoor areas were used immediately last spring and have been used ever since. Families like ours have spent many hours with our handicap children in the areas we built.

The pool was more difficult. After we finished the job……they Howell Center had to find lifeguards trained for these special people and get state certification to even have it open after it had been closed for so many years. Well, I received this email yesterday letting me know it was finally open! Enjoy the note and remember that this is what Christmas time is all about!

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Hi Kenny,

Just wanted to spread the good word, we finally got the pool open for clients to swim in.  We opened it Monday and have been taking people into it for brief periods of time, doing assessments and observations.  One of our guys that was the first one in, never smiles.  I mean hardly ever. Well, within about 5 minutes of being in the pool, he had a smile from ear to ear.  He was kicking his feet and just floating away!!! How wonderful it was to see this.  Please pass on this great information to your church members.  I cannot thank you, your congregation and Home Depot enough for giving us such a wonderful gift.  I will send pictures when I get them.  May God continue to bless your church and the people there!

Karen Hoffman
Program Director,   RHA Howell Center

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Can you this guy having a great time as he is free to move with out the help of a machine!  Great job Team Church!

I am not sure that all Team Church people read this BLOG on a regular basis…please forward this one to all your Team Church friends.

Hebrews 8

¹ Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. ² There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.

³ And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. ⁴ If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law. ⁵ They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”

⁶ But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.

⁷ If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. ⁸ But when God found fault with the people, he said:

“The day is coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah.
⁹ This covenant will not be like the one
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant,
so I turned my back on them, says the Lord.
¹⁰ But this is the new covenant I will make
with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
¹¹ And they will not need to teach their neighbors,
nor will they need to teach their relatives,
saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’
For everyone, from the least to the greatest,
will know me already.
¹² And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”

¹³ When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.