FCM Atlanta Chapter Minutes for January 10, 2019

FCM Atlanta Chapter Minutes for January 10, 2019
The January 10, 2019 meeting for the Atlanta Chapter of the FCM was held at the home of John and Julia Jefferson.  Those in attendance were the following:  John and Julia Jefferson; Judy and Jim Neyland; Mark Childers; Leland Davis; Bill Darby; Randy Burt; Ricky Henson.
Our next meeting will be THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019 at the home of John and Julia Jefferson.  Dinner begins at 6:30 and the meeting at 7:00.  Please feel free to come early!
As always, we were all blessed with wonderful fellowship and sharing.  Looking forward to next month!
The following is a summary of our meeting.
Keep the “SON” Shining…
John and Julia Jefferson
MINUTES:
Leland opened our meeting with prayer.  We hope all of our absent members are doing well and will return next time.
John reminded us of the FCM International Conference in July and of the IBM local ring dinner and magic performances on Jan. 12, 2019.  He also welcomed Jim the husband of Judy, our member.  Jim is a joy to know and we do love to have him come to our meetings!
Leland began our sharing with his version of “What Would God Want for Christmas”.  After much shuffling and moving about of cards, he turned them over one by one showing items like a rocking horse, ball, drum, train, until he came to the chosen card—a heart.  God wants us to give Him our heart.  What a wonderful message.  Leland uses his talents every Sunday to minister to the children of his church.  Guess I didn’t need to cover the coffee table for this one!
Judy was next.  She said that her New Year’s Resolution was that she would try to do gospel magic tricks for the residents of Arbor Terrace as often as possible.  Judy is so involved in helping others.  We are truly proud to know and love her.
Mark began by opening a new double deck that he had just purchased from Wal-Mart. He spread all 52 cards of one deck on the table and asked Bill to take one and place it inside a piece of paper in Mark’s wallet.  Bill did so and Mark stated that we make so many choices or decisions, many times not knowing for sure which is good as all of the choices seem to be similar.  We all need to seek God in all of our decisions and then we will know that God will direct our every step.  Mark talked about Paul’s journeys and the decisions he made and said that Bill had made the best decision he could. Mark asked Bill to take out the piece of paper from the wallet. The card in the piece of paper was the 6 of hearts and on the paper was written, the “6 of hearts”.  When we trust God and work to do His will, we often look back on our decisions and we are able to see God’s hand at work.  Nice switch wallet, Mark!
Mark then performed another excellent card trick where he had John burn the top and bottom cards into the deck twice and Mark did several other moves.  John’s card was the 2 of spades.  After many shuffles and moves, Mark asked John to look on the table under the cherry cough drops.  There was written on the paper underneath, the “2 of spades” matching John’s selected card.  The twice burning of the top and bottom cards fooled us!
We were then entertained and delighted with a story Mark told about Melissa’s great scoundrel uncle!  Really?  Anyway, Charlie had a lucky card, Leland chose the 9 of spades from Mark’s deck.  Mark had removed all aces and jokers. As it turned out, Charlie’s last card game proved profitable because of his lucky card.  His lucky card bought him 2 tickets for a ride on the TITANIC!  Oh well.  To get back to the trick, Mark produced the lucky card from his wallet that matched the card Leland had chosen!  Seems like this special wallet covered all situations!  Great story, great trick and great wallet!
Bill told us a personal story about his trip to Israel.  He went to Caesarea Philippi which was the place where Christ revealed to His disciples for the first time that He was indeed the Jewish Messiah.  There also is the cave of Pan which is called by the ancient pagans, the Gate of Hades.  The area is beautiful with so much ancient and Biblical History.  Bill performed a coin trick.  Thanks, Bill.  Your ministry to the street people and now to the college students is invaluable.
John then demonstrated his “Naughty or Nice” effect using pictures of Santa’s reindeer including Rudolph.  Does anyone know the name of the 10th reindeer?  Well of course, it is Olive!  Oh, from the song, “Olive” the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names…!!!  Good one, John.  Bet that will be used again!  John asked Leland to mix the cards and put them in 3 stacks of 3 (Olive was absent—with a cold I presume).  Then Leland was to name a reindeer he chose but he could lie to John about the name of it(be naughty) or he could tell the truth.  Leland chose a card and then returned it to the table.  After more counting and shuffling, John counted the cards by using “the choice is” and then “Jesus”.  At the end John said Comet was Leland’s choice and indeed it was!
Now, at last, Tricky Ricky Henson!  Ricky deserves a gold star as it took him hours to get to the meeting from Jonesboro!!  That included a more than gentle tap on his rear bumper from a negligent driver!  So glad you made it, Ricky.  Ricky found, as only he can, a great cube called “The Amazing Magic Cube” and of course he bought as many as the dealer could find!  He generously sold several to our members for a great price.  Thanks, Ricky.  Ricky demonstrated the wonderful cube with a gospel message.  The colors of the cube represented different things:  purple—royalty; white—cleansing power; brown—earth; red—blood of Jesus; yellow—sun; green—life; orange (red)—orange you glad you’re going to heaven!  Ricky had an excellent story that told that man was separated from God in the Garden of Eden and if we accept Jesus as our savior, the Lord can put all of our separated lives together.  He told the story as he manipulated the one cube to 2 and then to 2 entirely different shapes!  What a cool, colorful way to minister to the lost!!  I think everyone needs an amazing magic cube!
Well, as always, the time got away from us and it was time to end the meeting.  It is always good to hang around a while and engage in multiple conversations.  What a joy it is to know these godly men and women.  We are all blessed.
See you in February!
Grace to you and yours,
Julia