Minutes for April 11th Meeting 2019

FCM Atlanta Chapter Minutes for April 11, 2019 The April 11, 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; Leland Davis; John and Bonnie Abbott; and Bill Darby. Our next meeting will be Thursday, May 9, 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 our meeting was uplifting and inspiring. We missed our absent members and hope we will all be able to attend next month. The following is a summary of our meeting. Keep the “SON” Shining… Julia and John Jefferson MINUTES: Bill opened our meeting with prayer asking for a meeting that would be a blessing to all of us and one which would glorify God. John J., in his rabbit shirt, informed the group that we are now able to contribute to the Voice. We have been asked to revise last month’s meeting minutes to 1,000 words (that is half of what I wrote!) and add pictures and perhaps they will be put in the upcoming May/June Voice! What fun! John J. then demonstrated his “Important Message” effect. He showed a sentence written on a piece of paper and asked if we could see the hidden message. He then lit a lighter and held it close to the back of the piece of paper. All of the words and letters disappeared except the important message—JESUS! John did this several times. The key? Pilot pens and markers with Frixion. Cool disappearing/appearing messages and so easy to do! Leland, is that you? Looks like Huck Finn has joined us this evening. With overalls, straw hat, lunch boxes and a fishing pole Huck began to tell us his adventure with Tom (Tomasina, Brenda to us, who could not be with us tonight). Seems that they saw a crowd of people at the bottom of a hill the other day. There was a man there, talking, healing people—people who could not see, those on crutches, those with leprosy! Huck and Tom made their way closer to the man and they actually saw the healing—saw the fingers on the leper restored, the blind eyes, see! They observed the man’s helpers, men with names like Pete, Matt, Andy and Bart. They heard this man tell the crowd to love your enemies! No one had ever said that before! He said things like if someone slaps you on one cheek, that you should turn the other one to him. If someone comes and steals your winter coat, that you should also give him your jacket! The crowd listened intently. Near the end of the day tummies were growling and people were hungry. The man’s helpers looked around and saw Huck and Tom’s lunch boxes and Huck and Tom gave them their food—fish and bread. The helper gave the food to then man called Jesus. He blessed their small amount of food and began distributing it to the huge crowd. And guess what—the food never ran out! In fact there were 12 bushel baskets of food left over!! That food was taken to feed the poor. Now Huck and Tom enjoy fishing for fish, but the man called Jesus said we should all be fishers of men. Huck and Tom looked at their fishing rod and decided that if they were to be fishers of men, that they should surely have a bigger fishing pole! Of course, Huck (Leland) produced an 8 foot fishing pole! What an amazing adventure! Leland and Brenda told this wonderful story to the children at their church. They actually displayed 12 bushel baskets. It’s guaranteed that those children will always remember the lesson that Sunday morning! We have asked Leland to perform this wonderful story next month as several of our members were not able to make it this month. Hopefully Brenda will be able to attend! John Abbott showed us a silk with the word, sin, on it. He said, as he placed the silk in a bag, that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Then he said that he was going to do something that God chooses not to do. At that point he brought sin back up out of the bag. We know that once we have asked for forgiveness our sins are forgotten by our Lord. They are simply gone! John then placed the sin silk back in the bag and this time he produced a Jesus silk. He showed that the bag was indeed empty. Truly, when we repent and ask for forgiveness, Jesus forgets our sins. Thank you, John. We all need to be reminded that our sins are truly forgiven. Bonnie brought us some fun by telling us 2 jokes. How many half- siblings are there? Thanks, Bonnie. You did a great job! Bill shared his Easter illusion. On each side of the cross of Jesus were thieves. Both had committed many sins. One, however repented and Jesus mercifully accepted him into the Kingdom of Heaven. The other did not repent and thus did not go to be with God. Bill placed all three crosses in the tomb. He then removed the 2 thieves from the tomb because only Jesus was placed in that tomb. He then opened the tomb and showed there was only one card. The words on the card were “He is not here!”. Of course everyone assumed that the cross of Jesus was on the back of the card. Bill turned the card over and on it was written: “He is Risen”. He is risen, indeed! We are blessed, indeed! We closed in prayer. Thank you all for coming and sharing and praising God. We look forward to next month. Grace be to You, Julia Jefferson