Worship Service Pix

"The Way" illuminated by the light shining through the triangle skylight over the altar.

Rick and the band accompanying the soloist during communion.

Patrick, one of the kids who has been attending on Wednesday nights - he has been reluctant to have his picture taken, but I got him here.

The Way, The Truth, The Life

The sanctuary with this week's banner arrangement on the wall and around the cross.

This week's overlays were challenging as the design had so many straight lines. It was truly by the grace of God that it ended up without anything crooked.

Kid Pix

Blue Glitter

The blue glitter looks good and the side banners will be a little different this week. These overlays are narrower and will be used one each on the side banners, and then put together on one side of one of the white Easter Triads.

Photos for the Board and more...

I took some pictures of the kids last night and we spelled out "I AM" on floor and got some shots of it. Here is the "A". I will post the whole thing put together later today.

I got some other good shots of the kids workings on name signs and then just close ups of most of them. If we can get some more like these that would help to add to our Easter Morning Resurrection photo collage.

I have given Steve several pages of photos already, they are using the photos we got from folks, some stock photos and then some from other galleries on the Atonement site. We need to get some pix from the recent Mexico trip and I have some misc Tanzania pix from Brooke, too. I am going to be taking shots of folks when I am at church from now on to get more of our people in the shots - we have a Tanzania meeting tonight, so I will take some pix then, too. (Joe, we need some of your Holden pix).

I talked with Boo last night and it sounds like the printing of the photos shouldn't be a problem for her to do - we just need to keep taking pix and encouraging others to add theirs, too.

The Way, The Truth, The Life

The side banners will all be different so they can be repurposed to be used for the white Easter Triad.

After reading the verses about the Cornerstone and Jesus building a mansion with many rooms it seemed appropriate to use a blueprint looking design for this overlay. The blue paint and glitter is very much an indigo, but I have used the lighter blue to help it show better for this venue. Putting the design on an angle helps make it more noticeable with everything else so perpendicular.


The side banners for this week will be white - this is the small banner from the group that will go up on the wall, the other three will have the three parts of the name on them and be repurposed for Easter.

The Vine Banners

The Gate Banners

Green Glitter

The green glitter looks great with the purple banners.

I am amazed that how similar but then how different things look in the smaller sketch form than they do in actual size in the real material. Last week I kept thinking that the big Gate banner looked too short, but once it was up on the wall it looked fine. Now, after painting a couple of these small vine banners I think they look like beanstalks rather than vines, but I am sure they will look fine when on the wall, too.

The Vine

I want to use some color this week and use green paint and glitter for the vine design. After reading the passages Joe gave us, I made sure that the vine has spots where it has been pruned.

When on the wall the side banners will be staggered - a green and gold vine pattern on each side.

I am going to try out the green paint tonight with the small side banner design and I hope to post a picture in the next couple days of the actual green paint/glitter overlaying the purple banner.

"I Am" Image

Here's a shot Steve took at the grocery store yesterday.

We haven't gotten too many new images this week, I added some more to the board to keep the thing growing and hopefully inspire others to contribute.

Little Rays of Light

The time with the kids last night was a bit challenging as there were supposed to be some people to assist me, but instead there were a couple teenagers that required as much supervision as some of the kids.

The smaller children were actually very well behaved and were able to follow the instructions for our name sign project and came up with some charming pieces for the Easter garden.

Then there were some of the older children who thought faster was better - one girl finished her first attempt at her piece in less than five minutes - I asked her to re-do as in her haste she left out several letters of the words. She then took her time and did a really nice job. She finished and then asked to do another name sign. Again, she really took her time and ended up with another really nice piece - she actually asked me several times during the second sign on what she could do or add to make it better.

Another little girl finished her first sign and asked to do another one. We picked out another name and she asked me to help her to sketch it out on her paper - I very quickly drew out the name and told her I would re-do it again on a new paper since the first one was so rough. She looked at me very sincerely and said, "maybe you should go slower this time".

Going forward on Wednesday nights we will need to have more for the kids to do, another activity would help with keeping the kids engaged - and additional "adult" supervision is necessary.

Wednesday Nights with the Kids

Last Wednesday went pretty well. Here are a few of the signs from that night.

Guessing that most of the kids will return each week, I will have names already picked out and drawn on the paper - then when the individual kid goes to make their sign they can either just color in the pre-drawn lines or they can use it as a guide. We will need to make sure we have enough for the speedier kids to do several.

The Gate

This week we have the gate.

The side banners will be blue. I hope this color is close as I have not seen or heard what the actual blue color will be for the smaller banners.

The design on the small banners is hard to see in this image, but each has a half of the open gate and when two are together it makes the whole gate.

Lights of the World

This image is The Earth at Night, an Astronomy Picture of the Day from November 27, 2000.

Someone had submitted a portion of this for our "I AM" image collection but it was only cropped on the US - showing the whole world really shows the "darkness" of some parts of the world.

This is a fairly high res image and if you click on the image above (to see it larger) you can see Mwanza, Tanzania in Africa - one tiny spot of light at the bottom of Lake Victoria.

I Love Glitter!!!!!

Glitter is almost everywhere in my house, my garage, driveway, car - even the cat had some on his back the other day. I am sure my vacuum cleaner is full of glitter, too.

Glitter is the word used to describe an assortment of very small (roughly 1 mm²) pieces of paper, glass or plastic in metallic, neon and iridescent colors to reflect light in a sparkling spectrum.

Glitter is commonly used in craft projects, especially for small children, sorority women and people from Atonement, because of the brilliant effects which can be achieved relatively easily.

Glitter was invented by Henry Ruschmann on his Hereford cattle farm in Bernardsville, New Jersey. Accounts conflict as to when glitter was invented--some say 1934 and others shortly after World War II. Today the company he founded Meadowbrook Inventions is the world's leading manufacturer and supplier of glitter and has been for over fifty years. Some of the glitter used on the Lent banners is from NJ.

"the Light of the world" banners

This week's banner was not hung until after the Saturday evening service - it had a lot going on with it, I was behind on the big back panel and getting someone to climb those ladders with me is a challenge. Oh, and by the way these things are HUGE and not so easy to move around while working on them.

I am so glad on the outcome of an experiment - I was able to use the design to hide the seems of the netting down the middle part of the front overlay. This worked out but also took some time during the "figuring out" part.

I was running out of time on Saturday afternoon and some early arrivals for the evening service were able to help out with attaching the small yellow banners. Thank you!!!

Steve, you were greatly missed!

Photos for the Board

I pulled some photos that hopefully will inspire the congregation in their photo gathering for the "I AM" board.

I stopped by the church Friday evening and put some of them up on the side panels of the big board - I hope these show more of Jesus in our lives rather than literal shots of gates, light, vines, etc. We can add some of the more literal shots later - that way we won't get 100 more shots of gates and fireworks - and no more water aerobics, too.

As for the resolution of the images - there is no way to improve the images that were submitted at the low resolution. They could be printed at postage stamp or phone screen size and look okay but other than that they will be blurry and pixilated at a larger size. We should ask for photos at a higher resolution - as long as it not cumbersome to the senders' network systems or the Atonement system to handle the larger files.

I've received several photos via email. I checked the dpi and most of them are 72dpi. I'm not sure these will print very well unless the size is reduced (4x6ish or smaller). Any ideas on how to get around this. Admittedly, I'm not knowledgeable in this area.

How should these be mounted? Are we to mount them on the existing foam core or are we to extend the board that's up and mount the pics on the sides? Should they be placed row by row or random? Are they to be grouped by theme?

Speaking of theme, not sure the pictures are really in sync with the themes. PJ and talked for a couple of minutes about this . . .not sure where to go from here. All are posted on the website if you want to view them.

I talked to Mike S. about affixing the sides of existing board to the wall so that they lay flat.

Light of the World

For this week and the next several weeks until Maundy Thursday we will use a purple background. It seemed a lot of work and funds to create such a large back piece, especially if it would only be up for one week.

The small side banners will still be the color for the week and this week will be Yellow.

Lent Worship Schedule

Lent 2009
Wednesday Evenings
Dinner 5:45 pm - 6:30 pm
Devotions & Teaching • 6:30 pm - 7:15 pm

Saturday Evenings
Worship • 5:00 pm

Sunday Mornings
Worship • 8:30 am & 11:00 am

Picture Board

Joe emailed on 3.2.09 - We need to touch base regarding the board for the brick wall. What is the timeframe on that? I will hopefully have some pic’s to begin printing later this week.
The board is done and has been delivered to the church. It has the center panel to mimic the "I AM" Banner and then has panels velcro-ed on either side. These panels can grow as we add more pictures.

I put the board up in one of the windows between the narthex and the sanctuary. You can move it to where ever you like.

Plan for Childrens' Art on Wednesdays

On 3.2.09 Joe asked "Where are we with this? What can Krissann and I do?"

Steve's reply -
I stopped at US Toy over lunch and picked up four packages of colored markers for the kids to use in making the signs in Wednesday. Put out only the red, yellow, blue, purple and green markers NOT the orange, brown or black. I had to get regular markers as they did not carry the extra wide ones I was looking for. Joe, they are in a bag looped on the handle of your office door.

Kari is picking up the white foam core and will deliver to the church before Wed evening. We will worry about the sticks for the signs later.

Joe, remember we discussed instructing the kids to practice their name of God on a scrap of paper before they actually do the final on the foam core to ensure correct placement and spelling. Encourage them to thicken their letters once they have them printed out to that they show up. If you want to extend the activity a bit longer have them user two colors when doing their name. First they will letter the name in one color and fatten it up. Say Johnny chooses yellow for this - Then he chooses purple to outline his letters. this will not only be more colorful, it will help with the readability of the yellow letters on a white background and is, in the end, more interesting to look at. I toyed with having them use glitter and decided it would be a costly mess. Stick with two colors of markers and you will be good to go.

You might also have plenty of words for Jesus and God up on a board or chart so they do not all use the same name.

Banners for Wednesday

On 3.2.09 Joe emailed - We need to touch base regarding……banner for downstairs. What is necessary for taking one of the ancillary question mark banners downstairs for our time there? Not necessary, but t’would be nice.

Steve's reply -
...ask Mike to take down one of the smaller question mark banners including the hanging pole from which it is hanging. He can set up a banner stand downstairs and string this banner on it. We will need it to be returned to the sanctuary by Saturday morning when Kari will most likely put up the yellow banners for the following week. Mike will have to go through this take down/put up routine for each week during Lent that you want a banner downstairs.

"If" Banners