Movie "Bella" is heart-warming story

On Friday my wife and I went with our daughter and her boyfriend to see the new independent film, Bella.
It is a heart-warming, and at times, heart-wrenching story about the value of life.
Nina, a waitress at a Mexican restaurant, is fired because she shows up late, due to her pregnancy. Jose, the chef, walks out of the restaurant and spends the day traveling around New York City with Nina, who is considering an abortion. Jose never preaches at her, but he literally shows her the value of life as he opens up to her about his own past.
The movie flashes back in time and flashes forward, as well. My daughter found this confusing, but my wife and I understood it and felt it helped hold our interest in the plot. There is no sex or bad language in the movie (some of the dialogue is in Spanish with subtitles). A violent event is portrayed in a flashback, but not graphically.
If you are looking for a fast-paced, exciting movie, don't go see this movie. At times, it moves slowly. However, if you are looking for a thought-provoking, clean, intelligent film about the meaning of life, go see Bella. It will touch your heart and mind.

The Unchurched Next Door

I recently finished reading The Unchurched Next Door by Thom Rainer. I had previously read his books Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Simple Church, and I found his research to be very illuminating in those books. The same is true of this book.
For this project, Rainer had a team of interviewers conduct extensive one-on-one surveys with unchurched Americans from a wide variety of backgrounds. Rainer classifies them into five categories of unchurched. These are classified on the "Rainer scale" from a U5 (highly resistant and antogonistic to the gospel) to a U1 (high receptive to the gospel.) His researchers found that only 5% of Americans were U5's (antogonistic), and that among the remaining 95% of the unchurched, the majority would likely come to church if somebody they knew invited them and offered to go with them into the building. Here was the most interesting statistic in the book-- Answers to the question, would you be likely to go to church if invited:
U5 (antogonistic): 0% very likely, 20% somewhat likely, for a total of 20%
U4 (resistant but not antagonistic): 17% very likely, 45% somewhat likely, for a total of 62%
U3 (neutral): 23% very likely, 63% somewhat likely, for a total of 86%
U2 (receptive): 46% very likely, 51% somewhat likely, for a total of 97%
U1 (highly receptive): 52% very likely, 45% somewhat likely, for a total of 97%
Over and over again, Rainer pleads in this book for Christians to invite their friends to church. His plea needs to be heard.

Cheat play "joking way to end their season"

John Hart, sports director of WJBF-TV (ABC) and WFXG-TV (FOX) in Augusta, Georgia, reported that he talked to a Lakeside player about the infamous "cheat" play they tried to pull against Effingham County on November 4 and the player had an interesting explanation for the play, but he didn't say what that explanation was. I emailed Mr. Hart and asked him to explain what the player said. He wrote back and said: "The player basically said that they had run the play as a prank several times during intra-squad scrimmages and that when it was called they all just sort of thought it was a fun, joking way to end their season (it was their final play of the year). The player view seems to be that this was just a joke gone horribly wrong. And the coach admits that it was horrible judgement and definitely not the right time or place."
Hmmm.

Football team cheats, caught on video

Last Friday, November 2, 2007, our high school, Effingham County of Springfield, Georgia, defeated Lakeside High School of Evans, Georgia by a score of 7-0. On the last play of the game, Lakeside attempted a "Hail Mary" pass, but the game film shows that they also tried to cheat. They had a wide receiver run to the sidelines, and then way down the field they had a player who had been standing on the sidelines run onto the field to try to catch the ball.Effingham County intercepted the ball anyway, and the game was over. This video was posted on You Tube, and the Atlanta and Savannah newspapers wrote stories about it.
Coach Jody Grooms of Lakeside has apologized off camera to a TV station. The principal says that Coach Grooms will be disciplined, but not fired, since it was an "isolated incident." It may be an isolated incident, but it wasn't spontaneous; the coach had to plan a play like that. Grooms was teaching his students, but it was not a good lesson he was teaching. Being caught on video illustrates what the Bible says, that "your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:23)
You can watch the video yourself by clicking here.

MORE STORIES:
Augusta newspaper reports that Coach Grooms sent letters of apology to Effingham County and to his own principal.

Editorial by Augusta newspaper says, "Dear Effingham County, we apologize and promise not to cheat again, for at least another 20 years."

Augusta TV station talks to Lakeside coach who apologizes off camera.

Augusta newspaper says coach will be disciplined but not fired.

Augusta TV station says coach will be fined and put on "severe warning status."

UPDATE NOVEMBER 13: Lakeside coach steps down as athletic director, but remains football coach for now.

Harvest Festival a big hit again

We had about 1,500 people again for our Harvest Festival on October 31. One young mother said nobody was trick-or-treating in her neighborhood, so they got in the car to drive around, and saw the crowds at our church and so they came to our festival and had a blast. Before they left, they asked when our church services were.

We had 47 families request a contact from our church!