Our college kids are BACK for the summer!

Last Thursday night, it was so good to have 3 of our amazing college students back with us for our THIRST service.  As you can see, after the service, Luke was excited to have them home.  He has really missed them since they left for college.  I am so proud of all 3 of these young men and I am excited to see how God continues to mold their lives.  I am so thankful that they love our Luke so much.  They really surprised him Thursday night.

Preschool graduation and awards

Here is a picture of Paul and Sarah Belle as they prepare for end of year awards and Sarah Belle's graduation from our morning preschool at Southside, WEE Love Academy.

Sarah Belle is so excited about her graduation.  We are proud of her for all of her hard work. She was awarded with perfect attendance, and the only graduate that has completed WEE Love Academy's entire curriculum from the 1 year old class until the pre-k class. We are so proud of her dedication as she has gone to preschool 3 mornings each week for the past few years.

Paul is standing in his favorite spot of the preschool department.  He is excited to be awarded with perfect attendance and completion of the 3 year old class.  We are so proud of him.

A Great Memorial Day Service

We had a great Memorial Day service at Southside.  Our church is very blessed to have many veterans who gave mighty amounts of sacrifice for our freedoms.  Today, our church was decorated with flags from each branch of service.  As we had the veterans stand as their branch of service was called out, it was humbling and beautiful to see how these men of God gave of themselves years earlier.  We have one man in our church who is in his 90's and he was actually a Prisoner of War.  He is a very humble man and as he was recognized, it was such a blessing to see how God has blessed him, his family, and his health after going through such an adverse and trying time during war so many years ago.

As American Christians, we need to spend time this Memorial Day crying out to God for revival in our land and around the world.  We need to pray for our soldiers, the families of those who have lost soldiers in war, and for one another.  We need to be more steadfast than ever before in our prayer life.

Let's make this Memorial Day filled with prayer.

God is so good!

As you know, many in our church family have endured great amounts of hardship the past couple of years with business and jobs.  We have prayed and prayed that God would deliver and provide for every hurting family in our church.  Well, today our MIGHTY God showed off!  One of our faithful and sweet ladies emailed me to tell me that after 23 months of being out of work that God has opened a door for her and she begins work again this Wednesday.  Her email was so powerful as she gave all the credit to the Lord.  She now wants to be an encouragement to all the others who are in need and still searching for God to open doors for them like He did for her.  What has taken place in her life this week should serve as a glimpse of hope to all of you who may be struggling after experiencing job or business loss.  May we praise our Lord and give Him glory for answering the prayers of so many on behalf of a sister in our church.  I trust He will do the same for all of you who are still waiting on God.  Press on for Jesus and He will work out every detail of your lives. 

I love you all,
Pastor Fuller

AWANA Awards last night

Here is Paul with a few of his Puggles friends.  He has had so much fun in Puggles with his best friend, Tyler Matthews.



Sarah Belle and her cubbie girl friends.  They were given awards for completing their books and memorizing 30 scriptures this year.  Way to go Belle Belle!

Here is Luke and Anna Brooke with some of their Spark friends. Both of them completed their books this year and they memorized 36 scriptures each.  Way to go Luke and Anna Brooke.

I am so proud of our AWANA ministry and all of the kids who come and learn so much each Sunday evening.  We started AWANA four years ago with 6 kids and now it is amazing to see how God has blessed this ministry.  It will be so exciting to watch as God uses the scriptures that each child has memorized in their lives in the days and years to come.

Sarah Belle on the ball field

Sarah Belle is up to bat.  She is doing a great job.  We are so excited that she is excited about playing ball.  She loves to help her little brother too.

Look at our baby girl.  She is so happy all the time.  We are grateful for her spirit on the field.

Sarah Belle, we are so proud of you and your hard work this season.

Paul's first year of ball.

Paul has been so excited this year as he has been able to play tee ball.  He has waited, and waited to play since he was born.  He has spent hours the past 3 years sitting on the sidelines watching everyone else and now he is thrilled to finally be playing. He is the youngest member of his team at the age of 3, but fits right in and can hit that ball pretty good for the first year.  Look at him here as he bats.  He is so cute and has captured the hearts of everyone at the ball park this season.

Here is Paul as he comes in to home plate.  I am there to give him a high five.  What a moment!

Paul even enjoys the outfield.

We are so excited about Paul's future.  Great job son!

Luke Fuller #8 and Tigers Baseball

Luke loves playing baseball.  He has had a great season this year.  His coach sent me an email today just to say how proud he is of how Luke plays baseball.  It makes me so proud to watch him as he hits the ball to the fence and sometimes over the fence.  He has come a long way this season.

Here is our boy as he runs to first base.

Luke made it all the way to 3rd base.  Good job son.  Daddy and Mommy are so proud of you.

Baptist State Convention of NC

This afternoon, I had a meeting with the Baptist State Convention of NC Bylaw committee.  It is a pleasure to serve on this committee for our Lord.  As I sat in the meeting, it was such a blessing to me to see how God is working in our convention.  He is doing amazing things and I am so thankful that our church is a part of a greater ministry than ourselves.  As I made the 30 minute drive back to the office from Camp Caraway, I could not help but marvel at how God is working in our state and even in our region. We should be so proud to be NC Baptists.

Concession Duty

Tonight was my night to fulfill my obligation for concession stand duty at the ball park.  It was really neat to be able to do it with one of my awesome neighbors who is such a blessing.  As I served players and their families, I could not help but to think about how many of them need a relationship with Jesus. I have been praying recently that God would put me in places each day so that I could be a witness for Him.  Tonight, he certainly answered my prayer.  I might have been given the assignment to make lots of hot dogs, slushies and collect money for little league, but God had a greater assignment for me.  Thank you Lord for opportunities like tonight.

The 2011 Sock Hop

We are so blessed to have such an awesome school that always puts on the neatest events for our school families.  Last night was our annual Sock Hop.  The kids have been practicing for weeks during PE to learn the routines and they showed us their stuff last night.  Here are a few pictures of Luke and Anna Brooke as they danced away with their friends.

Luke's 8th Birthday

Luke wanted a slip n slide party so here is a picture of him and some of his friends as they get ready to race down the hill.

Luke loves to read every card he received over and over.  It is so neat to watch him as he takes great joy in his cards.

Luke had 9 of his friends spend the night after his party.  Here is a picture of him and two of his friends, Colton and Timmy.  This picture was taken about 1 am in our kitchen.  As you can see, we did not get much sleep on this night. It was a blast and they had so much fun.

It is hard to beleive that our Luke is now 8 years old.  He is growing and maturing so much and it is so cool to watch him develop into such a fine young man.  We are grateful to God for the blessing he is to our family.

When we got married, Laura started a tradition that our family would take an Easter picture after church each Easter morning.  We have all of them from the year 2000 until now.  Here is our family picture after church last week.  It amazes me how much our kids have grown this year. 

Our kids are so excited in this picture.  We are so blessed that they are so filled with joy.  Thank you Jesus.



Pancake Breakfast at Southside this morning. Great job youth.

Our church family as we fellowship together.  Thanks to our youth for being such great host.

Jordan, Mrs. Terry and faithful deacon Ken who is the best pancake cook ever!

Look at Deacon Tony who is cooking extra pancakes for such a great crowd.

Lisa, Tracy, Peyton, the Fuller girls, Laura and the Fuller boys.  What a great time of fun.

Thanks to everyonw who gave their support tto our youth today.  We are grateful to God for such a loving and dedicated church family.