Announcements

Raul announced his retirement from the class after being a member for 17 years. He shared his appreciation for the teaching and fellowship. He plans to move back to his hometown and spend time fishing. Raul also mentioned a small accident he had and how it affected his vision. The class prayed for him and his physical ailments. There was also a mention of an evangelism training and upcoming senior adults meeting. A first-time visitor was acknowledged. The class ended with a prayer for the Passover meal. Good morning, good morning. Hello, JW. Good morning. Good morning, Marion. If you haven't, go back on the back table, get you one of these popcorn. God loves you, and Marion does too, so it's back in the back. I'm going to try to be serious today, not say anything stupid. I'm going to try. So you be kind to me up here on the front row. Always will. Never mind. Grab your seats, and we'll get to our announcements. All right. A couple of announcements today. Please remember no connection class next week. Multiple services for Easter. Today's Palm Sunday, and you're going to do your thing, aren't you? Give him extra time. He can take all the time he wants. Yeah, that's your wife. She's saying give you extra time. She knows you're going to need it. Raul, come up here. Raul has an announcement to make. He's retiring. Good morning, good morning. I'd just like to say a few quick words. I just realized a while ago when I heard the word anniversary, because the Hispanic group here is having their 11-year anniversary, so I'll be joining them after a while and for lunch. But when I started coming here, it was on an Easter Sunday. I don't remember what year. And the first class I came to was here, and I never left, thanks to this brother right here. He would teach the way I would read the Bible, and I would study, and I just liked his word-by-word type teaching, if you will. And so I fell in love with this guy right here, and I stayed ever since. And then our crazy brother, Brother Bob Woods, came up to me on the third month that I was here, like, you ready to join the club? And I did. So that's how long I've known him. And then the other little quick note is when John Meador started pastor here, I started the year after he was here in this class. That's however long. That's 14 and 15 years. I don't know what this is exactly. How many? 18. Oh, wow, really? So I'll be here 17 years. Okay. Wow. So I'm going to miss this class and, of course, the loving fellowship that this class has and my good ties that I have with the brothers that I've gotten to know throughout the years. So I'm moving back to my hometown where I was living the first year of my life, my grandpa's property. And the town is Rockport, Texas. Let's go fishing! Brother Draper knows the place. And yeah, I'll be doing a lot of fishing. It won't be every day, but I will be going fishing, doing a lot of fishing. And so I've retired from the post office here. Thank you, Donald Trump. Get rid of all the federales. So, so be it. And I've got my 37 years with the Postal Service. And so, anyway, that's life. Thank you, Larry. Hey, I'm here. I'm going to pray. You're my friend. Oh, speaking of prayer, another thing that's kind of helping me to go over the, get pushed out is I had a small accident a couple of months ago. And I get off of work at one thirty in the morning. And I'm just two miles from the house. And I hit a parked truck on the corner road. I started between Westmoreland and Hampton. And who parks in the middle of the road at that time of the night? So drinking too much Sprite, drinking sodas. I didn't know that that was messing up my vision. The sugar elevated my sugar and it messed up my vision. And, and so going to the eye doctors, they don't advocate that I drive. So, okay, so be it. We're going to pray for you. Thank you, Father, for this brother and the experience and the relationship he's been over the past years. Pray, Lord, for his physical ailments that you give him strength that he needs to do to bless his family and his commitment to his job, commitment to this church and the other, the other church. Yes, Lord, continue to bless him. Amen. Take care, brother. Amen. Take care, brother. Last Sunday evening, we had an evangelism training led by Pastor John, and they gave us some information. We'll be rolling that out later on, probably about May timeframe. So we had about eight people from this class and went, too. So that's a good, good turnout from this class. Wasn't expecting it, but appreciate everybody that went. Also, this week, Thursday, April 17th at 10 o'clock, senior adults meeting at Kappa, the Commons area. And it'll be one of the first of the four evangelism days in 2025. And the effort this Thursday, I guess, Mark, is to go visit those that are, haven't been in the class for a while. Absentees, they're a little bit inactive. So if you have an opportunity to be here Thursday, 10 o'clock, you don't have to sign up, just show up. Is that right? Okay, good. And back there, sign up for Easter Sunday. Always in need for people, if you don't have children and you can spare going to a service or one of the services, please feel free to sign up for a volunteer to help with the children. Appreciate that. We have a first-time visitor. Her husband's been coming for quite a while, though, Justin. He decided to bring his wife today. Glad to see you, Evelyn. Give her a round of applause, if you would. Thank you. I'd like to talk with you after class and get some... I don't want any information on Justin. I'm trying to be serious this Sunday. I messed up last Sunday. Got in deep trouble with Brother Jimmy. I'm trying to get some points back. See if I can get there. I'm going to let you have it a little early. Yeah, Steve Litchfield, good to see you back there. Don't be looking back. We're looking at you. Glad you made it. Glad you made it. Been gone since January. Had some surgery done, so good to see him recovered. Anybody else I'm missing? Everybody raise their hand. Nope. Good. All right. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask His blessing on the class. Heavenly Father, we come to this season in reverence and awe and in worship for the sacrifice Your Son made for us. We're thankful, Lord, for life well lived, the sacrifice, what it means to us to have eternal life. We pray, Lord, that we'll live each and every day and ask, Lord, that You bless Brother Jack today as we go over the Passover meal. We pray.