Welcome to Pine Grove

Welcome to Pine Grove Church. I thought I would share the (almost) completed library project with you. Remember this..... ....well it still looks kind of like that. I have about 100 more books to add, but the church library was put together today. It is functional and looks much better. I did not get any real before pictures, but the shelves were loaded. Many books were duplicates, damaged, or outdated....I love old books, but I think something like, "Prophesy for the 80's" can be retired.

My girls, Rachel and Charlotte, both helped me today. What a blessing!! That Rachel can alphabetize faster than anyone I have ever met, and Charlotte carried five times her weight in books today....she got a chocolate mint shake for a treat afterwards.The library is a large room with wonderful light. It is used for small group classes, and Sunday morning coffee is available here. It has not been used as a library in a long time. There will be shelves placed under those windows and a children's library will be there, along with DVDs and videos.For now we have 10 categories of books, all with labels above the book cases that house them......Evangelism, Missions, Testimonies (which would be biographies and autobiographies), Fiction, Christian Living, Spiritual Topics (such as the occult, prophesy, healing, etc.), Prayer, Women, Inspirational, and Biblical Reference.

Here we are putting together the Fiction case.Biblical Reference will be on the top of the book cases. Those include Bibles, Concordances, Dictionaries, and Bible Study type books.

Here it is....Believe it or not, there are about 400 books there. Still lots of room for the 100 or so more I have to add, and room for some later additions. Every book has a sleeve, checkout card and is labeled on the bottom of the spine for categorizing on the shelves. It was hard work, but I am pleased. There will also be a case of cassette tape series. They are too valuable in their content to retire, even though most people have CD players. Many still have cassette options too.

Since you are already here, let me show you around.

Here is our Welcome Center, just inside the door. You would be greeted here by someone with a big smile and a healthy handshake. Any literature available is on that Welcome Center.The sanctuary at Pine Grove is gorgeous. The vaulted ceilings are some kind of wood...oak or pine...not sure, but they are beautiful (you can see just a glimpse in the upper right hand corner). Sweetheart kept looking up during his first visit and I had to keep nudging him! :) Sanctuary is the right word for this room. It has such a peaceful feeling to it. One whole wall is windows and the view is magnificent. I find myself looking out there often....Don't tell Pastor Paul! I need someone to nudge me!The ladies of the church make beautiful banners every season.If you look out that door in the above picture, you can see into the library just across that hall.

Just outside the sanctuary is the "Cry Room". Mama's can take their fussy babies there and not miss the service. There is a window facing into the sanctuary and speakers to hear the message.Just across from the sanctuary is the stairway to the fellowship hall.It is the coolest stairwell...circular and all brick. Downstairs is a full kitchen, fellowship hall where we have church banquets, etc., and a huge game room for the Youth with air hockey, pool, and ping pong.

The church is on an old estate. LOTS of land...not sure how much but I think 5 or more acres. The "front yard" is all tall pine trees (hence the name Pine Grove) and a beautiful area for outdoor weddings, or even a tag football game.All those tree trunks you see are huge pine trees trimmed up.

This is the carriage house from the old estate. It is where the high school kids meet. All the land behind it is Pine Grove land.You can see the old water pump to the right in the foreground. In the above picture, the church is to the left and to the right is "The Bullis House". That would be the house where the Pastor and his family would live. My Pastor owns a home so the Bullis House (named after the founders of Pine Grove), which is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home, houses the offices of 2 Pastor's, the Church office, a full kitchen, a fellowship hall and the nursery and children's church classrooms. Whew!!

Pine Grove is a small church with an attendance of about 100 people on most Sunday's. The people are like no other people in any other church I have ever attended. Sweet, gracious, kindhearted, loving REAL, people. Any one of them would give you the shirt off their back, and it may be the only one they have....but they would give it to you anyway! I am blessed to be a part of the body of Pine Grove. Can you tell I love my church?? Along with good people, there is good teaching. Nothing wishy washy, nor do they miss the love message. Solid, sound, doctrine. I only mention that because a year and a half ago, I would have never entertained attending Pine Grove....It is a Free Methodist Church. I did not know what Free Methodist was, but I knew it was not for me....a Rhema church....Oh Yeah! Assembly of God...Yes!....Southern Baptist.....ok.....Evangelical Free...I could see that. Methodist....nope. Well I am glad my heart was open. Once I met the people (who blew me away with their behavior), I studied what the Free Methodist believe and found their doctrinal beliefs to be extremely close to my own. God will take a closed mind and open it up every time....not enough for your good sense to fall out, but enough to allow His truth to come in.

So that is my church. Thanks for stopping by and seeing the library project completed.

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ."

1 Corinthians 12:12

Have a wonderful weekend!!!