FYI the church offices are located on the north end of the second floor education wing. If you come up the stairs on the north side of the building, take a right down the hall. If you come up the elevator, take a left. Contrary to popular belief, Sunday IS NOT the only day we work. The church office is normally a beehive of activity Monday through Friday. It is a great area and atmosphere in which to work, and I believe you will find some committed folks to help you, should you need us. The ministerial staff often gets the limelight, but it is our secretaries who really keep us humming. Recently, I had a large map of the world mounted to the wall outside the offices. I pass it at least a hundred times a day. It’s there to remind us of our mission to “go into all the world”. We need to be on mission for Him, whether we are talking with a child about salvation, heading out the door to make a hospital visit, or discussing how to better involve our church family in mission endeavors. For months now, you have heard us talking about our desire to get personally involved in some mission points here and abroad. Please pray for us as we finalize these plans. Come by the office and spend a few minutes looking at the map. Ask the Lord where you need to be on mission for Him. Join us this Sunday as we emphasis “the fields that are white unto harvest”. Kevin Shearer and his family who are IMB missionaries to Peru will be our guest all day long.

Thinking Outside Our Box,

Bro. James

Have you ever had to live scared? Have you ever had to wonder if anyone loves you and known that there was no one to protect you? Have you ever had to wake up in the morning questioning whether your basic needs would be met or if someone was going to harm you?

Children who are suffering from abuse would answer yes to one, if not all, of these questions. Each day in the United States more than 4 children die as a result of child abuse in the home and 78% of those children are younger than 4.

Child abuse is estimated to be 3 times greater than reported. In 2007, DeSoto County investigated 1,490 reports of child abuse, the third highest in the state.

Almost all victims of abuse struggle later in life with addiction, mental disorders, and/or acts of crime. It is approximated that one third of abused and neglected children will eventually victimize their own children.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sunday, April 27 is Blue Sunday, a national prayer day for abused and neglected children. We can participate in the protection of these children by simply praying for them.

Erin Rogers
Preschool Coordinator

For some unknown reason, our website database became corrupted and all data was lost and the last backup was two months old. Note to self: Never assume that the hosting company makes regular backups of your site and database. Read the fine print! Anyway, lesson learned and now I have a newly written scheduled job that automatically backs up the database weekly. I’ve spent the last 8 hours rebuilding the site and reposting everything I could find. If you registered on our site after April 18th 2008 then you will need to register again. There are also some comments that were posted on articles that I was not able to retrieve. Some pages are still blank but I’m getting to them.

James Lewis has served as Senior Pastor for the DeSoto Hills Family since 1998. His wife Kathy teaches at Pleasant Hill Elementary. They have two children. Their son Marc teaches at Olive Branch High School along with his wife Jennifer. Their daughter Jami is in medical school at the University of Mississippi Medical School in Jackson. Bro. James is a native of East Tennessee.

Mark has served as Minister of Music for this family since 2001. His wife Celeste teaches at DeSoto Central Elementary. They have two children - Lyle, a freshman at MSU and Calland, a junior at DeSoto Central High School. Bro. Mark is a native of the Mississippi Delta.

Grant Stegall joined the staff here at Desoto Hills as the Minister of Discipleship in November of 2007. He and his wife, Amber, have been married for 5 years and have a young son, Eli, who was born on November 2006. Grant is a native of Pontotoc County, MS. He is presently working on his Ph.D.

I do it every week, without fail, without variation, and without much fanfare. I don’t announce that I am about to do it. In fact, I don’t give you any warning at all. I just do it. What is it? I pray as a way of closing my message. While praying is a very good thing, the difficulty with that prayer is that most of us have probably been guilty at some point in time of viewing it as the end of the message. We kind of sigh with relief and begin to check out of the service minutes before we move out of the MPC. This is a problem because in reality, between that prayer and dismissal, one of the most important parts of our service takes place. We call it the INVITATION - a time set aside for us to respond to God’s message. Believe me, the real challenge is not listening to a message (as difficult as that may seem), but rather applying and acting upon it. Join me in approaching the invitation with a greater sense of expectation and application. “

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22

Breaking the Habit,

Bro. James