Henry Lawrence Sitarski, 61, of Katy, Texas died on May 28, 2009. He was born in Raymondville, Texas on June 10, 1947 to Joseph and Bertha Sitarski. Henry lived in Lyford, Texas and graduated from Lyford High School in 1965. After school he enlisted in the Army and served in Germany for three years. Henry and Kathy opened their glass company, Framer's Glass, Inc. in Houston, Texas in 1987 and closed the doors in December of 2004. He met the love of his life, Kathy Norris of Baytown, Texas, on New Years Eve, 1969, and he was married on May 22, 1971. He and his wife moved to the valley where he attended Pan American University. He received his Bachelors degree in business.

Henry was a loyal and devoted husband to his wife Kathy. He was a wonderful dad to his only child, Megan, a daughter. He will be remembered as a kind, gentle man who lived his life with Christian values. He and his wife were baptized on March 22, 1973. His all time favorite hobby was watching football games, especially the Katy Tigers.

Henry was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph and Bertha. He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Kathy Norris Sitarski of Katy, Texas; daughter, Megan Sitarski of Katy, Texas; sister, Katy Naddeo of Tacoma, Wash., brother, Mike Sitarski of Junction City, La.; brother, Pat Sitarski of Corpus Christi, Texas; brother, Frank Sitarski of Baytown, Texas; and sister, Lily Cooley of Mountain Home, Ark.

The family will receive friends to celebrate Henry's life at a memorial service to be held at the Houston National Cemetery, 10410 Veteran's Memorial Dr., Houston, Texas on June 19, 2009 at 10 a.m.

We will celebrate Fathers Day this coming Sunday, June 21. Please arrive early as the festivities begin at 100 PM with refreshments being served in the lobby prior to the church service. We also have a gift for each father who attends. So, invite your fathers to attend or, if you're a father, bring your family to celebrate with you!

We invite you to join us at 830 PM on Wednesday evenings in a time of prayer for our church congregation. Since we're all some distance from the church, we will not meet collectively, but each of us will pray individually. We are asking for God's direction as we seek outreach opportunities. We are also considering a change of meeting location. Some members are finding it helpful to set a reminder on their Microsoft Outlook calendars (a rather effective modern-day call to prayer, wouldn't you say?).

Hello once again from Community Christian Fellowship, The other day, I was ending a conversation with an individual and their remark to me as we parted ways was "be blessed". That got me thinking, am I blessed? How do I know and what does that really mean? Then I thought, we are going through the book of Acts in our congregation for sermons, I wonder if Paul was blessed? My gut reaction is "of course Paul was blessed!!" Then, I started thinking about what the book of Acts said happened to Paul. He was continually pestered, arrested, imprisoned and sometimes beaten by those who did not agree with his preaching. He had to hide, sneak around, and sometimes flee cities to escape those who wanted him dead. But when you read about him going to the synagogues and public areas to preach, Luke states he always talks about the reality of Christ being resurrected from the dead and ascended. So, if you look at what HAPPENED to Paul, it really doesn't seem like many blessing were coming his way.

So, I think an evaluation of the term is in order. We all know that eventually Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, and was literally shipped to Rome after claiming his Roman Citizenship. He was eventually beheaded-but I don't know many Christians who would dogmatically claim that Paul was not very, very blessed. So, when we as Christians say this, would we trade places with Paul? Logic states that we would, but when push comes to shove, I'm not sure how many would.

This brings us to redefining "blessed". It seems that in today's culture, if you have a very high income, great home, great job, great car, great marriage and family, you're blessed. Hold on, I don't see anything in that list that has to do with being beaten and left for dead, being thrown in prison several times, hiding from thugs and sometimes the authorities? So, I guess we have to conclude that being "blessed" is what we think it should be. Or is it? As you see, things didn't always go very well for Paul. Or did they?

Paul measured blessing by seeing people grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. As his ministry grew, he understood deeply that his purpose in life had drastically changed from the legalistic, Pharisaical approach he had grown to cherish. He was now motivated by the hope of God's kingdom, the faith that one day he would see Jesus as he is, and that he would spend eternity with our savior in the presence of the Father. You see Paul had his priorities very clear. In other words, he was very blessed. Until next time, Pastor Mark