Journey

Our church purchases a monthly devotional magazine for the women called Journey. It's a great resource we are glad to supply for our women. This most recent issue had special meaning for one lady in our church. Her son recently enlisted in the United States Air Force & is currently attending boot camp. The 1st phone call she got from him (4 days into training) all he could talk about was how much he loved the church & couldn't wait until Sunday to go again.



Inspired by this she began to tear out the devotional pages of her magazine every 0ther day & send them to her son. He started a prayer meeting at his bunk with one other wingman every night at 10:30 P.M. Within only a few days he had 22 wingmen gathering around his bunk every night & he would use the page from the Journey for their devotional (each page had one devotional on front & back).



In less than 2 weeks these wingmen will graduate from basic training & disperse to various areas of training. I shared this story at our "Night of Praise" last night & our church is praying God will use these 22 young men to start devotional times at their locations.



It's amazing how God is using a women's devotional book to challenge & inspire young men training for the Air Force. God is ready & willing to use the most likely & unlikely sources to reveal Himself to others.



You may be the next unlikely source God wants to use to bless someone else!

Death & Life

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to preach the funeral of a man I've never met. A visitor of our church lost her father & he, nor anyone in the family, had a pastor to officiate, so she asked me. My schedule allowed me & I was glad to attempt to give this family the peace of Jesus & personal comfort. It quickly became evident this man was most likely not a Christian, which makes for a tough job, but incredible opportunity for me as a pastor.

I spoke briefly from Matthew 11:28-30 on Jesus calling all who are weary & burdened to come to Him. The service went well & I prayed only to make much of Jesus & let God do the rest. And He did...

The next morning in our worship service the daugther (who's in her early 60's) stepped out on the 1st line of the invitation song & gave her life to Jesus & truly experienced the peace I had spoken of the day before. It was an incredible celebration that morning & I baptized her the following Sunday.

I prayed by faith, as many others were praying as well, that God's Word wouldn't return void (as Scripture promises) but He gave us an almost immediate return on our investment. Many individuals heard a clear presentation of the Gospel at the funeral & my prayer is this is only the beginning of the lives touched by Jesus.

This new Christian is already actively involved in the ministry of our church. Everyday I can't wait to see how God's going to work in His Church. I'm so grateful to be able to be part of such a great move of God as we've already baptized 10 new Christians in 2010.

I'm reminded regularly, as I remind our church family...God's still in the business of changing lives!

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful weather, the great time w/ family, & the reason we can live abundantly & eternally - Jesus. Cade had a great time playing, eating some candy, learning how to hunt eggs, & of course going to church w/ a huge crowd (largest since I've been here & maybe one of the biggest in the church's history). Here's some pics from the weekend.

Closely examining the dyed egg, which was way more interesting than the plastic ones.

Post-church family pic right before his 3+ hour nap


Hunting eggs at our church's Easter Bash on Saturday.

Trying to get a good picture before church.

Checking out his Easter basket before breakfast.

Dying eggs on Saturday.

Reading his Easter book from Papaw & Nena he got in the mail in his Easter Envelope (guess a basket wouldn't fit in the envelope).

Cade also got some great stuff from Pops & Mimi but we didn't have the camera handy at the time. We tried to talk about the true meaning of Easter & maybe next year he will be able to tell us what Easter is really about.

Our Little Dancing Man

Here's a fun evening of entertainment at our house these days.

Poor quality video...high quality dance moves.

Bless Bastrop Project

Grace is setting out to be a light in the darkness right here in Bastrop, LA. This is our "Jerusalem" & we want to serve our city through hard work, generosity, & the love of the Gospel. Several Sunday nights have been set aside for service in our local community. Our prayer is this will instill within us a greater heart to serve others as Jesus did. We need to be reminded as well as display to others we don't exists for ourselves but the world around us.

Our great group of volunteers showed up Sunday afternoon ready to serve. We've adopted the part across the street from our church & we're renovating the playground equipment. Another team picked up trash at the park & 3 local school campuses. Others went to a local grocery store to bag groceries, carry & load groceries, retrieve buggies, & greet customers with a smile. The overall purpose of this initiative is to be a blessing to our town. We want to get outside the walls of the church & love our neighbors as ourselves. We had a blast serving together & many have expressed excitement in the next opportunity to serve.

Some of our volunteers were able to share the Gospel with people we met at various places in town, but most of us were able to be a positive example of love & service to others. Here are some pictures from Sunday afternoon.

My Sports Buddy

I'm glad I've got a friend to watch Ranger games with me.

I'm even happier I have a friend to watch Razorback games with me.

Who says there's not a "man gene" somewhere in our DNA from birth?

A Visit from the Governor

Sunday we had the privilege of having Governor Bobby Jindal share his personal testimony of his faith in Jesus Christ in our morning worship service. The Governor tries to spend many Sundays a year speaking in churches, not as a political event, but as a ministry opportunity. Yes there were aspects of his message that felt political (such as discussing various things that have happened during his tenure) but the primary focus was telling his story.

I was impressed with his personal nature & receptivity to meet, take pictures, & sign autographs with everyone who wanted after the service. He truly left an impression on our church & others from the community who attended that we have a caring, Christian Governor who puts effort into helping the entire state of Louisiana. He challenged us to continue to plant seeds of the Gospel b/c his testimony recognized the various seeds planted in his life along the way, eventually leading to his salvation. He also encouraged the importance of prayer for one another.

My prayer through this experience, as I clearly shared the gospel at the end of the service, is that Bastrop & the surrounding community will see Jesus in us & allow us to transform this community for Him. I'm hoping many who attended (290 people) we're exposed to the love & acceptance of our church family. I'm committed to praying for Governor Jindal & our entire government system & I hope you will too.