Things Continue To Be Exciting For Life Pointe!

Here is it on the eve of our second Bible Study and I am again just so thankful, excited, and looking forward to what God is doing and has in store for us! Not only am I excited about the Bible Study for tomorrow night, last night, Ginny and I fixed up some post cards to send to all the folks who came to our Block Party that filled in a card showing or expressing an interest in receiving more information about Life Pointe and there were 60 cards filled in from the Block Party! A few folks were in the same family, but with names and addresses of over 50 potential visitors to Life Pointe, that is exciting to me, in that even if just a few folks come to the study who we sent cards to, that will be 5 or 6 more that can hear the word of God, enjoy His blessings, and encourage us to know that Life Pointe is growing! God continues to work and bless especially my heart to confirm we are right where HE wants us to be! Praise His Name for He is so good to us!

History Made!

One day after my 54th birthday and just 3 days after our fantastic Neighborhood Block Party in which we had a great turn out of between 150 and 200 people, we again had something very special happen. Last night on September 23, 2008 we had our very first Life Pointe Church Bible Study. Now while that may not be Big News to some, to me it is great! Even though we have had Bible Studies at our home before, this is the first ever, truly Life Pointe Bible Study! I was excited as a couple came in to Huff-Lane School and when I asked "could I help you, or are you looking for something in particular?" And when the man responded "Life Pointe" it made me realize not only how great God is to finally bring in to being a church that we have been dreaming about; working towards; and praying for, for literally months, and months, and months, but God also reminded me that I now am really the Pastor of a small group and that this is just the beginning of something Big that God has in store for us. It's exciting and was exciting as abou 15 people came in the library at Huff-Lane School and prayerfully will come back next week as I share Jesus with them. So while we haven't had our first true church service, we have had our first true Bible Study! Praise the Lord, and as Tommy Walker sings, "I Have A Hope!"

What A Mighty God We Serve!

Wow, here I am again with a "must post" situation even though it is almost 11:00 pm here on Sunday night, September 21, the day before my birthday! It seems God has already given me my present though, by exceedingly giving me such a blessed day, yesterday at the Block Party! I won't say that I didn't expect God to show Himself mighty, because since I serve a great God, I did expect great things, but still I am just sitting here now, amazed at what my God does for us and did for us, especially yesterday. Not only was it a beautiful, warm, Saturday with a gorgeous blue sky, but I was blessed so much by the Liberty University Students coming down to help and by their apparent willingness to give up a beautiful Saturday to just be used in any way they could to help show the love of Christ to the community. With face painting, moon walks, games, food, door prizes, and with over probably 200 people enjoying the day with us, I was just blessed out of my socks! We had the opportunity to share with many folks, both in person, and by means of a video entitled "Just Stop and Think" that God loves them, has a plan for them, and wants to forgive them and have a relationship with them. A couple of people even prayed to get things right with God so it was wonderful. Either they were making sure or making a decision for Christ and His salvation after being spoken to by the items presented in the film, so it was great if for no other reason that folks met Jesus for the first time, or got things right with Him, like they needed to! So it was a fantastic day! And we have a Bible study set for Tuesday, so the fun and blesssings will hopefully continue to flow there too, as we follow up on the contacts God allowed us to make yesterday! And I was even blessed yesterday, and again tonight by one of the LU students, whose name was Joseph, being willing to offer his help in the future as we have our Tuesday night Bible Studies. I told him to contact me and even last night, at almost 12:00 midnight he indeed kept his intentions and emailed me to again say he would just be willing to help out in any way he could especially working with the youth, which is indeed an area I could use some help with! Isn't it great that God sometimes supplies our needs, even before we can ask for it specifically. So I am continuing to be blessed and have a feeling I will continue to feel blessed by what great things God did for me and for us yesterday! To GOD BE THE GLORY!

A Must Post!

With my eyes so heavy that I am about to fall asleep, I still feel that I must at least post this very important thought before I head off to bed this Thursday evening. The thought simply is thankfulness. Thankful to the Lord for calling me and my family to plant a church and in just 48 hours we will have the biggest event we have sponsored yet in stepping closer to that goal of planting Life Pointe Church. I just finished counting up door prizes that I have been securing for the past 2 months or so, and God blessed so much in that we have between $500 to $600 worth of door prizes for our Block Party! God is great and so good to use in supplying what we need! And so with the prizes and the Liberty Group coming down and with me and my friend Cecil going to Lynchburg tomorrow to pick up the Block Party Trailer so it will be here on Saturday, and with Ginny picking up last minute things tomorrow and with Andy helping with the lists of items and activities that we are going to have on Saturday...............it's definitely an exciting time! And a pivotal time for our church I believe, so yes I am excited with all that we have done by God's grace and all that we are planning on Saturday, looking for our Great God to do Great things, but again I am.........................thankful. Thankful for a loving God who choses ordinary people like us to do perhaps some extra-ordinary things for Him. I am indeed thankful. Praise the Lord, we are on the verge of seeing some Big things happen in the life of Life Pointe! Let us, as Steven Curtis Chapman would say, "Saddle Up Our Horses....We got a trail to Blaze!"

Exciting Things!

Rarely does someone jump up and down or get real excited when the mail comes, but then again maybe if it's a letter from someone special or a BIG check, or just something that is expected, maybe a person might get excited, but I was somewhat excited today when the mail came because the postcards I ordered several days ago for our church came. They have information about the church on them, our church name of course, the ways in which to contact us, but they just remind me of just how far we've come in the venture for God. Months and months ago, we were just thinking and considered stepping out in faith and planting a church. Then came the talks, the training, the studying, the reading, the praying, and then of course the working out of so many details, etc. But more importantly God began working on all of us, that is Ginny, Andy, Ashley, and me to prepare us better for being a family that's planting a church. And of course I could say so much more about that, but just getting the beautiful cards today that promote what God wants us to promote; and knowing we are going to have a Big Block Party on September 20, and hand out a lot of those cards to folks we don't even know as yet, and folks that prayfully might just be a part of Life Pointe Church.....that's why I was excited when the mail came and when the cards came.....and when I'm reminded that God is so good and has so many good things in store for us in the future! Praise His Name!

WoW, God is Working and Blessing!

This has been a good week and it is only Monday! Yesterday I had the opportunity to go and speak at White Rock Baptist Church out on Hardy Road near Moneta and had a very good time! Ginny and I made the trip and I had the opportunity to share the vision God has given me to plant a church and also hopefully challenge the folks there to answer the call, whatever it is, that God has given to them. The people were receptive and very nice to me and God provided for us in a very good way, so I am thankful. I just had total freedom to sing and play the guitar, plus share the message God had given me, so it was a good time all around. Last week after Ginny and I had made the trip to Richmond for our final evaluation, (which we passed and were very thankful for that), Tony called and after giving me the good news about being approved, also ask if he could give me name to someone about speaking in their church, so that's how this past Sunday came about and it just shows how quickly God can make things happen! And today, after talking to some folks at Thomas Road Baptist Church, and Liberty University, the plans for the Block Party are just falling into place in a God blessed, heaven sent way! The main concern last week was that it just seemed like some folks who we thought were going to help with the BP seem to not be able to help after all. So it was a little trying the last part of last week, but I just know God is in this and today He showed us that by the person at Liberty telling me that about 15 or 20 students will probably come down with the trailer and help us with the events surrounding the Block Party! WoW! And they will even help us with the music too! Another WoW! And everyone including Cale Duncan, the students, and especially Debbie and David Wheeler have just been so nice and supportive, and very encouraging, so God is blessing me and the event hasn't even happened yet! And He said He would do exceedingly above all that we ask or think so...............look out! The best is yet to come! It's exciting to see how God has it all worked out, we just have to be faithful and follow His leading!