On The Grow In 2009
The first Sunday of 2009 saw some “firsts” and some “records” set and for that we are thankful! We rejoiced as we saw several new faces in our crowd this past Sunday morning and even a new attendance record set. We had several of our regulars out sick and one family of 6 had to be away to the hospital because one of them was having surgery but in spite of it all if all of our “usuals” had been present we would have reached an all time high of 92! We were also blessed to have some special music by one of the young ladies who got saved last Sunday and her future sister in law who has been attending with her. The devil did all he could to stop them from singing (the soundtrack that they were going to use ended up in a car headed to Dallas) but they sang anyway and did a great job! We look forward to them singing again and even being a part of the new Life House Celebration Choir that is coming soon! We were also blessed to have a Bridgette in our services for the first time. Bridgette is a young lady who served seven years in prison for selling drugs and while in prison met the Lord, went through the PAL program and is one of the strongest Christian ladies we know. She gave a brief testimony and then signed to a beautiful song. We will be hearing and seeing more from Bridgette in the near future as she will be helping with our Life Groups ministry.
We are also excited that on January 25th we will have Believer’s Baptism Celebration Sunday. We will be baptizing several who have been saved since the mission began. Following the service we will have church wide potluck lunch in the gym area. Come join us for this special day.
God is moving at Life House and we are almost at the point of having to restructure our worship center area in order to accommodate the number of people who are attending. That is a great problem for us! Pray that we will be wise with our “set up” and be able to put the building to it’s best use in order to accommodate our needs. We have been so blessed to have this building as a ministry center in the heart of College Hill. We begin buying the building this month and we are believing God to help us pay it off in record time – in spite of the economy situation. We KNOW that we are where God wants us and that this is the location He desires for us to use to be a central LIFE HOUSE to this community. Pray that we can pay for this building in record time!
Keep praying for us as we seek God’s will concerning a black associate pastor, a black co-worship leader and a black and white team of youth pastors/directors. God has just the RIGHT people out there and I believe we are on the verge of seeing them revealed to us to be able to move even further into this new ministry. PRAY!
Thanks for reading the blog on a regular basis and thanks for praying for us. Cindy and I count it a privilege to be your local North American Board Missionaries in Texarkana. Pastor James