FIA a Big Sucess!

Faith in Action was a big success. There was a tremendous amount of satisfaction among the participants and they felt that they had done something worthwhile. Many also want to keep on doing things like the community service projects in which they were involved.


We had seven Faith in Action projects on October 14 during the time period that we would normally have had our morning worship.


1- Yard sale on the church parking lot for families seeking "financial peace" (Dave Ramsey term). I got at the church at 6 A.M. and others arrived shortly thereafter and helped set up and sell items.


We had several team members from the church as well as three or four families who came to set up, sell their stuff, and keep the cash for their own needs. One lady that set up next to those of us from the church, was selling stuff to help another family that had lost everything in a fire so we gave her some of the proceeds from the stuff we were selling that church people had donated.


2 - A dozen or more of the folks from Pathway went to Hearthstone Assisted Living Center which is located about a mile from the church and worshipped with about a dozen of the residents there. We carted in the electronic piano from the church, took hymnbooks, sang about 7 songs, and I brought a brief message. The residents touched all of our hearts and thanked us for coming. Several of our members want to do this once a month now. The activities director there even wants to bring some of the folks to one of our worship gatherings some Sunday morning soon.




3 - Several Pathway members took a meal to the homeless camp underneath the Interstate bridge. They shared of how God touched their hearts in this ministry during the celebration worship gathering on Sunday night.



4 - Another team went to do yardwork for a single mom who has visited Pathway several times. They came back with smiles on their faces talking about how good it felt to help someone.



5 - One team began the process of making repairs on the mobile home of a seasoned citizen. The work will be completed soon.




6 - Several members set up a table in front of the south Wal-Mart to receive contributions for clean water in developing countries.




7 - The Student Ministry was at the same location receiving donations of non-perishable food items for our holiday food box drive.



The celebration worship gathering on the Sunday night of Faith in Action saw almost a full house. (I ashamed to say I was worried that a good crowd would return.) Several great testimonies of what God had done through Faith in Action were given, the testimony time culminating with two boys, Calvin Bush (age 9), and Kent Richardson (age 11), standing up and saying that they were going to continue at their schools to try to get funds for clean drinking water in developing countries. (A Samaritan's Purse program). I lost it then, with tears welling up in my eyes, as well as a lot of other people's eyes in the church, and I even forgot that Candace Atwood had made a great slide show with pictures taken from most of the projects. (Which we showed at the end of the worship gathering.)


The suggested celebration service theme for the message from the pastor was from Luke 10 where Jesus said to the 72 disciples returning from their mission, "I saw Satan fall like lighting from heaven."

During Faith in Action I too saw Satan fall like lightning.

Twice Family

My first cousin from Pennsylvania, Kevin Childers, and his wife Debbie, visited us in Alabama recently.

He's in the middle, between me and my older brother Mark.

Kevin is blood kin (our mothers were sisters) but he is also spiritually related by faith in Christ.

We share a great love for teaching the Word of God and for contemporary Christian music.

It was great to spend time together.