The School Celebrates Homecoming (Jan 30, 2012)
What a wonderful weekend it was as alumni from all over the United States returned to Columbus for the annual homecoming festivities of Grace Christian School. It all started on Friday evening with our annual homecoming game against Trinity. The Varsity Crusaders took care of Trinity 46-33, and the homecoming queen was crowned between the varsity and JV games. Our congratulations to April Amsbaugh who was crowned queen for the 2011-12 school year.
The annual alumni games were conducted on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Crusaders volleyball team played the alumni ladies. The alumni ladies put up a valiant fight, but in the end, the Lady Crusaders took two of the three sets.
The Varsity Crusaders then played the alumni men in basketball. It was one of the most competitive games on record. The alumni men took the varsity boys to overtime, but Jeremy Crespo hit a shot with 1.7 seconds left, and the Varsity Crusaders won by two.
There were many door and game prizes given away. Our appreciation goes to Ronda Harmon who organized most of the weekend's activities.
In the midst of all this hoopla, Pastor Horton, our administrator, received a call that his daughter Lydia had gone into labor to deliver their first grandchild. James and Jackie left the alumni games to travel to Gainesville to witness the birth of Annie Grace Bernstrom. She arrived weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces. Mom and baby are doing great. We are excited for Grandma and Grandpa Horton.
Between the volleyball and basketball games, we inducted Stephen Henderson into the Mama Jo Bowers Cruader Hall of Fame. Stephen graduated in the class of 1992 and then received his ministerial education from Pensacola Christian College. After graduating from PCC, he had a brief stint as a youth pastor in Florida before returning to Grace to serve as singles' pastor. He moved up the ranks and eventually became associate pastor and administrator of Grace Christian School. He also served as the interim pastor between David Price and me. Stephen left Grace to plant the Harvest Baptist Church in Manhattan, Kansas where he has served for nearly a decade. Stephen is also the first student to go from K-5 all the way through 12th grade at GCS. Due to the declining health of his wife, Stephen was unable to accept the award in person, but his parents accepted the award in his honor. Do pray for Stephen and his wife Rebecca as they continue to battle physical difficulties.
On a sad note, we announce the homecoming of Boyd Alexander. Boyd is the husband of Carol Alexander, long-time venerated educator here at GCS. Boyd peacefully went home to be with Jesus Saturday afternoon after bravely battling brain cancer. Pray for his family as they make funeral arrangements today.
Don't forget that missions conference is just around the corner. It starts February 15, and David Snyder, president of BIMI, will be our key-note speaker. Missionaries from Chile, France, Japan, Singapore, Uganda, the United States will be with us. Pray that we will be able to reach our faith promise goals.
This past Wednesday night, we were able to add Michael Kelly to our missionary budget. He becomes the 205th missionary supported by Grace Baptist Church. Mike, a great African-American preacher, is planning on coming here to Columbus to plant a church that can effectively reach the African-American population of our city. We have been praying for years that God would send us a man like Mike, and we are thankful that the Lord is sending him to our area.
On a personal note, Karen and I will be ministering this coming weekend (Thursday through Saturday) at the annual couples retreat hosted by Tabernacle Baptist Church in Nicholasville, Kentucky which is pastored by my good friend Lonnie Moore. Several churches will be in attendance at this retreat in Gatlinburg. I trust that you will pray for Karen and I as we minister. Pray especially for Karen's healing as she has been under the weather the past several days.
Your prayers do mean much to us. We ask that you especially spend time in prayer for the sale of our north property. The proceeds from this sale will enable us to construct our new family life center. Thus, the sale is vital to our future. Thank you in advance for spending time to talk to God about this.
It's All About Life (Jan 23, 2012)
The Lord blessed with a tremendous Lord's Day on National Right to Life Sunday. What a thrill it was to see seven precious families dedicate their children to the Lord. God gave liberty as I preached on the sanctity of life. You can listen to the message by logging on to our website. Each family pictured below has a unique story surrounding the birth of the child that they hold in their arms. It is a joy to be part of a church family that is committed to the sanctity of life!
Missionary David Adkins was also with us yesterday. David preached a tremendous message on Peter's journey of faith upon the stormy sea of Galilee. It was an instant classic. He also reported on the work that God has used him to accomplish in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada. We praise the Lord for His hand being on this fine young man.
Today begins our first annual power lunch at Grace Baptist Church. These leadership training times will help our men and their guests to maximize their potential for the Lord. Pray that the Lord will use these monthly Bible studies to raise up a great crop of leaders.
The Lord blessed with our Fort Benning Bible studies this week as 21 soldiers stood to receive Christ as personal Savior. Pray for the father of Bob Ingram who was diagnosed this week with a sticky valve in his heart.
The Lord blessed our January tract distribution with another good wave of visitors yesterday. In addition to the good number of local visitors, God blessed with visitors from Kentucky, Montana, and Mississippi as well.
At the conclusion of yesterday's message, Karissa Wright walked the aisle to receive Christ as her Savior. We praise the Lord for this decision. We also were able to baptize Ronald and Tessa Huckleba. Amen!
Don't forget that our annual world missions conference is just a few weeks away. Missionaries to the US, France, Singapore, Japan, Chile, and Uganda will be with us. Pray for Dr. David Snyder, our keynote speaker, that God will use him to help us raise the needed faith promise commitment.
On the school front, our annual homecoming fesitivities will take place this upcoming weekend. The homecoming queen will be crowned on Friday night, and the annual alumni games will be held on Saturday. We will honor Stephen Henderson on Saturday as our alumnus of the year. Pastor Henderson will be staying over on Sunday to minister in music during the morning service and preach in the evening service. It should be a great weekend. I trust you will make every effort to attend.
Finally, on a personal note, Karen and I were able to attend the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of our dear friends Shelton and Betty Smith on Friday evening. We congratulate this wonderful couple for this milestone.
Your continued prayers mean much to us. Please don't stop them.
The Blessings Keep Comming (Jan 17, 2012)
The Lord blessed our church with several good decisions this past Sunday. 2012 appears to be off to a fantastic start, and we are thrilled that once again we can share with you the blessings of this ministry.
Bus attendance jumped about 15% this week. Ten first-time riders came to Sunday School, and four precious bus kids trusted Christ as personal in the counseling center. We praise the Lord for these decisions.
Our Fort Benning Bible studies started back up for the new year. Brother Ingram reports that we ministered to 210 soldiers this week. 46 of these servicemen prayed to receive Christ as Savior. Amen! Pray for us as we continue to gain momentum through the year. We are in the process of putting together an internship at the Freedom House for ministerial students who may be interested in working with the military.
Our Opelika chapel reported a good number of visitors this week. Pray for Pastor Allison as he follows up on these.
We are happy to announce that we had ten visiting families on church this past Sunday. Pray that the Lord will help us to be of spiritual assistance to them as we follow up.
Vivian Pikett, daughter of Jon and Angela Pikett, followed the Lord in believer's baptism this past week. We are thankful for her step of obedience. What a great joy to see the children of our members receive Christ as their own personal Savior.
We were also thankful to welcome Lauren Mills into membership Sunday. Lauren invited her family up from Bay Minette, Alabama for the occasion. What a great joy to extend the right hand of fellowship to this lady!
We were also privileged to ordain Seth Acree to the Gospel ministry Sunday night. Seth and his lovely wife Melissa are on their way to Ghana, West Africa as church planters. Dr. Norman Johnston, missions chairman at Ambassador Baptist College, came and assisted in the service by preaching the charge to the candidate. It was a great message! A light reception followed the "laying on of the hands." We are thankful to witness the continuation of Grace being a "preacher producing institution."
Don't forget that Sanctity of Life Sunday is coming up this week. Our annual baby dedication features seven infants that were born to church families in 2011. You won't want to miss it.
Missions conference will be here before we know it. Missionaries to Chile, France, Japan, Singapore, Uganda, and the United States (Montana) will be with us. Dr. David Snyder, president of BIMI, will be our keynote speaker. The dates are February 16-19. You won't want to miss a single session.
On the school front, homecoming festivities will take place next week. The homecoming game will be played against Trinity on January 27. On the 28th, the annual alumni games will take place, and Stephen Henderson will be inducted into the Jo Bowers Hall of Fame as the 2011-12 alumnus of the year. Pastor Henderson, a 1992 graduate now pastoring in Manhattan, Kansas, will be preaching in the Sunday evening service on the 29th. Plan to be attendance!
We have a verbal agreement from a commercial contractor to do the necessary rennovations on the new youth house for the cost of materials. Praise the Lord. I appreciate the work of John Rogers and Ray Kingsbury who helped this become reality. Pray that we will be able to get the work done in a timely fashion.
Lord willing, we will be adding a new van to our fleet this week. Pray for Anthony Morrison and Pastor Bert Arrowood as they travel to Atlanta to make the purchase.
Your prayers do mean much to us. Keep them up.
God is Accomplishing Great Things (Jan 09, 2012)
We are off to a good start on our 2012 goals. We are endeavoring to distribute 3000 tracts per month. We started business yesterday with 1700 tracts already having been distributed in January. We praise the Lord for the evangelistic zeal of His people.
In addition to sharing the Gospel, this month's tract promotes our upcoming baby dedication on "Sanctity of Life Sunday." Baby Day is always an exciting day at Grace, and we are thrilled that God is continuing to bless our families with children.
Jacob and Melina Ingvalson took advantage of Melina's parents, Lloyd and Anita Berrey, being in town to dedicate their newest arrival, Benjamin Judah, last night. It was a great occasion, and we were grateful to see the Berreys again. As you remember, Lloyd served for many years as our high school supervisor and bus director.
We were also priviliged to welcome Araceli Lopez to church yesterday. Araceli is the newly-adopted daughter of Dan and Nickie Lopez. She is an answer to much prayer, and we are thankful that God has given Araceli a wonderful family in which to be raised.
Progress is continuing on our building fronts. We learned just last week that God has provided a commercial contractor to oversee the rennovation of our new youth house. Once this rennovation is complete, we will be able to tear now the old youth house, which will pave the way for additional parking. Praise the Lord.
We are extremely thankful that James Beeson followed the Lord in believer's baptism yesterday. James came to church two weeks ago for the first time at the invitation of Allen Allison. He was gloriously saved that Wednesday night, and by his own testimony, "Everything has been great since then." Amen! What thrill to see God add to our church through the everyday witness of our people. Praise the Lord!
We are just about a month out from our 2012 missionary conference. Missionaries to the United States, Chile, Uganda, Singapore, Japan, and France will be with us. Dr. David Snyder, president of BIMI, will be our keynote speaker. Don't miss it. Be praying now about your faith promise commitment.
Thank you for your continued prayers on behalf of our ministry. Please say a word of prayer for us today as God lays us upon your heart.
Happy New Year! (Jan 03, 2012)
I trust that you are off to a good start this new year. My brother-in-law posted on Facebook that so far 2012 is better than 2011. He is off to a good start. Our associate pastor stated in devotions this morning that it is hard to believe that we are already in the 12th year of the 21st century. Indeed, time is flying, and we must redeem it.
On Saturday evening, the last day of 2011, we met at Grace for our annual vision night. During this evening, we presented the plans for 2012. Our theme for this year is The Breath of Life, and our theme verse is Genesis 2:7. We feel that it is currently not necessary to add new programs to Grace, but rather to have God breathe life into the programs that are currently existing. There are six broad areas where we will seek this breath of revival - areas built around an acrostic on the word breath.
The first area is buildings. After a major remodeling of the auditorium last year, we are prepared to move forward with new exploits this year. We have already converted one of our classrooms into a music practice room and Bible study room. We will seek to make completions to our newly acquired youth house. Once the new youth house is complete, we will tear down the old youth house creating room for a new parking lot that will house 56 cars. We further propose to put our rental properties under outside management while we wait for our 40 acres north of town to sell. In the interim, a new building committee will be organized to have a completed family life center layout completed by the end of the year.
The second area where the breath of life is needed is in our resources. After thirty years of tracts from an outside publishing company, we will be designing our own tracts. Twelve different tracts will be designed - one for each month. These tracts will serve as an invitation for the big day of that month, as well as provide information about the church and a clear Gospel presentation.
The breath of life is also needed in our education. Pastor Horton has designed some goals that will help our school continue to grow in a struggling economy. Our fine arts programs will be revived, teacher training will be upgraded, advertisements will be refreshed, and there will be significant attempts to connect with our city through community service.
Adolescent programming will also receive reviving winds as we evaluate our Master Club, Patch Club, and Junior Church ministries. Over the first quarter of the year, each of these children's ministries will be evaluated concerning curriculum, personnel, and goal achievement. We want to deliver to our children an "A" program.
Pastor Arrowood has also put together a fantastic program to breath life into our teen department. Our teens will become good stewards through service, thankfulness, endurance, willingness, affection, reputation, dedication, and sacrifice. A new youth committee has been formulated to help with implementation, and relevant Bible studies will help us see our teens become more on fire for God. A good year of activities have been planned to help create an atmosphere condusive to this growth.
And finally, we are seeking this year to breath life into our homes. We will begin an annual tradition by having our first family life conference to focus on counter-attacking the onslaughts of Satan against the home. In addition, we will begin a monthly men's Bible study to help develop male leadership for the families of our church.
It looks to be a great year, and we covet your prayers that God will breathe life into our ministries. To help us get the year focused on this theme, I began Sunday a new series of messages on the breath of God. You can listen to the first sermon, Good Breath, by logging on to our website.
Baron Howerton, veteran missionary in Romania, helped us get focused last Wednesday night with a great message on living comission life. Pray that God will continue to use this place as a lighthouse until the Lord's return.
