First Assembly fun...

Well hello everybody :) We are home again. I hope everyone had great worship services yesterday and that God moved in people' lives in your churches. Our trip to North Carolina went by very quickly. We ended up taking the whole family since it was just the next state over. Both our kids got sick, and slept alot over the weekend, but they hung in there. I like to have my kids with me to watch me minister whenever possible, so that I can be an example to them. As a kid it was very hard for me to get in front of crowds of people and do anything that had to do with having a lead role. I want them to see that it's not something to be afraid of, and that if old Dad can do it, they can too.

So in North Carolina, I was scheduled to sing a feature in the Sunday morning service at First Assembly of God in the city of Andrews, NC. When I got there, Mike Barres, the Senior Pastor, graciously allowed me to sit in for the whole worship set, including their communion songs, and ending songs. First Assembly has a nice website at http://www.firstagandrews.org/ . Check it out! We had a great time playing songs like My Savior Lives, Blessed Be Your Name, How Great is Our God, and Healing Rain, and even an oldie -Oh Lord You're Beautiful. The whole service had a very real Jesus focus, and by the time we got to my feature song, I knew that God was really moving in some people's hearts. I ended up playing and singing "Love Song" from Third day, which is a song written from Jesus' perspective which fit right in. It was well received by the crowd, and I could tell that some of the people were really touched by the song. One guy in particular, stood up right after I sang the first verse, and just had his head and hands lifted to the Lord the whole time in worship to the Lord, as he stood there. I love that sorta stuff! The whole reason we even bother to minister, is to just allow God to use us to point people to Jesus, and to exalt His Holy name as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So I love it when people just close their eyes and shut themselves off from any visible distractions that I may bring.

Pastor Mike preached a great message on the Holy Spirit which I thought was right on, and at the end of the service he gave an alter call as he played guitar and led the team in the Healing Rain song and other songs again. We kept singing and playing as a whole bunch of people came up to the alter and were on their faces. I wanted my wife Sarah to take a picture, but she was so caught up in worship, that it was the last thing on her mind. I knew when I saw her with her hands raised and tears streaming down her face that I could forget about pictures :) They are probably used to this sort of visible movement of God in their services at First Assembly, but it really touched our hearts, and we were just glad to be a part of it.

We ended up hanging out with Pastor Mike and his wife Betty ( see picture) over Chinese food at lunch after church, and also with my sister and her husband, and their friends Sam and Shannon and their kids. It was a good time of fellowship with new friends and family. It looks like we will be scheduling a full Worship Night service at First Assembly, where I bring the band, and we just have a great night filled with praise and worship. I'll keep you up to date on that. It should be a total blast.

Pastor Mike and Betty are fun people to be around, and they are just very real (much like my own Pastors here Greg and Liz Oraham.) And also similar to our church -First Assembly in Andrews, NC has acquired land to build their new building on. I drove out to see it, because I believe that God is about to do something big with the ministry there. Can't wait to go back and worship with them again soon. Anybody wanna go with us next time? :)

Prep time...

For some reason, this has been on my mind, so I'll post it...

Have you ever been in a situation for a long time, and just felt so bored and over it that you just wish God would move you on? You know...you are stuck in a job, or stuck in a ministry...or just plain stuck in life, and you just wanna see some change? Man I have been there in the past, so I can totally relate to any of you who may feel that way now.

One thing that is good to keep in mind when you are in a situation like that, is that there may still be something you can learn, and something valuable you can gain from being in that place. Look at your situation without being jaded and see. I know for me personally, those times when I just wanted out were times when God still provided opportunities for me to be effective...and that has been at work in secular jobs, and in ministry. For me personally, it seems like the only times when God really has moved me on from those situations is when I have just given it over to Him, and basically said "O.K. Lord, if this is where You want me, then this is where I'm gonna stay, and I will just choose to rely on You for contentment in this situation." Then when my heart was truly given over to Him in that situation guess what? He moved me on by opening other doors.

That happened to me when I was traveling with Dave Roever years ago. We were on the road so much doing crusades, conventions, school assemblies, and camps, that it just wore me out after a while. It was so awesome seeing 200 people get saved in the meetings some nights, but I just got so tired of living on a bus and all that traveling. I loved everybody in the ministry like family. Heck, I lived with them on the bus, at home, and ministered with them too, but I just new that so much traveling wasn't for me long term. God still kept me there for a while after I started feeling that way, cuz he just wasn't done with me there yet. Then when I gave it over to him, he released me to move on.

I've been in that sorta situation several times over the years with the same ending. Take a look at the situation you are in, and see if God still wants to use you in it for a while longer despite how you may feel about getting out of it. Being given over to Him is the best place to be anyway. For me...that is something I have to work on everyday and sometimes multiple times a day. Some days are better than others :)

On the ministry front. We are still going to North Carolina this weekend and hope to make some more new friends and ministry connections as we did in Florida this past week. I'll update with info on the church and meetings on Monday.

I appreciate your prayers as we get out there more and continue to develop the ministry of Heart of a Worshipper International. So many people need our help that it can be quite overwhelming at times. We are being contacted more now than ever.

Please don't forget to pray for us and support us in any way you can. TTYL

Finally back...

Hey Guys,

Well I'm finally back home. That 8 hour trip to central Florida is just long enough to be a bit too long if ya know what I mean. I got in yesterday afternoon and didn't get to post on the blog, because I was busy hanging with my family.

The trip to The Gathering Place church in Orlando (http://www.tgpworship.com/) was great. My friend Dennis graciously let me stay at his house for a few days, and introduced me to so many people at the church, that it was hard to keep up. Dennis...you know a lot of people man! I was able to meet and talk with Pastor Shaddy Soliman about Heart of a Worshipper, and he gave me some new ideas to pursue, and has some great church and ministry connections that he is going to put us in touch with. He ministers often with churches overseas in Egypt, and also told me that he is a good friend of Ron Kenoly and will let him know about our ministry. Hopefully we will be able to help some of those ministries in Egypt. That is an area where we haven't really had any big connections. Well...that is until now! The worship and atmosphere were wonderful that Sunday and Sunday night.

Another meeting I had over breakfast, was with Nick who is one of the worship leaders at TGP church. Man were those pancakes huge! This restaurant gave me pancakes that actually were as large as a dinner plate. They tasted great! I only ate about half, because we ended up talking so much. I really felt like Nick and I clicked right away, because we like to do the same types of music, and he has a real heart for intimacy in worship. That's a subject that I talked a lot about when teaching in Kenya, Africa and that is near and dear to my heart. We talked about how there just isn't time for it in the structure of most church services, and about how Nick had been doing special services just for intimate worship, and how God was blessing that. Nick has also had some back issues , and is also a Broker/Realtor, so of course we had those things in common too. At some point I can see us doing some ministry together. Maybe a worship conference or intimate worship times. We'll see!

I love to network with other worship leaders, and to hear their hearts. It was great to meet someone else who just longs to worship the Lord in quiet intimacy, and to lead others in doing the same. We made some good connections on this trip, and I believe that God will turn those connections into friends over time.

I spent the last few days of my trip hanging out with my parents where they live in a place called The Villages, Florida http://www.thevillages.com which was good. To me, that place is like one giant go-cart track. They have golf cart trails everywhere, and you can literally drive for 20 miles in your golf cart on roads and trails to Wal-Mart, Publix, restaurants, and just about any place you would want to go. even Circuit City. The Villages is a huge retirement golf community and like it's own self sufficient city. The golf cart trails even go under major roadways through tunnels. Amazing. They also have over 20 golf courses! Can you believe that? The place is huge!

Well that's about it for today. I will try and update with info on our trip this weekend tomorrow. It should be a fun one to North Carolina!

Returning Home...

Hello everybody,

I am returning home soon, and I will give some more details on this trip on Tuesday. I have made some great connections here and also met with a few people who I think we will be ministering with in the future.

I miss my family now. It usually takes me about 5 days to start missing them, so after more than a week I am ready to get back home for a few days. We have to leave on another trip this weekend though, so not much time before it will be time to hit the road again. I'll expound on that Tuesday also.

God gave me some time to just soak in some wonderful worship on this trip, and I am so appreciative of that. Props to the TGP Church Worship Team. You guys are gifted! I worship at home by myself quite often with no restraint, but it has been wonderful just to worship with a big group of saints crying out to God and feel the same sort of freedom. During those worship services, the Holy Spirit moved again in my heart, and re-iterated clearly His desire for me to pursue the ministry of Heart of a Worshipper International more passionately this year. As I am reviewing the tapes in preparation for our promotional DVD, it has just become an even stronger desire that we help equip as many people as we can to reach their world in the name of Jesus Christ. God will just have to keep opening doors and helping us to raise the funds and donated gear to keep growing. We don't just want to help a few here and there...we want to help as many as possible!

Well, I'll give some more updates as I get home for a few days and the week progresses. Hey if any of my friends at Foothills Community Church in Seneca, South Carolina are reading this Blog - I miss worshipping with you guys! It's already been a month. Can't wait to get back up there at some point soon.

Talk to you all later...