A Praise Bigger Than HUGE!

We have had some wonderful corporate worship services since we began meeting in June, but this past Sunday was extremely special. A few weeks ago a woman in our church asked if she could speak to the church and share her story of how Jesus recently healed her. This was perfect because the sermon I was preaching in our sermon series “Let Me Tell You About Jesusâ€? was about “Jesus: The Healer.” I asked her if she would share her story of healing during that night. She agreed.

That Sunday night she was obviously nervous, but she spoke a pure and emotional message of the Father’s love that moved everyone in attendance. Our friend had been addicted to prescription drugs following several surgeries. This summer she had begun to commit prescription fraud in order to feed her addiction. Not only was she involved in this, but her marriage was struggling, and she was feeling miserable. She felt like she had no hope.

On a Monday in July she was arrested because of this fraud. She sat in jail until her husband could come up with enough money to get her out on bond. Of course, this did not help the marriage relationship or her attitude. The hole was just getting deeper and deeper.

And then a knock on the door changed everything. That week we had our youth mission team in from Oklahoma. Their primary ministry was knocking on doors in our area and handing out “Announcement Bags.” This was to help our church get a foot into the community. We had four groups of teens and youth leaders blanketing the area with prayer and these bags. On their last day, I moved one of the groups from the area they had been going, to another area in our target community. Guess whose door they came to!

Our friend tells the story that her husband answered the door and the teens told him they were from a local church and would like to give him one of these bags. They also asked how they could be praying for the family. The husband couldn’t believe this. His family had fallen away from church and were now at rock bottom. He ran to his wife and simply said, “God has knocked on our door.” The couple invited the mission team in and began to pour their souls out to them. And this began a relationship between this family and Whispering Pines Community Church.

Our friend is now recovering from her addiction. She is receiving help with this and some other issues. Her marriage is getting stronger and they are very, very involved with our church. Her husband attends our Men’s Hot Spot on Wednesdays and their 14 year old son runs our multi-media. We are going to begin meeting in a local home early next year before we publicly launch and this son told his parents that we are supposed to use their home.

This is church. This is why we are here.

If you have been praying for us, sending cards/e-mails of encouragement, and/or giving financially, you had a significant hand in this testimony.

Thank you all!!

Life is good,
Billy