Victories won

Yesterday was a day of victory. In addition to having a record crowd of 35, several of our new converts had victories won in their life! On Saturday, the men gathered for prayer at 8am and the Lord's presence moved in. We prayed for unity, revival and that God would strengthen the weak. I felt at that time an impression from God to have those who felt weak in Spirit to step forward in Sunday's service and have the men pray for them. So, when I asked them to come forward on Sunday, God did a work in them!

We did have to take the chairs off the platform and set them in the aisles. A backslider was touched to tears throughout the service and is on her way back to God. Her father came to me after service in tears and said that his family is coming back one by one. He is seeing the hand of God move in their lives. He worked all night Friday night and came to prayer on his way home Saturday morning —God honors that kind of sacrifice. He has only been to our church for 3 services. He has lived in Pflugerville for a long time and knows many, many people. He has volunteered many years at the Police Department, drives a school bus and his wife works in a school cafeteria.

We had a healing take place in the last few weeks. The 13-year-old who is my outreach buddy was having severe pain internally and other symptoms. They have been seeing a specialist to determine what is was. The preliminary tests all pointed to Crohn's disease - the scans all showed the marked inflammation. We prayed and when they went back to test again, there was none. The doctor was amazed! He said, "I saw it. It was there, but it's not there now! I don't understand it!" We know what happened! God performed a miracle. Thank you, Jesus.

Tomorrow night is the Ladies Fellowship at our house. Friday night I have been asked to preach at a Youth Rally in Victoria, Texas. Saturday, "element", our student ministry, will be having an outdoor fellowship at our community center. Lots of things happening!

I have been increasingly busy with freelance graphic design, but I need to increase the number of projects to get to the level that will provide enough supplemental income for the future. I am dependent on God and He knows our need. I am not afraid, but I want to be smart and do all that I can to make sure my family is provided for. (If you know someone who needs graphic design work done, I would be happy to quote it. It can all be proofed over the internet, printed and shipped directly to them.) I do want to be available to grow the church and it could be that it grows enough that my support can come from that. I said all of that to ask you to pray for this need.

The Great Adventure continues...

Word Cloud

I had the "SnapShirt Cloud" of words made at Snapshirts.com. It makes it automatically from words that are on your blog. Nothing earth shattering, just neat to see what words it pulls into the cloud!

Me Worship

We all know some of these folks!

Storefront Update

They are now floating the walls and will texture tomorrow afternoon!
I thought I would show you a few pictures of the progress.
The door in the upper right hand corner of the back wall opens into our storage area. We removed the stairs (they took up too much room) and will use a ladder to access it.

We were able to remove half of the old sign and will get the other half down soon!

Below is the foyer area and where we will have our Youth Sunday School Class.
It will be nice to have a reception area instead of walking directly into the Sanctuary.

The church pictured below is across the street from our new location.
Hill Country Bible Church has 50 acres of land and great financial backing,
but they do not believe that speaking in tongues or healing services
are a part of corporate worship- they lack the REAL power!

Over 30!

Our attendance today was 31 - with 11 regulars not there! We were so excited to break 30!

A former fellow Sunday School Director from Nebraska, who I met at General Conference, just moved here and will be attending our church. His mom and dad live in Pflugerville. He was full-time for the last year at the church where they just came from. They even started a new work by themselves before helping at their last location, so they are experienced. They were all in service with us today and joined us at the mother church tonight! I knew it was a possibility for them moving here, but he shocked me by showing up at our new storefront Thursday unannounced! He said, "We're here and I am ready to help." He found out where our new location is from a bulletin that I sent to his parents this week. (I have been contacting them to get them to come to church.) Needless to say, I was very glad to see him.

Another couple joined us for the second time. They are really sweet. I visited the ladies mother in the hospital earlier in the week and found out that she knew my grandfather when he would visit Bro. Hosch's church in Dallas - many years ago!

Thanks to Dad and Mom for spending the week with us working on the new place. They really were a blessing.

I received a call earlier in the week from someone who has visited our church several times on Wednesdays. He had a friend who had some questions and he wanted me to come by his house and help this friend out. So, I joined them and spent about two hours explaining how you can know you are saved. He has never been able to really read the Bible because of dyslexia, so I told him about the audio Bible that is available online. He got excited that he wouldn't have to read and get confused. He wanted some Scriptures that he could look up and listen to. So I left him with an "Into His Marvelous Light" study guide. I also offered to teach him a Bible Study and he was very interested. God has been definitely dealing with him. Another open door....

Growing. Thank you Jesus!

The Work has Begun!!

Last night we had our first worknight. We are excited to get the new church ready and get moved in. One of the main advantages to the new place is the ability to have Sunday School classes - can't wait to get that rolling.

The main thing that happened last night was buffing the floor. There were several places that were quite marked up, but they cleaned up pretty good. It looks a whole lot better!! Gene and Dad have spent the past three days getting supplies, building some walls, putting up sheetrock, etc.

We are looking forward to what God has in store for this new location. The ceilings are tall so it actually feels like a church and not just a little room somewhere. No one will have to feel like they're going to hit their head on the ceiling if they decide to leap for joy!

I've included some pictures. Enjoy!!

Happy Anniversary, My Dear!

Karla and I had a wonderful anniversary weekend! I took her to the Gaither Homecoming on Friday night here in Austin and yesterday we enjoyed being together with the young people from our church. Today, our actual anniversary, our church presented us with a card and gift certificate to Pappadeaux! They are so sweet. Sis. McClain presented it after her husband got through with the Sunday School lesson. We received several cards from members of the Bernard's church and all kinds of people came by and told us Happy Anniversary at church tonight! It was neat. Karla had her first choir practice this afternoon with over 50 members. In the past few months there has only been 20 or so singing in the choir! They were all so excited. Tonight, after service, we enjoyed the company of Rodney and Stacey Shaw, Jarrid and Kendra Younkin and all the kids! We laughed a lot! What a great anniversary weekend! We didn't get to take a trip alone like we have so often in the past - but this weekend was full of the things both of us love so much. Singing, church people, food and choir! It doesn't get much better than that!

18 years of wonderful times! Karla has truly brought joy into my life and I thank God for her. We are best friends. There is no one I would rather spend time with. So at the close of this great day— Happy Anniversary, my dear. I love you.

Proud Parents

Cameron received his current high school transcript this week and found out that he is ranked 8th out of 396 students in his class! I'm afraid I was too shocked when he told me because we have always told our boys that they should do their best, but not to stress out over being perfect. If we knew they could be doing better, we would push them - but otherwise, we would just let them enjoy life! Church is our life. Our family is our life. We tend to take most of the days that they are allowed to miss for family time. I know that the educators don't like this, but I think it is because their funding is tied to attendance! We are very proud parents. This really is an answer to our prayers when moving here. We asked God to help them adjust and continue to do well— and He did. Cameron just got home today from doing community service at the Austin Food Bank with two church friends. He has two more Saturday's to complete his assignment for Pre-AP English.


I have to also mention that Chad is doing very well - all A's in Middle School. We went to an "awards assembly" last week where he was one of the kids given an award for having straight A's on his report card. Also, he invited a friend, Omar, to service with a church card a few days ago. He came home yesterday excited because the boy told him that when he gave it to his mom, she said that they would come this Sunday! We will be looking for them. He has made numerous friends and doesn't mind talking about church.

It is OK to brag a little about our kids along the way, isn't it? I hope you don't mind.

New location now official…

Today we signed the contract and paid the deposit to move into a new storefront. I have included this map so you can tell where I am talking about. The "OLD" location is where we are now. The "NEW" location is the new storefront and the rectangle labelled "Land" is where the piece of land is located that is in contract right now.

Our new location is 1650 square feet which is more than double our 800 square feet location now. We will be able to have a Children's Sunday School class, a Youth class and an Adult class all going on at the same time. One of the features that our church members are most excited about is that the bathroom will no longer be behind the pulpit area! In our current location, you have to march yourself right past the pulpit to take a bathroom break!! It has cut down on people taking these breaks during church.

We will have to do some sheetrock, texturing, paint and air conditioning. It will probably take us a few weeks to get it ready. The A/C that we install here will be transferred to our new building, so we are not losing that investment. We were able to get February and March rent free to do the remodel. The ceiling in the Sanctuary area is 23' at the peak, so the A/C and all will be exposed and the whole ceiling painted black. We should start cleaning it out next week. The church is SO excited!! It is wheelchair accessible and SOOOO much newer than where we are now. We will have parking right in front of our unit and also at the back entrance. We will also have over 500 square feet of storage upstairs. So, really, it is over 2000 square feet.

We want to add a projector unit and Bro. Todd Shahan has offered to find us a computer to use. "Thanks, Todd!" We will also have to purchase new chairs since we only have about 30 besides our pews. I don't think we will use the two pews that we have. If you know of someone who has some nice chairs available at a low cost, let us know at gholleyjr@aol.com! We really need 75 or so.

I will post pictures as we go along. I will get the keys tomorrow or Monday. Right now, you have to look at the place through the eyes of faith! I told my wife before I took her in to show her around, "You have to trust me! We can make this place look nice." She caught a glimpse of it! After living with her Dad through building numerous churches and remodels; as well as us building several homes, she is now able to see past the ugliness to the final project. Sometimes she just says, "I'll have to trust you on that one!"

Beer and the Bible

I ran across this article today and thought it quite interesting. In trying to attract the non-churched to be exposed to the Gospel, some have stepped beyond what is considered moderate even in our world's standards. I could not believe the lengths that this church has gone to attract new people to their doors. They have gone to handing out beer…

Every month dozens show up at the brewpub to drink beer and talk about issues ranging from racism in St. Louis to modern art controversies to the debate about embryonic stem cell research. First-timers are invited to check out the church on Sunday, and Journey leaders say many have. Theology at the Bottleworks is just one of The Journey's ministries, but it has helped the church grow from 30 members in late 2002 to 1,300 today. ----more

The real Gospel still works for those who are really ready to make a change in their life. If we are just trying to attract a crowd, then I suppose handing out beer would be as good a game plan as any!? But we were not called to attract a crowd. We were called to bring people to a place called Calvary where they can find liberation from the addicting substances of this world. If we are feeding them more of what has them bound, we are sending the wrong message. God is still in the business of deliverance through repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. I am thankful for the TRUE message that doesn't have to be peddled through secular means, it comes on the wings of love.