New Believer # 3

I just met this young man, just a few weeks ago. He goes to school here at Valley Forge and when i found out he was a new believer i said, im interviewing you! Since he is a very nice young man, one of the few left here at valley forge, he said yes i could interview him. So this is a story of a young man who was saved by grace through faith!

I first asked him how he became a christian. He said that he used to play some basketball at a church every monday night and the youth pastor at the church always preached to him the whole time. He said at first he didn't want to hear it, and i mean who would want to be preached at while playing basketball, but after a while of going he realized there was something missing from his life and so he began to ask questions about God! I get so excited when i hear people's testimony's their like unique gifts that each of us get from God and we get to share them with others and while doing that we touch people's lives.

So then i asked him what helped him step over the line and finally make a commitment to God. He said that he just knew that he had to take that step and trust that God was going to do what was best for him! Oh when i hear things like this, such faith, i cry. I cried after i was done reading his testimony and im crying just writing this. Oh how Great is our God!!!

Next i asked him what was the best part of being a christian and what has been the hardest part. He said the best part has not having to be stressed about things anymore because he know that everything is in God's hands! Then the hardest part was trying to live the christian life and be different in a highschool last year of over 2 thousand kids and there only being a few christians. I can't imagine how hard that would be, 2 thousand and that was just in his sr. class. I had 100 kids in my graduating class and there was like 20 of us who were christians that i had to lean on. I can hardly imagine how much of a challenge it was to stay strong, especially being a new believer!

I asked next what was helping him grow the most in his faith. He said his christian friends he's made here, they are constantly encouraging him to keep reading the Bible and he said he and his friend have started a little Bible study where they meet once a week.

Lastly i asked for advice and he said this "Just don't push it upon people all at once, at first no one wants to hear it but just give it time and eventually they'll come around." This was so good to hear since my last unchurched friend this is exactly what im trying to do with her, not push it on her all at once, but just give it some time and pray that someday she'll want to hear more!

Praise God for testimonies like this!

Mike Hammer

Well, well well...hmmm. I enjoyed Mike being so open with us last night. It takes alot out of someone to stand in front of a group of people and talk about the deep dark issues and i respect him for that.

Now, let me say this i am not a guarded person, i am very open to God working in my life, even if i don't want him to. last night i didn't particularly want to go into deep thinking mode, but i figured maybe God wants me to look at some things. In the end i just felt horrible. I have an amazing family, parents who while i was growing up were there, loving me and playing with me, taking us on vacations. I was born into a family with no expectations put on my life. My parents just have always wanted what God wants for me and they leave that up to me to decide. So taking me back into my childhood last night i could only smile at all the good memories i have. i tried really hard to think of maybe some bad things that are effecting me today, and i couldnt because there arn't any. And i am not saying this because im covering things up, no i just honestly didn't have a horrible childhood, i had no pressure to be the perfect christian girl from my parents, yes we were made to go to church, but i loved it! I mean i think Pastor Mike had good intentions in doing this session with us, and i am sure some people really needed it in class last night.

In fact i think some people in that class last night need hardcore counseling because of past family issues. I on the other hand am blessed, and i can't for the life of my try to pull things out of my childhood thats bad, because there isn't any.

Now i am not saying that Pastor's Mike's Bridge weekend wouldn't work for me. No i think it would be an amazing tool, something good for anyone to go through. We all i have wounds, mine just arnt from childhood. I would thank Pastor Mike though for using this tool and bringing it to our attention so that we might be able to tell others about it.

Unchurched #3

This last person i interviewed was my girlfriend from highschool. We had tried to keep in touch after graduation and we did for a while, but about a year or so ago, i lost contact with her and we didn't see each other while we were home on our breaks. Not long after starting this semester with this class i felt a big urge to connect with her again and rekindle our friendship. I had no way of getting in contact with her though. She somehow found me one day thought and imed me out of the blue to ask how i was doing. I was thrilled and over joyed. So i have been working on this friendship for pretty much the whole semester now. when i went home over break i got to go out with her one day and talk, and we had a lot of fun. it felt soo good to not be around a christian, is that a bad thing? well it did, not matter if it is good or not. So here are the questions i got to ask her and her answers.

what do you think the greatest need is in your area? She replied, "I think the greatest need in this area is more opportunity for kids to attend events and keep them off the streets. there needs to be places where they can go and hang out. a place that lets them try and relate to one another." After saying this, thoughts of youth group went through my mind, but i held back.

I asked her if she attended church regularly and she said no, only on special holidays like easter and christmas.

I asked her what were somethings that impacted her or interested her the most. She said abortion, drugs and recession were the three things that had her greatest interest. since she is a psychology major i can understand why these things have a big impact on her.

then i asked her why she thought most people don't attend church. Here's her answer, "I feel most people do not attend church because they can not find a religion that they truly believe in. that they may agree with some of the churches ideas but not all. they are looking for something they can relate to, or can believe in. also because we are ignorant to other religions that are out there.

if you were to look for a church to go to, what would you want it to be like? She said that she would look for a church that didn't judge people, to really not judge us for who we are or our lives outside of church. A place where anyone can go and feel like they belong.

The last question i asked was, what advice would you give a pastor who really wants to try to help people. She said,, " i think they should try and talk to a person and show that they are not there to judge only to help and be a friend."

my friend doesn't live the good christian life. I don't expect her to because she not a christian. She does things i haven't dreamed of doing, but yet i still sit and listen to her, i let her know that im not going to lecture her everytime she tells me she got drunk or drank. she knows where i stand, and me not swaying and not giving in, is my testimony to her. I hope and pray and some day, maybe months, maybe years from now she'll see something in me she really wants and maybe just maybe she'll decided to live for Jesus then!

David Kennard

David was our first guest we've had so far, that came up to me and talked to me before we started class. He was asking questions like, what year are you and what's your major. I really liked his outgoingness, i think i just made that word up, i think that shows alot about what kind of pastor he is.

David is the church's small groups pastor. He didnt graduate from an AG college, not even a christian college, he graduated from Missouri State Universtiy. After he graduated from Missouri he went to global for his credentials and AGTS for his seminary.

David has been at riverside for over ten years and he shared with us some series that the church had done recently, and i loved this one: Things i wish Jesus never said : follow me,lose your life, gauge out your eye, and love your enemy. I thought that was a great series for a church to have, gets people thinking.

David is passionate about small groups, but when he started to talk about his own small group you could tell where the fire came from. He said " we take the journey together so that kind of thing doesn't happen, don't do you thing in ministry alone." This just showed greatly his own need for small groups and in that showing that they do work. I just read a book for one of my classes here, and the author was totally against small groups and his only excuse was because churches weren't getting 100% of the church's involvement in them. This author frustrated me to no end, because there are people out there like Pastor David, who are working their small groups ministry, and it is helping people and helping them to grow!

I have to say all in all, i really enjoyed David and his small group friends that he brought with them. They all seemed to bring alot of wisdom to our classroom and that is something i like to drink in as much as i can!

New Believer # 2

There was a young girl i met about 6 or so months ago that started coming to our youth group back home. I just loved her, she was happy, hyper and loving! Although im not home enough to really build a good solid relationship with her, i still got to know her more and more through the months. This past break though i had found that this girl, Alexis grew up hardcore catholic. Then one day her friend emily invited her to our church and Alexis was like this is totally different from what i've been raised in, but she loved it. So she started coming all the time, but she did it just to learn more about our church and the AG. Then at some point she realized that she wasn't really living a "christian lifestyle" and so she decided to commit herself to God in a new and real way, to have a relationship with Him. So when i found all this out i was dying to interview her.

Alexis said that even though she's grown up in church her whole life she did not know Him, like she does now. She said she didn't really like the routines of the catholic church, but went because she was forced to until her parents got divorced then she stopped going, and only went once in a while. She said when she starting coming to our church something just "clicked" and made sense to her and she really liked what we were doing in our services, because they were so different from what she had always known.

Then i asked her what helped her the most to cross over that line and make a commitment to Christ. Alexis in such a joyfully and excited way said, "Once i saw and realized the difference God made when i made him appart of my life," was what helped her the most. When God wasn't just some far away "thing" we did every sunday, when she realized He could live in us and be apart of our lives daily. I just loved her answer to this question, i actually cried, as in a tears streaming down my face when i interviewed her. It was soo amazingly beautiful to see a young girl who was passionately searching for more of God and loving every minute of it!

I asked her what has been the beset part about coming to know Christ. This has to be said in her own words, "The way i feel! I am naturally a crazy hyper person, but i just feel a constant happiness and i have optimism, i mean i still have bad days, but who doesn't? This joy helps me to reflect that happiness to other!" That's where it's at right there. That this joy that God has filled her with is being used to help others! Yes! Amen! That's exactly what i hope all new believers and "old" believers should fill. Sometimes even after reading this, i thought well i should be way more happy to share joy with others now that i've been on this journey so long, but we usually only see such excitement in new believers..why is that? Do we lose something along the way? I am not quite sure.

Next i asked her what was one of the most challenging things she has had to face since becoming a Christian. Since her parents are divorced, her mom doesn't go to church all that often, but her dad is still a hardcore catholic. She said that her dad always sayd "born a catholic, always a catholic." to her and things of that nature. They think that anything outside of being catholic is a cult and they don't like it. So she's struggling with trying to share with them what God has really done in her life. Alexia said that she would continue to follow Christ regardless of what anybody might say.

I also asked Alexis what are the things that help her to grow. She said that the things God shows her everyday, the way that He helps her. she said "Everything about Him is great and I'm just so amazed by him everyday!" Not only can you hear her love for God, but when you see it in her face, it just makes me so happy!

The last question i asked her was for advice she would give to me or others on try to help them grow in their faith. At first she only said one word, ENCOURAGEMENT! She said she was blessed to come to such a good church family that loved and accepted her. She also said though to have a more open mind and eyes.

This whole interview was just like a breath of fresh air to my lungs. I think i feel like this because this is how we were made, to see people grow in Christ, to help people draw nearer to their savior, it's supposed to be a beautiful and touching thing, but now it's just a raise of a hand and who knows if any thing follows after that, i want to see kids not just make commitments, but to see growth in them, but i guess that's what everyone wants to try to do, we just haven't figured the perfect formula for that yet, and will we ever?

courtney brancroft

When i first saw courtney, i thought she was a student here to visit for the night. I also when she got up in front of us thought she looked like a girl who graduated from here that i liked so i automatically liked her! I was shocked by the fact that she is now a full time pastor as a woman but graduated with a secular college with a degree in communications and history ... i think! Somewhere along the way God had tugged on her heart to continue in this chi alpha ministry she was doing which lead her to DC. She called it "where the party's at" because of all the chi alpha people who were working in that area with. It seemed like a comfort zone for her, but very much needed at first so learn under people who had been doing chi alpha longer. I admire her for taking this step in the first place. I know it would probably be so hard to move away from home, espically your home state and go to DC a crazy busy place. even though she knew she would have others supporting her there it still took courage.

then i dont remember the details of how, but God called her to PA! She at first wanted to start a chi alpha at Villanova University. She had to start raising support just like a missionary that would go over seas, except she was a missionary to a college. Well since Villanova is such a prestigious college she had a hard time raising support from churches. I think it's soo horrible that churches wouldn't give her support, i mean i know that you can't support every missionary alive, but for those that told her that she wasn't going into the deepest darkest side of Philly that this must not be from God! well that just makes me very angry. Well after a while she got enough of her support, but ended up at Temple for some reasons that i dont remember because i forgot to write them down, but i think it had something to do with the fact that the college didnt want her on the campus.

So courtney started this amazing journey of faith, believe God was calling her to Temple to minister to these college students. I can only imagine how she felt, excited and probably at the same time scared to death. And her parents, i know when i get out of college and i take my first job that calls me states away from home, to a place i've never been, where i dont know anyone, my parents would have such a hard time letting me go. Ha, they have a hard time letting me go as it is just to college...haha. courtney is now ministering, discipling and buiding relationships with 8 college students so far, 4 who are saved and 4 who are unsaved. I think that God will continue to bless her and this ministry because she has a heart for this, and not many people seem to, at least in this area. She is hopefully not letting the number game get her down, i've learned so much in this class so far and one of the most important things i think im learning is that relationship take time to build. So real deep strong relationships that she's trying to build to bring these people to Christ it'll happen through time, i believe God in that He will do so. Thank God for women like courtney who will stick out the rough times and not give in, but stand firm in God, in His strength!

Unchurched Friend #2

This person i interviewed is actually my brother. So i have to say i know him very well. My brother grew up in church just like i did, always there for everything. He is 2 years older than me though, so we never had the same youth pastors as i did. In fact Rnady didn't like his youth pastor which is one of the reasons he stopped going to church after he graduated highschool. So while i was home over spring break i decided to interview him.

First i asked him what do you think the greatest need in our area is, and i think i should have explained it to him better, although i know he knew what i meant, but his first answer was to fill the pot holes! ha! Then he got alittle more serious and said that we needed lower gas prices and more job opportunities in our area.

I asked him if he was actively attending church even though i already knew the answer to that one, no. He doesn't even go on holidays. I asked him why he wouldn't go and he said because he didn't have the time and didn't want to be judged. Then i asked him what if there were church services not held on sunday mornings because he always works weekends. I said what about a friday night or a saturday night service. He said he still wouldn't go because those are either relax at home nights or go out and party nights. Then i asked him well what about a wednesday night and he still said no. so i told him that the issue wasn't that he didn't have time, but that he just didn't wnat to go and his excuse to everyone was time.

then i asked him what were a few topics that interested him. He said sports, i assumed he would have said that, but churches can use sports as an outreach in some way. He said that politics were very important to him. One topic that greatly impacted him he said though was the inhumanity people show towards each other. He hates it that people treat other humans like dirt or animals.

I asked him why he thought most people didn't attend church and this is where he game me alot of answers. He said that in some way or form that they've been pushed away from the church. He said that it's not that most people haven't gone to church, but they don't go on a regular basis because they feel like churches are just bi cliques trying to push out the people who really need church. He said it's not that people don't want to know God, they do, but it's that people don't want to be judged and not loved or not feel welcomed in a church.

Next i asked him what he would look for in a church if he did want to go. At first he gave me a sarcastic remark of it needs to look like a football stadium. Then he got serious and said that he would go to a church that wasn't hypocritical, that had a sincere concern for other people.

The last question i asked him was what advice would he give to pastors to be helpful to people. He said don't come across as a distant person, be more than the guy that stand in front of a crowd of people and talks, be interactive.

Then after all this i just asked him what else he wanted to say on the subject and he said this. "The people in the church are exactly what i don't want to be, they say one thing and live another."

So all in all it went really well. We actually talked for quite a while about alot of things. I just feel so sad, like we "the church" have failed people like my bother in some way or another, like we have not been doing our part as a church to make more people feel loved and welcome.

David Crosby Jr.

David Crosby Jr. is to say the least an amazing man of God. I mean i could sit here and critique some of the things he says or does, but im not going to. David has a legacy in the PennDel district and it's under his father that he worked under for a couple of years as a youth pastor. He did not even have a degree for ministry, soon after doing ministry with his father David went to semiary. Then he did some overseas work, David called it "humanitarian missions work". this is what he did for a think he said two years, but then David said " sometimes you gotta be out of something to realize what you should be into." I can't tell you how really true that is. What David was talking about here, was that he was doing missions work, but finally was able to see that he was called back to the church, and specifically church planting.

This is the part of David's story that touched me the most. He and his wife felt called to plant a church in Hershey PA. Everything seemed to be going along great. They had the blessing, but there was just something there that was holding them back. One day and im not really sure of what went exactly on here, but they ended up meeting up with some men in the district in Jersey somewhere and him and his wife ended up spending the weekend there, just praying and seeking god's direction. Then they went back to hershey to drive around somemore and ended back at his parents house. His grandfather told him to go back up to the pocono and plant a church where dave and his wife were from. where david grew up and worked under his dad in minsitry in that area. His wife, though didn't want to go back to the pocono and she was so upset. she was like 8 months pregnant and she was so emotional and ran out the room crying. after a while of crying she stopped and said "i wont get in the way of what God wants to do, but if he wants to do this I won't stop him. That is where David had tears in his eyes telling us, make sure you marry the right person, because if not, some wives might not have taken out that step in faith. they would have missed all the lives that have been saved since they moved to the pocono, they would have missed all the relationships they build, all the minsitry oppertunities to change people's lives. they would have missed this all if she would have said no!

"you have to operate under the authorities that God has placed in your life." David said this because he knew he wouldn't go back to the pocono's without the concent of the district and the pastors of the churches in that area. When he got all okays from them, he knew it was God's way of telling him to go there.

the very first service they had 52 people showed up! That's amazing! Their desire was for the generation of the young twenties and those who might not have grown up in church. This is where David really just impacted me. He pulled mentors into his life, he read books upon books, he found out what the biggest needs in the area were and tried to reach out in practical ways. He has all these little outreaches going on doing amazing things for God, giving God glory. And i am just amazed how he describes what they set up every sunday morning in a highschool! It makes me want to go to his church! He is a hardcore believer in discipleship and i have to totally agree. I loved how he explained to the class how he plans to grow as a leader,pastor, father, husband,friend and everything in between. He's organized, that's really it, i love organization, but sometimes i feel im so unorganized. All in all i think after all the guys we've had come and talk already and i've gotten something from them all, but this guy, so far, has impacted me the most. He has wisdom and he is a great leader, yet he is humble and human, his heart is for the lost and he'll go to any extent to reach them!

New Believer #1

The girl that i interviewed for this one, i have only known a little while. So i don't have a whole big history on her. She did though tell me that she was big into partying and drinking. To what extent i am not sure of. I asked her about her journey to faith, how she got to where she is now. She's one that is against the statistics, she got saved after the age of 22, and usually most people get saved under the age of 18. So what she said was she had a very long journey to Christ. She said she lived on the "wild side" and it wasn't until someone came into her life and showed her God's love and compassion in a way that she had never experienced it before! She said she began to realize the life she was living was wrong and harmful to herself and others. I asked her if it wasn't for this friend that had shown God's love to her, if she would still have made the same choices somewhere along down the line. She said that she knew that God loved her enough to have brought someone or something into her life to show her He loved and cared for her. Isn't that amazing! I didn't know how much i would enjoy hearing this young woman's testimony, but it really is precious to see how God does care about every person out there! Praise God!

I asked her what helped her the most to step over the line and walk the christian faith. She said plain and simple that the person that God sent into her life was the greatest example of Christ that she had ever met! That's amazing, i wonder if this girl that brought her to christ knew what she was doing, that she was making such an impact on this other person's life. It makes me wonder if i've ever had an impact on someone's life like that, and if not, i better getting going, because this is just an awesome way to bring Glory to God!

After she became a christian i asked her what some of her biggest struggles were. I honestly expected her to say that she wasn't very well accepted into the church or that no one took the time to disciple her. She said though that her biggest struggle was the differences in denominations and it still is a struggle for her! Isn't that sad that sometimes we put up more of a fight over what we believe, then fighting the devil over lost souls!

The last thing i asked her was to give some advice that i could use to help others like her grow in her faith. Again a simple request that we would love unconditionally and to be genuine. Now i know there's more behind it then that, but it's got to be a huge part, so i wonder if we as christians would try just to love more and stop judging and fighting over silly things in the church that we could really be affecting lives for Jesus!

Dan Miller

My first thoughts about Dan when he first started speaking was, "He's crazy" and not much longer after i said that to myself did he say "I'm just crazy". So i knew i wasn't far off with judging him in that way. I wrote down alot of things that i liked what he said about the church. I can't believe that they have a 3 1/2 hour services at times. If we back home, don't get out of church at exactly noon people might have hissy fits. I am one of those too, especially when im at home, because that's just how it is. Not that it should be that way, it needs to change, but as of now, it's still that way. But when you're in the presence of the King of Kings and you are experiencing God in a new way or maybe not even in a new way, but just experiencing more of God. No one wants to leave, because his presence is addicting, contagious, because that is where our hearts truly are. That's where we were made for, being in God's presence. If people don't like being in the presence of God, then i don't know why they're christians, because i would think that, thats what heaven will be like.

Dan said don't think about the church, but think about expanding the kingdom by changing your community. Why is it now that i can really pick up on the things our church needs to do back home. We don't care about the people outside of the church. And when i say we, i include myself. When i go home, i do not think about the new people that might be coming in, but about all the people i have to see and talk to because im only home one week and i need to say hi to these people. Man, i kind of wish i could punch myself at those moments.

So enough about my church, because no church is perfect...right? Dan's church at the mountain started with just 15 or so people. Now if i heard right, they have over 1,500 members. Now that is amazing, well i know they're bigger churches out there, but for PA i think that's a really big church. I can so relate to Dan in the way that he's a dreamer, i am too. In fact i am a little too much at times. I love that he has this new idea for their sanctuary as a dinner theater, a cafe, a school and day care. Yes! Those are the things i used to say, "a church is sacred and that is not a place for these things to come" well my mind has changed. That attitude hasn't reached many, but this one of reaching out will. The church still is sacred, but it can be used for laughter and joy too. I love that Dan calls his church "a city on a hill" that is such a good name for them, because to me that's what it almost sounds like. And oh this center they have for working out, soccer, and many upon many other activities that are all biblically and scripturally based is amazing. I think that's a great idea! Man i totally could think like this, acutally i do think like that, I sometimes wonder if it is a gift. But Dan just says to make sure you have alot of "nuts and bolts guys" I have one of those in my life, my daddy, yes he is very much so. Very business and well money management, realistic man. But he lets me dream.

One of the last things i jotted down was when dan said when God asks you to do something think about if it will last after you die, because if it dosen't then it probably isn't a God thing, it's a you thing. Such good advice right there, i can be very self centered at times, when things don't revolve around me, i can become a very unhappy girl, so to check myself with that question is a really good tool to start using in my life.

Unchurched Friend # 1

The girl that I interviewed I’ve known pretty much all my life. Her and I at one point were really close friends. Now we’ve drifted and I think I might see her once or twice a year. She was the girl who would spends hours up at the altar at camps praying for her lost friends and to be filled with the gift of speaking in tongues. She went to every youth event, was in every play, every choir activity, everything, her and her older brother.

Somewhere along the way things went down hill, probably about five years ago.
Her older brother came “out” saying he was gay his freshman year in college. That ripped their family to shreds and they left the church. People in our church did not know how to handle it, and if they tried, it probably didn’t help their family. There were many other reasons why her parents left the church some are still unknown today. That was when my friend started changing. It was a fast change, jumped right our of church and into the group of friends who hated “Christians” because anybody who was a Christian was judgmental and rude and mean.

All of this to say I wanted to interview her, to see where her hurts might still really be, and maybe if I asked the right questions, it just might bring her back to thinking about why she left in the first place. Did she leave because her parents left? Because of how the church judged her brother before we even got the facts straight? Or was it because she was just tempted way beyond the point of coming back again?

I obviously did not ask her those questions not with the relationship we have right now. I did however find that she is extremely hurt by the church. Not like that’s big news I think most people who did go to church once and now don’t were hurt by the church. That is so sad, because to me I think if church is all you have then you really haven’t learned the point of church is way beyond all the activities we do, all the sermons, all the worship songs, it’s about you and God. Getting to know Jesus and then using that knowledge to reach out to others.

Her first answer about what the needs were in her area was for people to be who they are and not judge others or worry about being judged. Now that to me sounds like she’s saying her needs not everyone in her communities needs. I asked her what topics interested her the most and she said that depression, psychology and other religions interested her the most. I can understand her interest in different religions, because the way we were raised, we were never supposed to even ask questions about our faith. I asked her why she thought most people don’t go to church and she said because she didn’t think most people want to go by themselves. This is very true, but when someone invites you, you don’t have that excuse anymore. Her other reason was that people were too busy. I heard someone say the other day that in our world today saying yeah my life is busy technically means we’re doing good, but in actuality it means we’re just poor managers of our time! The next two questions I asked her, her responses were almost the same, not push religion on other and don’t judge people.

I am just going to keep loving on my friend here, try and catch up with her while im home and grab something to eat and just talk with her. I don’t want to push religion on her, but just to hang out and love on her and let her see Jesus’s love in me!

Gerry Stoltzfoos

Last week after class i talked with Uncle Tom Rees at a Basketball game and he told me that i would be very interested with Gerry because of his out of the box thinking. Boy was he ever right. Gerry (even though i spell it Jerry the whole time i was typing) had many many amazing quotes! One of the first things i jotted down was "you can't please everyone" which is practically a world renown quote, but after that he said "we choose to offend church people" I really loved that line. After that he said his aim was to get people who were previously hurt by the church in the church. Wow those would be some tough people, i know because my older brother whose only a year older than me left the church a long time ago. My parents left our AG church and now go to a baptist church because they were hurt and burnt out. I've been trying ever since to figure out how to heal this in my family. To see a church that has that same passion, and it's for real is amazing to me! 

"some churches grow but they always grow with "church" people." Gerry said this and it hit my like, wow that's my home church.  Not only that, but i know there are so many other churches out there that obviously work the same way, it's so sad. At the same time so very amazing that there still are pastors out there that can actually say that and don't care who they offend because they "choose to offend church people!" 

Gerry's ministry with the Freedom church didn't start off so great! At first for a while it was just him and his family, then it started to grow. How Gerry did this was building up ministries, ones that worked, ones that failed. He also focused on relationships! RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS! That is the key!

Gerry's church started this ministry for handicap children. This lady in their church worked with horses and so she started this ministry where handicap children could ride houses and it would be a healing process for them. Now these families for the first time really do feel welcome in a church! most of them say that churches all say they're welcome, but none take the steps build a program just for them. Great stuff here, good stuff. 

Gerry they goes on to talk about another ministry which he says is "the goofiest, stupidest ministry he ever saw!" Cowboy church is what they call it. I guess it's a great ministry for the people in the area who like cowboy things. I do really know, i guess this ministry must only be able to work in certain areas of the country. This is why it is so amazing to me, the creative ideas that people come up with to reach they're community in real ways. If only all churches took on this idea and they weren't afraid of failure. That's one thing Gerry kept saying, he's not afraid to fail in a ministry, because it's so worth it when one does work! 

they're greatest ministry so far has been the coffee house they have in their church. It has had to expand at least three times already! how amazing! This is exactly what i would love to do in my home church, get people in from outside the church, reach the college age students in our area. I love this idea, probably because i love coffee and the setting of a coffee house is soo relaxing. I have so many ideas for a coffee house they're just building up in me!

One of the last stories Gerry told about a little 5 year old boy at his church that had the guts to reach out to his lost friends in preschool. What are we so afraid of?!! We're adults and we can't go ask questions as innocently as children, but we should be able to. Especially in a child like faith manor that most of us do not posses. I wonder why this is? Probably because we don't spend enough time praying and seeking God's  heart, but we seek our on little stinky selfish desires. By the way im speaking to myself too. I just get so fired up about this stuff now, just going out of you're way to be nice to someone means so much! Planting seeds, Gerry keeps saying that relationships take time 1, 2 or 5 or even 10 years he said. 10 years, i have best friends for life who have only been friends with me for like 3 years. What does that mean, means i can do alot if i just try and reach out to someone, take the time to love them. 

God give me a passion and a heart for the lost. 

Jason Lahmer

When Jason was giving his testimony i thought to myself, this sounds alot like mine. Grew up the church, got saved around seven (although i really can't remember an exact event to when i got saved), he said he never really fell away from his faith. Wow this is so much like mine, then he went on to say about how in 12th grade he struggled with some things, and that was me but only in 10th grade i did that. I questioned God and why He chose to take the life of my baby cousin and a couple other things. Then He started talking about how he wanted to be a youth evangelist later on when he got to college. That is what i really feel like God is calling me to do. I was just like wow when he started talking about that, i thought we have alot in common this man and me. Oh and i must add that he started out being a youth pastor in union town, not far from where i live! ha!

I had never even met jason before that night, at least not that i remember. The last youth alive director came to our church and spoke and so up until a couple weeks ago i had not known who took over this position. 

When jason started talking about the church he was at and all the ministry and outreaches they did in their little town, i was almost shocked. Our home church does not do much out reach at all. I was thrilled to hear that their little town had a good reputation of the church. Our church back home is called "the big brown round rich church" by people who don't attend there! His idea about the basketball team parade was simply amazing, everyone knows in our little towns highschool sports that do good are like the biggest event. So to know that, but use it to their church's advantage to bring "lost" people into their church was a great idea!

When Jason told his story about just giving a phone call to a school who had just a death in their student body to say he was praying for them and then having it turning out to be a way in which God greatly used Jason to connect and build relationships with those teenagers. Ha, oh how our God takes those little simple things and uses them for His glory! It makes me smile! 

At the very end of Jason's time he was talking about Youth alive and his altar services and he said "only 73 got saved." then he checked himself and took out the "only" I thought that was great, shows he's not about numbers, i mean when you're used to having big numbers naturally you start to think 73 is a low number, but jason there in front of all of us recognized that it wasn't "only" 73, but that there are now 73 More teenagers out there that are living for God! 

I really enjoyed jason alot, and i even am possibly thinking about doing my internship with him! YAY! :)

Brian Bolt

How is this guy not in jail for life? How is he not dead? ... God. That is crazy that he did only six months in federal prison after all the drug trafficking he had done. After leaving the navy and running into Mexico. He had a federal warrant out for his arrest! I am just in awe of what God can do, what He has done with this man. 

He's Bionic man, doctors rebuilt his face, but God transformed his life! After he got saved and went through some growing experiences as a christian, Brian wanted to plant a church, but uncle tommy rees said, "nope!" I would have said the same thing if he would have come to me. At that point brian had been kicked out of master's commision for getting married and was still very new to his christian faith and walk.

So i guess after some time went by and after working with a church in pittsburgh Brian got to start a halfway house. But going back to how he got to pittsburgh, he just totally put his faith in God. He just moved, with nothing for sure there for him. Maybe that's crazy for me because i think very practically, my faith is so weak sometimes. I would not have moved anywhere unless i knew i had a job and a ministry to go to, and a house, but no not Brian. He moved out of faith! He almost reminds me of a new Dave Wilkerson, but only starting in Pittsburgh not New York City.

I loved how he said that he knew these people could not take advantage of his whole life. THey could not even get a day off! He had to set boundaries with God first then his wife. He even had to set up boundaries with his phone by shutting if off during certain hours of the day. Brian says he thrives on chaos. I can totally relate to him there, i love craziness, crazy all the time, always going always busy i love that lifestyle, i crave it! Thats what ministry is craziness, if you don't want you're life to be crazy, if you want a 9-5 job where you go home and leave work when you leave work, then don't do ministry because it's a lifestyle that you live!