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!