Tuesday, January 18, 2011

New Year . . . New Opportunities!


I find myself extremely grateful to the Lord Jesus Christ every time the calendar turns for a brand new year! It just reminds me that God has graced me with another year to live for Him and is about to give me another opportunity to know and serve Him in a deeper way.
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2010 was quite an amazing year to look back on to say the least! It has been a year of challenging triumphs and transitions for the ministry and for our family [to say the least!]
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As we announced in September both of our children are engaged to be married in 2011 and Melanie and I just celebrated our 24th Wedding Anniversary on Nov. 15th. Jered & Anne will be getting married in Amarillo, Texas and Joshua & Kayla are getting married in New Orleans on June 25th.
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We have another major milestone in January as well. It was twenty years ago that God brought me into full-time ministry. I was just 24 years old when Melanie and I went to Gospel Light Fellowship to visit on a Wednesday night and the pastor (whom I had not met until that night) approached me after the service and asked me to preach in his absence the following week.
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I did and would end up being named the pastor of the church about six weeks later! I had only preached in a pulpit one time prior to that and immediately was given the responsibility to preach three times a week in addition to the other basic pastoral responsibilities!
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God certainly gave me a lot of grace in those early days and even more to those that had to put up with me! We made it through some of the most life-transforming times that one could imagine—and saw the hand of God in operation more times than I could ever remember!
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We are now excited about the next twenty years and the next generation of young leaders and ministers that we are being given the opportunity to equip and release!

1 comment:

feypaz said...

Praise Jesus!!!!!!!!!!
May the blessings and favor of our Lord continue to fall upon your lives and Raven ministry.
Love u guys.