We had over 60 men and boys at our camp out and we had an awesome time! It is so good to get out in God’s creation and fellowship with each other and our Lord. Below my son Nathan caught a very nice fish. We played horse shoes, cooked over the fire, hiked in the woods, relaxed and lived! May we have more times like this, be it God’s will. By the way Andre Halker won the poor man tent award. Ha! Ha! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Pastors Fernando, Rusty, Robert B. and I are doing a pastors and leaders conference in Trujillo Peru about 8 hrs north of Lima. It is going very well! Lives are being touched, healed and empowered by God. Hundreds of people are receiving God’s word with gladness and hunger. Lord may all your people get hungry for you! We come home Thursday and I look forward to getting home to my family and you. I don’t like leaving but at times God calls us to sacrifice for the gospel. It is truly a sacrifice to leave my family and you but it is necessary in the serving of our Lord and obeying His commandment to go! I can’t wait to see you this weekend. God’s has given me a word that will change your whole home. Bring your children and come expecting!!! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Here I am in Brazil in the interior of the Amazon. We have 5 churches here that we support thru James Williams ministry Inland Amazon Missions. Rusty and I did a pastoral training with the pastors here then we worked on getting all the details and locking down a deal to purchase 580 Acres of land with 90 cows and two bulls for the ministry. This working ranch will become a revenue source for the ministry and will also be a training center to develop pastors and villages up and down the Amazon. This has been a very productive trip. We also where able to line up our missions trip in August. I pray that some of you would be able to come and experience one of the last frontiers. When we landed in the bush plan the pilot had only landed 3 times prior to this one. It was very interesting to say the lest. He is opening doors also to drill water wells supplied by Operation Blessing. What a blessing this will be to the people. I am excited about all that God is doing in Brazil! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Praise God we made it to Peru safe and all is going well. Church leaders are learning and growing from God’s word being delivered by His servants. It is always an honor to be part of what God is doing around the world. Below Ps. Dino, Lance, Ps Gary (Hillsong London), Nick (operation blessing rep. for South America) are learning together listening to Ps. Dale O’Shields teach on the importance of the Church. This morning Rusty and I leave for Brazil to work on a great project God is putting in our hands. Operation Blessing wants to also help us in Brazil in a big way. God has opened the door here in Peru with Nick and Jorden (Director OB). It’s amazing how God connects the dots! The Lord spoke to me on the way over that He was going to be opening a door to expand ministry and He has. Thank you for all the prayers and I look forward to seeing you when I get home. I heard Johnny did a great job Wed. Stay hungry brothers and sisters for God’s word and Spirit. Love you guys! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
We (Ps Dino, Lance and I) are at the crusade worshiping with Delirious, Hill Song and listening to Joyce Mires preach. Behind me are thousands of people experiencing God in a way that will change them forever. God is so awesome and I am so thankful that he allows me to be a part of what He is doing in the earth. God is using our church to be a healing place for a hurting world. May all praise be unto Him. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
This weekend I spoke about a trip 14 men and I went on to Arkansas to fellowship and ride horses. Even though we faced many problems and unforeseen troubles we had a great trip and enjoyed life time memories. We came to understand if we stick together and depend on God there was nothing we couldn’t handle. We learned it’s not about the destination but about the journey. Let’s remember that for 2009! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Amazing, Pastor Dino and Johnny are in San Diego, Isaac is in Africa, Lance is in Texas , all of the rest of the campus pastors are in our office at HPC Baton Rouge and we are having a multi media Campus Development meeting. We can all see and here each other in real time. What strides we have made in just a short time. We were able to discuss many ministry issues and here a great teaching from Ps Dino. Technology wow! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
How small the world has become. Sunday night I left Uganda and Monday I arrived in Charleston, South Carolina! I met up with Pastor Dino, Dan, and Marc to attend the Multi-Site Expo hosted by Seacoast Church. This is an incredible opportunity to meet, share and glean ideas from some other churches that are doing multi-site. I even have the privilege to teach a breakout session. Here is a picture of me with Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC (and author of some fantastic books).
Mark Batterson and me at the Multi-site Expo
I am really enjoying this conference and all that we are learning about how to more effectively do church, but I must admit I am thrilled to be home tonight after two weeks away from my family!
This has been a great trip to Africa. I have been able to hang out with two of our campus pastors Ben and Isaac. Ben, pastors our HPC campus in Swaziland and Isaac, pastors our HPC campus in Mozambique. These guys are the best. We are at the Watoto Conference in Kampala Uganda at KPC a great church pastored by Gary and Marilyn Skinner. I have been a lot of places and seen many great models of reaching the poor and building the church but this is the first place I have seen all the components working as one. I tell you it is changing this country. We are so excited about everything we are learning at this conference. We are thrilled to be a part of such a great ministry! Oh yes, it was cool meeting Brian and Bobbie Houston they are very cool down to earth followers of Jesus Christ.