I'm so excited I almost don't know where to begin. God is doing AMAZING things in and through our ministry. The Spirit of God is moving and we are seeing the fruit of that bursting forth all around us. For example, this Sunday as we celebrated Pentecost we welcomed the largest class of new members our church has ever seen. We welcomed 46 new members of three locations and five services! How awesome is that? By the way, if you had wanted to accept membership, but was not able to do so on Pentecost, please let on our our pastors know.
We also did immersion baptisms as a part of a regular Sunday morning service for the first time ever, with 6 people choosing to be baptized. If you were not able to be in Amesbury to see those in person, we will soon have available a video to share some of that experience with the other campuses. There is nothing more powerful or exciting than to see a person's life transformed by a relationship with Jesus Christ. In baptism we celebrate that transformation and new life!
Our mission team is getting ready for another trip to Honduras where they will be working directly with the kids, doing construction work to make facilities improvements and they will be giving away tons of food to some of the poorest of the poor. They are raising some funds for building materials and for food. If you would like to make a donation towards that work, you do so right on line at this link.
Speaking of mission, we have our 2nd annual golf tournament coming up on Saturday June 24th. This is a great, enjoyable fund raising event. The proceeds from the event go to support missions at several levels. It's "best ball" so even I can play. So even if you are not a great golfer, come on out, have some fun and support a great cause. For more information or to register, go to this link.
We have some great community outreach opportunities coming up in the next few weeks. Next Saturday is the Plaistow Old Home Day celebration. We will be participating in that at several levels as a way of reaching out to not-yet-churched folks in our community. The following week is the start of Amesbury days. We will be participating in the Block Party, Kids day in the Park, the Pancake Breakfast and the fireworks. This will take lots of help. If you would be interested in serving at any of these events, please speak with Pastor Jon or Pastor Rachel.
As we think about these outreach events, I just want to take a moment to remind us why we do these. One of our core convictions is that everyone needs Jesus. In the communities that surround our churches, there are literally thousands of people who do not have a relationship with Jesus. These outreach events provide us with an opportunity to connect to some who do know know Him and help them take a first step towards faith.
This Sunday we will be starting a two week mini-series entitled "We Are FOR!" In this series we are addressing a significant challenge and concern for the Church. I believe it is going to be the start of something BIG! You will not want to miss it. I look forward to having you worship with us this Sunday.
God Bless,
Steve