For Coach Moore, coaching football was more than simply the game, it was about ministering to his players and their families. Coach and Margaret have shown love and care for countless numbers of young men over the past 24 years. We want to thank them for the selfless service they have given to this community in so many ways. We are thankful and blessed to call them our friends!
Read MoreIt would only make sense that Coach Moore, as he is still lovingly referred to, had lost track of time when we arrived for our interview. Not because he’s absent-minded, but because he was busy working to untangle a lure from his fishing net.
Read MoreMother had always prayed that God would send me the right husband. I met Jerry at Baylor University and fell in love with him on our first date. Mother’s prayers were answered. We dated three years and after graduation we were married. A Christ centered home was my fervent goal, not as a duty but out of a sincere desire to honor God. I loved Jesus and I loved Jerry.
Read More“So I went out there, filled out an application and started as a temporary associate that eventually grew into a full time position. Now, 28 years later, Franklin Graham has entrusted me with the opportunity to work for both Samaritan’s Purse and also the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.”
Read More“My whole life revolved around church for the most part. I heard the gospel hundreds upon hundreds of times; at school and church had all types of good Bible pumped into us. I knew every Bible story there was frontwards, backwards, up and down, all that sort of good stuff. But never really had a personal relationship with the Lord.”
Read MoreMy family lived on the upside of the Mennonite Church on Church Street. We had a big lot and most of it was garden but there was a big house, too. We also had pigs and a cow which I learned to milk. We all helped by weeding the garden. Everybody had a patch of land back in that time; you had to have a garden if you were going to survive in the mountains. My mama made butter and sold that in the neighborhood for years because not everyone had a cow.
Read MoreWith all my heart, I believe that JT’s Civil Righteousness movement and other Spirit-inspired movements like this have the potential to pray and preach us into the type of spiritual awakening that this nation and world so clearly and desperately need. In closing, it’s my prayer that all followers of Christ who read these stories will be stirred and motivated by the Holy Spirit to rededicate themselves to obeying Jesus’ command to us as found in John 15: 34-35
Read MoreWe have been through some rough times but nothing compares to the recent events. During any past snow and ice storm or high winds with 60 miles per hour gusts, and rain with moderate flooding, we always knew that in the end, it would all be over in a day or two and life would return to normal.
Read MoreAt Perkinsville our mission statement is, “To love what Jesus loves and do what Jesus does.” I have a strong inclination to think that Jesus would be mudding out houses, ministering to people, and being the hands and feet through this. We are just following his lead in that. We and others sent teams over to churches to mud them out so they could become lighthouses in their communities.
Read MoreI’ve never experienced anything like this. I have been on mission trips, but I have never done a whole lot with disaster relief. I certainly have not lived through a disaster. This has been something to witness in terms of seeing how all this has come together, initial response, and how things are ramping down as infrastructure returns and power gets turned
Read MoreThe disciples woke Him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Read MoreWhen all hell breaks forth as it is doing in our region, our nation and our world, that’s when our Creator God desires for all Heaven to break forth in the Earth as well. He does this by revealing His Presence and glory along with His love and mercy and graciousness and compassion in and through His Church!
Read MoreThe first man, besides my dad, who made a strong impression on me was my high school football coach in Bonham, Texas. His name was M.B. Nelson and he became my coach after my freshman year when my team went 0 and 10. We were so bad, about the only thing we had to be excited about was winning the coin toss.
Read MorePeople are watching those who say they are Christians, and they are turned off. Someone once told me they weren't welcome in a church because they had a tattoo. The man who said it to me was as nice a man as l've ever known. Church isn't supposed to be that way. Going to church doesn't save a person, but it is a good start.
Read MoreLater in the year, as the Red Army advanced through Wiswar, my older brother took a Bible from a host family’s looted house. That Bible became our family’s mainstay of hope and support through the dark days that were to come. The anchor verses in those hard years became, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:3-5)
Read MoreEmily: God definitely was in it. When we first started dating I can remember praying, “God, I don’t want to go through this again.” But, Adam was just what I and the boys needed – a real answer to our heart-prayers. It’s one thing to sense it, to have faith that God’s working, and such a wonderful thing to get to see how He unfolds what He’s doing.
Read MoreRyan has been in Sudan for nine years; most of that time with Samaritan’s Purse (SP), an international Christian relief and development organization based here in Boone. A short time ago, when the war broke out and things got really dangerous, SP pulled out of the country. Ryan, however, resigned from his job and decided to stay in-country and continue helping the local people.
Read MoreI think God has impressed upon me that He is a God of the generations. He is a generational thinker. When He instructed the Israelites to build altars, it was so that when the children – the next generation – asked, they could tell them of the Lord’s work in their midst. The Apostle Paul speaks of having spiritual sons. There is a generational perspective that is strong within God’s nature. It’s a way of thinking that I have not really seen much of within my American church experience, especially within our individualistic culture.
Read MoreLike Christians everywhere, the folks at Arbor Dale are still learning how to do this life together. God is always showing us new ways in which the Gospel is working itself out in our lives. That’s the joy and the challenge of being the Church today in this place.
Read MoreHe took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan… (2 Kings 2.13)
And, so it is, the mantle fell and now I stand at the Jordan of my life looking at the enormity of it, the darkness of it, the breadth and depth of it, and the only words I have, “Now what?”
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