Turning the World Upside Down.....God at Work!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Acts 17:6-"Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city"
The past week was one of the most difficult weeks that Cindy and I have experienced personally, and at Overflow, in our time planting the church. There were many things that went seemingly wrong last week, and in ways that we did not expect, and yet through it all we did have a peace that God was still at work. We know that many of you were praying for us, and Overflow, and we cannot thank you enough! While some of those issues from last week are still on the table I wanted to share with you how God worked over the weekend as we are celebrating God "turning our world and city" upside down one life at a time here in the Benton Harbor/St. Joseph region!
Here are 4 Quick Stories of "How God has been at Work" the past couple of days:
1) Saturday we partnered with 2 of our sister churches (Allendale Wesleyan Church and Light House Community Church-Kalamazoo) to do Valentine's Party Outreaches at Berrien Homes (our friends at a local housing project) and Benton Harbor St. Ministry. Amazingly, we had 46 volunteers come from these 2 churches to spend the day with us here in Benton Harbor serving and they brought everything with them. The parties were for students and their families and included a meal, cookies, and other activities that centered the kids on the message of God's love. It was an amazing picture of a group of people banding together to flip a world upside with God's love! We were able to serve more than 50 kids between the 2 parties and drop off a couple hundred extra valentine cookies to our local emergency shelter afterward! A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALLENDALE WESLEYAN, LIGHT HOUSE, AND RANDY WILLIS for coordinating this great event. The girl picture here shared with us that this was the first time she had ever decorated cookies in her life and she now felt like a pro (notice the cool designs)! Seeds of love were planted!
2) After we returned from the parties we heard this great story from Carolyn O'Connor (one of our Overflow leaders) who was in charge of our office/lounge outreach in Orchards Mall while we were gone. Here is what she shared in her words:
"A young woman stopped in the entry to the mall office, looking at the flyer on the table. She looked kind of upset about something, so I greeted her and asked her how she was doing. Her reply was "As OK as I am likely to be". When I asked if she wanted to talk, tears began to flow down her cheeks, and she came and sat down at the desk where I was working. As she began to share her story, I could sense the pain and hurt that she was carrying and the desperation she was feeling. I asked her "Do you know Jesus?". She replied that she did because she had gone to church, etc. I replied that I didn't ask if she knew of Jesus, but if she knew him personally. As she cried and replied she really didn't, I invited her to accept Christ as He is willing and waiting for her. A couple minutes later, she repeated the Sinner's Prayer and accepted Christ. While I sense there is still a lot of healing that must occur from past hurts, she left with a smile on her face."
3) Sunday during our Overflow Worship Celebration in the cinema I shared a message on working through the bitterness and resentments in our life and used an analogy of how we tend to put duct tape over our heart in an effort to heal ourselves of hurt. At the end I asked people to consider that Christ in fact wanted to help release them from this and to help them to forgive those that had hurt them in the past (Heb 12:12-15; Eph 4:31-32). People were able to come forward to get rid of their duct tape (each person had a piece) in prayer and to pick up a handout that guided them through a "Prayer of Forgiveness" by Dr. Neil Anderson. Here is a picture of the amazing response (that is a lot of duct tape...please pray for each of these people and the hurt that is represented):
4) At the close of Worship on Sunday we invited people to come to a separate movie theater (we worship in Celebration Cinema) that we had set aside for prayer and communion. It was a very moving time of renewal, healing, and refreshing for many. A young man that had come for the first time through our outreach to Berrien Homes and our bus ministry came in for prayer and communion with the others. Our Community Life Pastor Todd Johns was able to connect with him and lead Him to the Lord right then and there as God worked in his life! It was an awesome moment as we have known this young man and been investing in him for more than a year now!
God is so good and we are so thankful for this incredible weekend at the end of a very hard and draining week and to chance to welcome two new members of God's family!
It was just a reminder that although we may not see it just yet...God is always at work and He is over everything!
In Pursuit,
Brian
Phil 1:21
*God is the God of our City. If you have time here is the worship song by Chris Tomlin that is one of our anthems here at Overflow:
posted by Brian @ 11:45 AM,
3 Comments:
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At February 16, 2009 2:18 PM,
said...
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Woo hoooo! God is soooo good!
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At February 16, 2009 4:33 PM,
Gwen Jackson said...
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What amazing stories. Thanks for sharing what God is doing to transform lives. Rejoicing with you and the angels!
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At February 17, 2009 12:08 AM,
said...
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The duct tape is a fabulous strategy for people to materially show and possibly leave those things that bind them. Thumbs up! All the glory to God of course. . . Keep up the good work. Nobody could do this beside you and your team!
