Grand Central Station @ CFA!

My new friends @ WISH TV 8: Katie, Kevin & Jennifer
(For complete story see next blog post...)

News @ 5 Live from Columbus First Assembly

Patrick and David tearing it up!


Mike getting his stomp on!


Patrick getting a good level position!


David was my head man on the demo job!


David ripping the drywall off!

Tile floors coming up!

Some of our energetic HOPE workers!

I knew it was going to be a busy day but I had no idea that it would be "grand central station" either! What a day...

It all started out with our kids getting a good send off to Kid's Camp. My wife and two other ladies went to Hartford City to take a group up to camp. They helped get them settled in their rooms, acclimated to their surroundings and even over to take their swimming test. When it seemed like they were ready for the moms to go they traveled off into uncharted territory on their own. A new experience...a moment they've awaited and anticipated for so long had finally arrived. This was their new exciting adventure that they were going to have and share together.

I arrived @ CFA with my three boys ready to get the HOPE OUTREACH off to a good start. Many other volunteers from our church arrived to find out what they would be doing too. Monty and Susan organized the group of volunteers. Each one found their position of service and then we prayed for God's hand to be upon us as we surrendered to His will and purpose.

Later I took two of my boys out to put up flyers around town and get the word out about all of the wonderful supplies that came for our community last week. Judy and Sonya went out to do the same thing in another direction. A good solid rain erupted and caused a little stir but before you knew it the front had passed and sunny skies shone through once again.

While our outreach was going on there was activity on the building side of things as well. Our contractors had a group at work taking up the old tile in the hallways and rooms. Plus we had a group of our CFA volunteers busily engaged in demolition work on the old toddler wing of the church. If I didn't know any better I'd say my men were having a joyous blast demolishing that part of the building. This was the oldest part of our expansive facilities and was under about 4 foot of water in the FLOOD OF '08. They were getting things ready for new plans and a new ministry center for children....awesome!!

We returned to find our young people, our ladies and a group from Seymour busy at work bagging, boxing and assisting clients with these treasures from above. There was good traffic flow all day and many, many people were assisted from our HOPE OUTREACH CENTER once again.

Then we had a news crew from WISH TV 8 show up to conduct a feature story on what our church was doing in this outreach ministry. One month ago they had a chopper dispatched to cover the flood of Bartholomew County and pictured an aerial shot of our church surrounded with Haw Creek flood waters. The comment the reporter made was, "Looks like this church won't be having services tomorrow on Sunday!!" Now they were doing a follow up story to that release and were revealing that our church was back in ministry action but not back for services! I find it rather uncomfortable to be in front of the camera but also understand the significance of giving God praise and glory in all things...even in the midst of a FLOOD! More and more people have learned about the ministries of our church in this last month than in all of it's previous 53 year existence. Wow!

You can see from the photo's I took the busy activity of this particular Monday right here on 10th & Iowa Streets in Columbus, Indiana. GRAND CENTRAL STATION was loud and active right here @ CFA!

As I shared yesterday, my firm conviction and direction from the Lord in all of this post-flood activity is that our church would expand and grow beyond all limits from this specific flood disaster. I also believe strongly that God wants me to lead our church in becoming DEBT FREE when we hold our DEDICATION AND GRAND RE-OPENING SERVICE...whenever that might be. Not sure how God is going to do it but I'm assured that He will and He will use people like you and me to get the job done.

You can be part of this amazing faith miracle of witnessing all bills paid before we completely move back into our 10th & Iowa Streets campus. This will make the 10 'o clock news once again and God will be glorified in this spectacular miracle. Please make a generous donation on our secure online giving site @ www.columbusfirstassembly.org ...

Thank you for answering the call to being used of God to help a church in crisis give God all the praise, honor and glory for the rebuilding of our regional ministry center debt free.

I deeply appreciate your love and support in this journey.

Sincerely serving,

Pastor Andreasen