Tuesday tidings...

Shan, Charles, friend, and Derrick

Ends and racks waiting for new pews

And the walls came down...

Kitchen being drywalled

Jay - volunteer from the hospital

Ron putting in our stairs to the baptistry

Even though our HOPE Outreach Center was officially closed today we still had people coming in and looking for help. Many of these we were able to assist with needed supplies, food and water...and of course, plenty of prayer in the name of Jesus! God has indeed opened up a rich avenue of ministry right in the center of the flood zone of 2008! We continue to be His hands extended from 10th and Iowa Streets.

More work was accomplished today on our regional worship center. I saw some new faces on the work crews hard at work in many areas of our buildings. They were back behind the sanctuary building a set of stairs, putting up drywall in the kitchen, moving a partition wall, and also tearing down an unneeded stone wall in the fellowship hall. Plus they cleaned up after themselves too in many parts of our spacious building.

The phone guy was in and continuing to work behind the scenes getting ready for the installation of our new system after the painting is completed. The architect was in again with his helpers. Much measuring must be finalized to prepare a good set of drawings of our two current older buildings. All in all a good work day indeed!

We had a man from the hospital directed to our church who wanted to help so I put him to work removing the foam and fabric from the sanctuary that was demoed from the pew salvage job. I put a picture in my posting today of all the ends and book racks from our former pews that are awaiting our new pews next month. This helped us save thousands of dollars overall!

I had several visitors drop in today from out of town. This group came from Frankfort, IN and also had a guest speaker with them who is a pastor from New Orleans. Pastor Charles Garrison experienced the same kind of destruction with his church after Katrina and shared some words of encouragement and exhortation. He was leading some revival services in Frankfort. Plus I was honored to meet Pastor Shan Sheridan from the New Hope Church there in Frankfort and two young people from his church. They came to be a blessing and a blessing they were. Thanks Lord for the people you continue to send my way who bring encouragement and strength for this wilderness journey!

Tonight was our mid-week prayer and bible study service. We experienced another good time of worship, prayer requests, praise reports and a study from Luke Chapters 3 and 4. Plus our fellowship time around the room is strong ties that bind us together.

Several times today...in our staff meeting, with our guests from Frankfort and at service tonight... we called on God to release the funds that are necessary to bring us back to our regional worship center @ 10th & Iowa Streets DEBT FREE! The Bible says to ask, agree and believe in the name of Jesus and it will be given to you. We asked in faith, we are dependent upon God and we expect to witness miracle after miracle in this march of HOPE.

If you would like to be a part of the DEBT FREE miracle that God is working, you can go to our website @ www.columbusfirstassembly.org and make your donation on our online giving site. Thanks in advance! Today I received two gifts given for our Flood Fund! I hope to receive yours in the next day or so.

To God be the glory great things He has done and is doing!

Love to all!