Cry Out America Prayer Rally

People gathered together at our City Hall in Columbus at Noon today to participate in the National Cry Out America Prayer Rally on 9.11.09.

It was an honor to coordinate such a united event on the steps and lawn of City Hall. A special word of appreciation goes out to Mayor Fred Armstrong for allowing us to assemble there.

Representatives from the following churches took part in the Cry Out America program:

• Crossroads Community Church
• Westside Community Church
• East Columbus Christian Church
• East Columbus United Methodist Church
• Columbus Free Methodist Church
• St. Peters Lutheran Church
  
• Petersville United Methodist Church
• First Lutheran Church
• Northview Assembly of God
• Columbus First Assembly
• Memorial Baptist Church
• Seventh Street Church of God

People from all over strolled into the area to hear what was going on. Workers took their lunch breaks to come and pray with us. City Hall workers watched us from their offices inside. Cars and trucks traveling into Columbus honked their horns as if to communicate to us...whether positively or negatively. This event of prayer and praise was having a powerful stamp upon our community and nation.

The name of Jesus was broadcast powerfully from humble hearts and broken vessels.

The pictures with our hands raised outwards was prayers of blessing to the community of Columbus and surrounding areas.

Thanks Lord for hearing us as we cried out to you according to your Word. We look to you to have mercy upon our nation and look with grace upon our people! Forgive us for we have sinned. Forgive us for our misplaced priorities. Forgive us for failing to seek you with all of our hearts. Change us O God and transform our lives and our communities!

May the Lord hear us all as we CRY OUT TO HIM in desperation!

Love to all.

A special thank you goes out to David Tayes for his help with transporting the equipment from CFA to City Hall. Also, appreciation goes out to Martha and Josh Kennedy for their help with set up and tear down. Special thanks goes to Allison, my administrative assistant, for taking these pictures today!

ATS Sunday!

Leisurely sitting at home working on the computer in our basement...

Enjoying a day off...even though I had to meet an appliance repairman at the church this morning. It appears that we have purchased a couple of new commercial appliances that have had their fair share of difficulties and malfunctions. Several of the ladies in our church who work in the kitchen passed along the news that the freezer wasn't freezing. What's a freezer good for if it can't freeze? Might second as a good frig back-up...but we need a good working freezer. Just another of the many details in this flood rebuilding project...and I thought we were finished!

Tomorrow we host "Cry Out America" at Noon on the steps of City Hall downtown. This is a national prayer rally designed to turn our attention heavenward and call upon the Lord on 9-11. This one day brought such devastation and tragedy back in 2001...a nation-wide movement is preparing to make a huge spiritual investment through prayer just eight years later to the day. We have about 10 local pastors involved in the program through prayers, readings and music. If you are in our area why not come and join us. If you live outside of Columbus find your own C.O.A. rally either at your local county courthouse or city hall: Visit this site - Awakening America.

This Sunday, Sept.13th we have scheduled our annual ALL TOGETHER SUNDAY. This is our back-to-church rally that is scheduled the Sunday after Labor Day. It's our call to everyone @ CFA to get back into the regular routine of worship attendance and service. This year we've planned to assemble our 1st CFA jigsaw puzzle. Everyone has been mailed a piece of the puzzle. Each member will bring their piece to put this great picture of CFA together. Unique and different...should be a lot of fun. Our special guest this year is Kim Tabor. Visit their website @ Tabor Ministries.

The Annual Church Picnic follows ATS @ Clifty Park. Activities start @ 3 pm and runs through around 7 pm. Grab your lawn chairs, picnic food, softball glove, basketball, frisbee, volleyball and of course your entire family for an absolutely great fellowship time!

Love to all.

Celebration Service!

Last Sunday night we hosted our first Celebration Service.

This service featured three churches that were connected to each other through the Flood of '08.

• 7th Street Church of God - flooded out completely after the waters of Haw Creek raged through their church facilities.
• Memorial Baptist Church - generously loaned us their facilities to use for both Sunday and mid-week services.
• Columbus First Assembly - our church was completely flooded out with close to a million dollar price tag on damages and restoration.
  

We met in CFA's church sanctuary to give joyful praise to God for bringing us through one of the most difficult years in our church history. We joined with these two congregations to express our appreciation and love for each other. We gathered to celebrate God's faithfulness and goodness. You might say that we were joined at the spiritual hip through the events that hit our community last summer!

It was a great service. Each church contributed to the success of the celebration service. There was unity. There was love...lots of it. There was joy. There was fellowship...great times around the table. There was favor...God's favor extended to three churches who trusted in Him to guide them through uncharted waters...literally!

A special thank you to each one who made this service special. Your participation and passion coupled with God's power and the Holy Spirit's presence was refreshingly exhilarating!

A DVD of the entire service was recorded live. If you would like a copy of this amazing service you can call our church office @ 812-376-7833 and request one.

Thank you Lord for the wonderful things you've performed through difficult circumstances and an unbelievable tragedy!

To God be all the glory great things HE HAS DONE!

Love to all.

Third Year...Roller-Coasters...Softball...and an Amazing Cruise!

Jordon packed and headed out for Evangel

CFA softball players

More pics from our awesome cruise...

Delicious chocolate anniversary cake!

Another busy but fulfilling weekend...

Jordon, our oldest son, packed up his Jeep and headed out to Springfield, Missouri to begin his Junior year. I missed the trip this year to travel with him and help him get moved in. Hard to believe this is his third year in college already...where did the time go?

Sunday was a great day @ CFA. Worship service was blessed of the Lord. I preached a message entitled "The Ups and Downs of Life" from Philippians Chapter 4. Used the roller-coaster theme as the illustration to tag this sermon. God always anoints His Word!

We met at one of the local parks for our monthly church softball game. Always a great time of fellowship and playing the great game of softball. You know what...we've got a lot of awesome talent @ CFA. Thanks Coach for your faithful help and support of our players!

Memories of our amazing vacation cruise to the Caribbean continue to linger. Thought I would share some more pictures with you. It was one of the most enjoyable vacations Tammy and I have shared together!

Treasure your mate...treasure your children! God is so good!

Just a cruising...

My bride on the top deck!

Mandatory US Coast Guard Boat Drills!

Beautiful sunsets!

Evening dinner with our friends the Jackson's

First port of call: Cozumel, Mexico

What's up with this guy?

Beautiful gardens flanked by the ship in the background!

Taking a transport boat from the ship to the Belizean port!

Belize dock

Costa Maya

Before dinner @ night

Remember the ping pong tourney...I finally won the 3rd one!

Towel art creations each evening

Starbucks in the Bahamas!

My sweetheart with Atlantis in the background

SeaWorld across from our hotel in Orlando

The famous trolley ride each morning in Orlando

Thought I would share a little more about our recent 25th Anniversary in Ministry cruise that we took before General Council. This was a gift from our CFA family...totally enjoyable!

We loved every minute of our 7 day cruise. So many activities...so many decks...so many shops...so many pools...so many shows...so many restaurants...so many elevators...so many workers...and around 3,600 passengers, not including the crew (that's more than twice the size of the city where I first pastored!).

Of course, there were things available on the ship that we chose not to participate in: bars, casinos and dancing. Many were up to the wee hours of the morning. They delivered a daily copy of the Carnival Capers, which was our ship's guide to all the fun. That's where I discovered the ping-pong tournament and free-throw contest. Plus, they also had putt-putt too!

It was our dream trip that we had looked forward to for so long. Thanks CFA for making it happen. We sincerely appreciated your action of love back in May of 2008 celebrating my 25 years in pastoral ministry.

Now it's back to work and back to running a different ship...the CFA ministry cruise liner!

Love to all.

Meeting Rick Warren in Orlando!

Great chance to connect with Rick Warren!

Fascinating Pastor and Renowned Author!

One of the speakers we heard at General Council this year was Rick Warren.

What a powerful and inspiring communicator. He spoke for about 2 hours and then answered questions. I learned that his book, "Purpose-Driven Life", was the 2nd most published book second only to the Bible. WOW! He had no idea that this book was going to have this much of an impact on not only the United States...but the world!

This book has opened up a highway of influential opportunities all around the world.

He has had the opportunity to pray for two incoming Presidents on their Inauguration Day. The last one made much more of a "media splash" than the first one. Something pretty cool...Billy Graham sent him the black hat that he used when he prayed for countless Presidential Inaugurations. It appears the hat has been passed!

Thank God for men to lead and teach others to achieve great things for God!

Side note: Would you believe that I didn't even have my digital camera on hand when Rick Warren spoke...a pastor from Orlando took these photos and emailed them to me. How cool is that? Thanks Pastor Gary Rice!

Trip to the Caribbean and Big O!

Arriving in Port Canaveral, Florida

Checking out the sites before setting sail...

Tammy and I before evening dinner...

With our friends, Joe & Tammy!

Tammy at one of our port stops

Me dwarfed by the mammoth vessel of the Carnival Glory!

Celebrating our 22nd Anniversary on the cruise!

53rd General Council in Orlando

We just returned from a fabulous 7 day cruise to the Caribbean and also attended the Assemblies of God General Council in Orlando, Florida. Wow, what a trip!

These last two weeks were awesome...especially after a 13 month long journey of rebuilding our church worship center after the Flood of '08. You would have thought I wanted anywhere but where there was water, but this cruise to the Caribbean was amazing. Tammy and I had such a wonderful time...relaxing and refreshing! We even took this journey with some of our ministry friends. There was so much to do and so much food to try out...we're talking tons of food here.

We ported at four popular vacation locations....

1. Cozumel, Mexico
2. Belize, Central America
3. Costa Maya, Mexico
4. Nassau, Bahamas

Each city had its own rich traditions and tourist attractions. Shopping at each port city brought great opportunities for some great deals (it's just in my Andreasen blood!).

I even entered the Carnival Glory's ping-pong tournaments. We played out on deck 12 under a partially covered deck 13. One day the wind was just blowing ridiculously and we still had to play each match in that weather. Ask me how I did and I'll pass along the inside scoop...

The 53rd General Council in Orlando was packed full of business, elections, leadership conference, luncheons and dinners, speakers, services, reports, exhibition booths, National Fine Arts Festival, college reunions, meeting and catching up with friends, trolley rides to the motel and convention center (an average of about 30 minutes each way), etc. etc. We were extremely busy...but enjoying this once every two years opportunity for ministers, delegates and friends.

I'll write more later but wanted to post something quickly to share a few memorable pictures and thoughts from our trip.

Guess who I got to meet? Check back soon for the picture that captured my rare opportunity in shaking hands with a nationally known Christian pastor, best-selling author and world leader.

It's great to be home.

Love to all!