Encouragement & Prayer:). September 16, 2014

Beloved In Christ,

Thank you for praying for our Saturday night worship and prayer event at Bethel Assembly. The worship was most excellent! At least 100 people showed to adore and worship our God, Who is most worthy to be praised! The process unfolded a little differently than expected, but the Holy Spirit kept the process contained and reverent, honorable, an orderly, yet freedom to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us as we rejoiced, lifting holy hands, raising our voices in worship to our Holy God. The kids circled the sanctuary with flags/banners, others waved flags as an outward expression of glorious praise:). I thought the process was visually pleasing and a definite declaration of our allegiance to our Holy God!

We hope to make it even better! Steve Antti and his team were great! These brothers attended Mt. View Bible early on:). Rob Chapman and his team closed the night with holy worship and were excellent too! :). As the Holy Spirit led, George Runyun brought a powerful message from Isa. 58. We went a little over… Pastor Greg was gracious as we worked together to get everyone outside, and clean the sanctuary for Sunday Worship. Right on! We sincerely Appreciate all who prayed for this event to turn out well, your prayers ensured the process was glorifying to our sovereign Lord! :).

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Sing, oh, sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me;
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

It has been a joy this past two plus years to watch our sovereign God work through the prayers of devoted men and women right here in Alpine and the surrounding communities. The vision began as a “call to unity.” Our brother Joseph called me and You too via email, a phone call, a visit, or however the Lord brought us together. As the Spirit leads, we are relying on pastors and leaders to join us to pray and worship together on Friday Mornings. Sisters In Christ meet weekly at First Baptist to pray and worship:). It is clear to us, we need our brothers and sisters, hence the Body of Christ, especially as the under-shepherds lead and encourage us to pray, pray, pray for our communities, a supernatural transformation of many, truly we strongly desire to overwhelm our Alpine and the surrounding areas with the love of Jesus!

We need you! Pastors, leaders, gifted men and women to network with us. We value your ideas! What is our gracious God wanting to do through us as the Body of Christ? Well, as we work through our own tendencies to “stay in our own backyard” and break down proverbial fences: oh, there are many, whether of a theological nature, stylistic, routine, whatever… we have to work at staying unified and loving each other, appreciating differences within orthodoxy and even tolerating some things that will eventually fade anyway. I have found, once I am in relationship with someone, a genuine caring and loving connection, most things are just consumed in love…And, in love I can say, or be told “knock it off!” as necessary:).

I do want to say, we value MUCH our local churches:). It is clear that it takes lots of time and energy to manage the flock: Sermons, Sunday school, outreaches, Bible studies, small groups, community events, baptisms, visiting the sick, funerals, weddings, caring for widows, etc., We do not want to be another “item” to schedule. NO! Our goal is to help support the process, which we believe is supernatural and ordained by our gracious God. We especially want to create a culture of “unity” and teach our youth that “the church” is “one body” with various members:). We even get together to worship our God and pray for each other! Therefore, we proceed in our calling, empowered and utilizing all resources given by our gracious God! 🙂 To His Glory! For the benefit of the many in the Body!

Pastor Jon said it might be better to do the corporate worship on a Friday next time. Pastor Greg thought it was a good idea to try and gather together as the diverse “Body of Christ” quarterly. That is what I am talking about! Yes! We desire and value very much YOUR feedback as to how to continue intentionally pursuing unified love for the family In Christ, and love for a lost people all around us! We’d love to plan with You for the next event at your church:). In fact, we have many ideas, but first, we need to keep praying and asking you to pray with us.

If praying on Friday Mornings with us is the extent you can go… praise God! If God is moving you for more involvement together with different folks, from different churches, let’s get together and talk and pray all the more for God to work out the details. We pray and reflect back Psalm 5:1-3

Listen to my words, Lord,
consider my lament.
Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.

In Christ, Overflow!

LoVe YOU much!

Randall:).