Church Inauguration: “Be strong and courageous and do the work”

I wanted to post a blog earlier, but picked up a bad cold somewhere that slowed me down, and there have been other responsibilities keeping us busy as well. However, today is a holiday here, so I’ll try it now.
A week ago today we were interviewed by a reporter from the local paper. On Saturday before the church inauguration, we were featured in a very nice article in the paper, even making the front page with a color photo of the pastors.

Almost everything was in place for the inaugural service of New Life Community Baptist church this past Sunday. Talk about “last minute”, the sign in front of church went up that afternoon.

God was so gracious in allowing everything to come together – from the reception hall with flowers, a special cake, and gift pens with the church name on them, to the worship area, with sails behind the platform, banners, music, messages of each of the pastors, special prayers and, well…just everything was honoring to God. Even after the service, while the adults had their fellowship time, there was a special reception for the children up by their classrooms with puppets, face-painting and individual treat packets for all of them.

There were about one hundred and forty people participating even with some families absent, traveling during school holidays. Two ladies came out for the service who had never been into a church before, but they saw the sign for inauguration during the week and came for the service. Tim Blazer did a simple gospel message near the close, and we know of at least four people who made decisions.

It was an exciting night!

The CBVN missionary team - Dave &Val Smallman, Bill & Sue Spoelhof, Tim & Andrea Blazer