 
(Sam Tillery)
Thank you for coming here tonight to City Reach Prayer. We have a whole lot that we are going to get into tonight, but first I just want to welcome you all and share some opening comments. What we are finding here in Sonoma County as we are laboring together, our prayers are an expression of faith saying, "God you do this and use us".
We continually remember before our God and father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love.(1 Thess. 1:2,3)
We are seeing a change happen in this County, because the movement of the activity that we are doing is produced by a love for God, therefore I can love people. We are seeing that lived out in our own cities in this County. There is something different happening because we are praying and we are humbling ourselves to say,"God, we need your help".
We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by, what? Faith. I am just wanting to stay on track here. The reason that I am reading this is because this is going to be your outline for prayer tonight for one another. "So we always seeing God for all of you."
So we are going to pray for all of us, the person on your right and on your left, because these are all people that are part of the body of Christ, yet, we come from different congregations and we even come from different parts of the county. There is Windsor, Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Sebastopol. We have representation of the geography of the body of Christ and of the various expressions of the body of Christ in different evangelical denominations and local church ministries. So, we always thank God. Do you always thank God? You might, but I don't. Let's be honest. Do we all thank God for each other all the time?
What is exciting, is we are seeing the move of God in our hearts, and it's not because of a program, it's not because we are trying to convince one another of something. What we are experiencing in this County are these truths. We are growing to love and respect one another through the humbleness of praying together and serving God together. So we always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.
"We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 1:2,3).
So many of us here have labored in this County for years and years and years, and some of you have wondered if God is sleeping or something and that things don't seem to be moving, but there is a new stirring. We actually sense it and we are beginning to see it.
We endure things because of our hope, and hope here in the Scriptures isn't like," I hope it doesn't rain" or " I hope the sun shines", but hope in the Scriptures is a confident grounding on doctrinal truth. That's what hope is. It is not a hope for something, it is a confidence, and it says here in the Scripture that your endurance is inspired by your confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ, that he who has begun a good work in us will complete the good work that he has begun (Phil. 1:6). Paul says in verse three of that same chapter, "I thank my God every time I remember you.. always praying for you for your partnership", that is where we get our same word "Fellowship".
We are moving into a different kind of Fellowship than coffee and donuts. We are moving into a partnership in the gospel. We are talking about partnership of the whole gospel, taking the whole gospel to the whole community. The whole church, taking the whole gospel and you know the whole gospel is not just about salvation, it's about even what this place (Pregnancy Counseling Center) represents. It's about spring clean, taking stewardship of the land and taking our responsibility to steward that which God has given to us the church, to love and embrace and to model for the community. It is this sense of community in the family of God.
So, with this verse in mind, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse two and three, let's take a moment in this prayer gathering and use this as a theme and a sense of direction for our prayers. We want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to pray and let's begin to pray a word of blessing for those around us with thankfulness. You do not even have to know the person, just let the Lord lead you in a short prayer.
(Prayer)
(Harry Skandera)
Okay, now that you are all warmed up, we can go ahead and move forward here. You know, this is the first time in eight years of doing this that it has been in the city of Rohnert Park. That in and of itself says a lot. How many here tonight are from Rohnert Park? Thank you for letting us be in your city. We are going to deal with some heavy issues in a little bit, but one of the things that we need to deal with as the body of Christ is with the city. As the body of Christ we need to bless the city.
My wife and I, Carol, we lived here for the first year we came to Sonoma County and I became very aware in a short period of time that a lot of people had things to say about Rohnert Park and they were usually not very flattering. I think that is human nature, but it ought not to be Christian nature. If we are going to truly bless and nurture our cities, we need to get out of the habit of talking like that.
Rohnert Park was originally a seed bed. It was totally a flower seed bed and then the people that owned this decided to develop it into a city and it was a planned city, more so than maybe any other city in this County. It is one that you can go through alphabetically and according to areas. It just reminded me that we went from God's design of flowers to man's design. It reminds me too, that we are in a room where we are going to celebrate God's design and across the street is a place where man's plans are enforced (Planned Parenthood). There is a big difference.
This is also the landing zone of a future casino. If you follow the paper over the last several years, there is always something up in this town, mostly strife. The city Council always seems to have some issue, and the issues aren't really issues but that people are making issues, and so we need to bless this place and acknowledge God's purpose for this place.
So, it falls on us tonight to consciously, as the body of Christ from other cities, to begin to bless the city and the people in it. I don't think without hearing that kind of love that is in the Father's heart for this place, I don't think until we manifest that, we have a whole lot of room yet to begin to speak into anything in this place. I want to carry that out here tonight.
I know that this is maybe a little bit unusual for us, but we need to get used to blessing places. Maybe you have never done that. Have you ever thought about the weather and said," Man, I hate this rain" or "isn't this a lousy day?" or "I hate this place". All of those beings I know that I have said at different times and I now realize that I was speaking a curse over a place that God had brought me to and was part of God's plan and destiny for my life. Those types of things that we say come very natural to us.
Why is it unnatural for us to say things like,"God I love this place. It's so beautiful. I don't live here, but I know that it is a part of your plan and it has a place and a part to play in the redemptive history of what you're doing".
So, let's go to the Lord in prayer and whatever the Lord puts on your heart to bless this city, just go ahead and pray out whatever he puts on your heart.
(Prayer)
Father, I pray for the city of Rohnert Park. I see that it has no real center and central identity, but that it is like sprawl, so I pray for the city that they would find its center. Not just a geographical center, a spiritual center. Father, that you would birth something here that would serve in the spirit realm, whether it be a plaza or something. We pray that you would raise up believers and bring them together in this place, that there would be links made between churches here and between brethren here. Father, that this would be a cohesive spiritual town and give it identity.
Lord, bless the city of Rohnert Park as a servant city. With it being in the middle of Santa Rosa and Petaluma, Lord it seems like it would be a great central place of resources to reach out. So, father bless the people and Rohnert Park with a servant heart. We know father from your word that being a servant is the highest call, because we always go low before we are raised up.
Father, we thank you for the physical DNA of Rohnert Park being a seed bed, and we pray Lord that you would bring forth seed in this city that would bring forth wholeness, peacefulness and life springing forth from this place.
Father, I remember learning a long time ago that there is a huge reservoir of water under this ground, more than anywhere else. God, we know that it is not an accident that you have created this physical place the way the you have and how it is connected to what you are doing in the spirit. God, we pray that you would release the water and all that that means scripturally and physically. I think of the Scripture that talks about how with joy we shall draw out water from the well of salvation; may it be manifest here.
Father, the word that comes to me is new beginnings. This place is full of history and many young people start their first homes here and begin their new life with having children and starting their businesses. And then Lord, there is a casino coming to town and who knows how that is going to manifest itself, so Lord I just pray and thank you that you are a God of new life and new beginnings and that that would spread into the hearts of everyone in this city. May we look forward to how you are going to create new life in this area.
Lord, we speak blessings over the pastors and the churches in this community. We pray for a spirit of unity like never before Lord God. We pray that the leaders would fall in love with one another and that the walls would fall down in our churches. We pray that the Christians and Rohnert Park would find it pleasant to dwell together.
We pray that you would raise up focused intercessors for this place and may they be committed to fervently be in prayer for the destiny of this city and its people.
(Harry Skandera)
There are a couple things that we want to be aware of before we go into our next time of prayer.
As many of you may or may not know we are over 25 days into a 40 day fast for Sonoma County amongst the commissioned intercessors. Santa Rosa took the first 10 days, Petaluma took the next 10 and the city of Sonoma is filling the gap right now and then we will move to Windsor. Many people and different groups have joined in, just by hearing about this prayer by word of mouth, and that is very exciting. There have been seven things on the list that we are praying for, things that have been going on and there are a number of testimonies that have occurred through all of that. If you want to see the details of what has been happening, we will have a write up coming soon on the website which is, www.togetherinChrist.net.
A couple of things that we should take encouragement from tonight... one of the items on the list of these points for prayer was this meeting here tonight. We are here to inaugurate what will be the opening of the second pregnancy counseling center. I thought it was significant that this was the first time in eight years that we have been in the city and of all the times the thing that would be first would be the battle over life, and that the way we worded it was this: continuing confession, repentance and release of the pro-life Ministry of Pregnancy Counseling Center as its new site will be in Rohnert Park on February 1.
This is not a real formal dedication. I am sure they will have something like that in the future, but this is in the process of being remodeled and they will explain more about that later to us tonight.
You are all part of this. Prayer needs to be the foundation of what this Ministry is setting forth to do and you here are a part of this.
The Lord has seen fit to give us direction and intentionality as we pray and we have also seen answers of which you are a part.
I want to read here a few facts, before we go into prayer, about life, because I don't think we want to get into a mode of saying,"God, help them", but more of, "God,forgive us".
1. One out of three women by the time they are 45 will have had an abortion in America.
2. Abortion is the most common surgery performed in our country.
3. Approximately 4000 lives are lost each day to abortion. (That is the approximate number of people killed on September 11, which we consider the worst terror attack in the history of our country and we're killing our own in that amount daily.)
4. Since Roe vs Wade there have been approximately 44 million reported abortions performed, which is approaching a billion deaths. We say approximately, because places like California don't report all of the statistics. Since they claim that it is no big deal, it is a wonder why they want to keep it a secret. There are no mandated reporting laws so we don't know the exact number, but we are pretty sure that they'd far outnumber the approximations that we have.
5. 93% of all women that have had abortions have had them at abortion clinics.
6. About one out of four pregnancies ended in abortion last year.
7. In 2006 there were approximately 1.25 million abortions internationally and our estimation is that in California there were over 208,402.
There are no major abortion law restrictions in California and no parental notification laws. California has laws that allow for state funding to provide abortion services.
8. 95% of abortions happen for circumstantial reasons, meaning that they are unhappy with their current financial, relationship or other circumstances.
9. Less than 1% of abortions happen because of rape or incest.
10. 2% are performed for the health of the mother and for fetal abnormalities.
There are all different kinds of ways that you can look at this, but there is no way that you can get around that there have been millions of innocent lives killed and that we as a nation will be impacted.
It has been said that part of the eye counting for slavery in this country was the Civil War. The United States lost over 600 thousand men, more than any other war and more than all our wars combined. If that is the case for slavery, what is the judgment that is upon us for abortion? I don't understand totally, but I think that it is obvious that it is not good.
I wanted to share that, because sometimes, we are excited about the possibilities of what PCC and other organizations like it are doing to make a difference, but what about the rest of us? What is the Lord doing in our hearts?
Psalm 34:17 - "The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them, He delivers them from all of their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
I don't think we're there yet. I think that there are a lot of women who have had abortions that have a crushed spirit, but I don't think we have cried out, so we want to take some time tonight to cry out.
(Prayer/Crying Out)
Lord, we thank you that you have given us the ability to reach out in compassion and to love those who have had abortions and those who have performed them. Father, we pray that you would forgive us and forgive our nation, but begin with us individually. Forgive us for what is in our own hearts individually, for we have brought death to things in our own hearts and we need your forgiveness for that. Lord, I pray that you would posture this community and this organization and all the body of believers to come humbly together as brothers and sisters, that others might see your light and reception, that they might come into your arms God, the one who loves them.
Let us move in a spirit of love and not of judgment.
Father, I pray that each one of us in the body of Christ would be released with words of love at all times for people everywhere, that we would be a voice and wind behind PCC. That we would be quick to send people to this place and that we would have their number in our purses and in our pockets so that we are ready to send people here who need this help. Lord, when we hear people talking about this even in the grocery store, may we not be afraid to turn around and say,"You know what, I'm really encouraging you to call this number today, because God has a call on your life and on your child's life and I just want you to have the best". Lord, release our voice to speak this to women and strategically put your body of believers in places where they can hear conversations and step in and not be a silenced voice of life anymore, because God, we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of salvation. We are not being judgmental, but we are simply loving and love protects life.
I pray that we would just be love bombs around the city with our mouths open and no longer turning our head to this atrocity. Father, let us be like Daniel and not bow down to what is comfortable and what those around us are bowing down to, but just to love and not to judge, yet calling sin what it really is and loving them with the truth and giving them a way out. Father, help us to be equipped with the resources and with the ability to know where to send the people and to seize the moment with the people that we are around. Send us out as lovers and givers of life, as a wild fire of lovers and givers of life.
Father, we ask you to forgive us for allowing Darwinism to take such a stranglehold in our schools. Lord, abortion is simply the logical response to Darwinism, if we had not allowed Darwinism in our schools, we wouldn't be facing a problem that we are facing today with abortion. We won't solve the problem of abortion in this country until we have exposed Darwinism in all its fallacies. Lord, we look back once again and realize that we were asleep at the wheel and we ask you to forgive us Lord and give us strategies for overcoming a lie of Darwinism.
Lord, help us to offer to you the very best of us. We are in agony over the millions who have lost their lives but we are also so thankful for all of those who have been spared. Father, and when we look back at what Satan attempted to do through Herod, to try and circumvent God and stop a generation. Lord God you will not allow it.
And what has happened in Roe vs Wade to try and stop a generation, Lord and we call forth the best of this generation to come up into their destiny in Christ, and in their salvation. Begin to speak to their peers, that they would disdain abortion. To look at the vision for their own lives. Lord, we offer up this generation to you as a sweet savor in Christ, an anointed generation of prophetic young people. A Jacob-type generation to bring forth and birth nations and tribes of people, Lord, that we could speak on and on about this generation. We ask you Lord God to call them up. We offer them to you. It is time Father. Allow them to enter their destiny. Praise you Lord! We think of our own children and grandchildren by name and we pray that your Holy Spirit would bless them even now as we pray.
(Sam Tillery)
We are going to shift a little bit now, but staying in the same theme, we are going to pray about specifically opening this facility. Debbie Hooks and others that are here are going to inform us so that we can have informed intercession for them and the opening of this facility here in Rohnert Park. After we hear what we will be praying for, we are going to have you move in small groups to different areas around this building and do kind of a little mini prayer walk. So, Debbie if you could come and give us a few prayer points.
(Debbie Hooks)
Okay, a few prayer points, well I have only about 500 or so...
This is so awesome. Thank you all so much for coming out to support us here tonight and to pray. I think first and foremost one of the things that we should be praying into is that the image bearers of Christ in this community, mainly our future clients and their unborn children, that they would be protected emotionally, physically and spiritually. This is what we are all about.
We are a light house and we want to protect the image of God first with our clients who are broken and damaged and then for their unborn children, so let's pray directly into that, the image bearers of Christ.
We want every home in this community of Rohnert Park to come into salvation. Salvation to come to every house, so somehow some way we want God to position our Ministry so that we can be the truth and the light for each one that comes in, one at a time. So, we pray for salvation and every home here that he specifically wants to reach for himself.
We want to be the center to be established on God's firm foundation. We need spiritual protection for the physical building. I am going to tell you very quickly the way that this building is going to be transformed, mainly just in this area. The way that this is going to happen is specifically we are going to have a little kitchen over here, we are going to have a maternity clothes and infant clothing row over there and very strategically we are going to have a post-abortion counseling room and another counseling room for women in crisis with their pregnancy.
And why we have this strategically positioned is, because we only have this one window in this room and that window when it is light outside you can see where abortions are being performed across the street, and so strategically we are going to have healing for women who are post abortion right here in this corner. We already have testimony of how God is using PCC with the owners of this building. One of the owners is coming to the Lord through Dr. McCarthy's struggle that he is going through. I am open in communication with the owner about walking in relationship with the Lord; his name is Rich and we need to be specifically praying for him and his family's protection.
For the builders who will be rebuilding this for us, Shook and Waller construction.
For the architect, Kevin Farrell who is putting together a plan.
We want a covering for everyone who is specifically involved, because we are right in the midst of darkness and we know that there is going to be attack, so specifically be praying for these specific people along with our volunteers as well. We have some volunteers and we could never survive without them.
Financially, in order for us to stay here we need 22 churches supporting us $100 a month or 22 donors supporting us $100 a month.
Right now we are blessed financially by specific gifts for us to be up and running for an entire year, but that is really primarily outside of this community and it has been other efforts that have been provided for us to do that, so we pray that the body of Christ in this community would get behind this effort.
We want to pray that those who are called to step into this Ministry and service with PCC, would, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lastly, that we would cry out for the mercy of the Lord for the shedding of innocent blood that is on our hands.
There are a bunch of other prayer requests for you to look at, but those that I just stated are the main ones.
(Sam Tillery)
As you all go to pray and as you move through the facility, some of you may want to go down through the corridor and if there are other tenants here they may be asking why you are doing this, so just be prepared for that.
The idea of the body of Christ coming in its diversity is that maybe he will hook up with someone that you don't know to pray with, so this is not the time to be comfortable and stay with the people that you came with.
(Debbie Hooks)
I am so sorry. There are a few more things that I wanted to mention. We definitely want to be a light house here and that God would use this place to intercept those who are on their way down the street to get an abortion or counseling about having one.
Also, we want to eliminate the "we vs they mentality". I know that there are some things that the Lord wants to do positively with our image in relationship with Planned Parenthood. I don't know what that is going to look like or how he would do that, but if we could pray into that that there would not be this, "we vs they" attitude going on. That there could be a relationship with them somehow.
(Sam Tillery)
Now, as we go to pray keep these points in mind and pray what the Lord would have you to pray.
(Harry Skandera)
We are convinced that Fellowship is beginning to look different here, and a better way and we have seen walls come down in the body of Christ through this prayer, this United prayer. What used to be very awkward in being together with different parts of the body of Christ is now not so awkward, in fact we have a hard time breaking you guys up. That is a good thing.
There are just a few things that we wanted to run over with you briefly of what has been happening over the last 40 days, because we want to still be talking to the Lord in prayer about them and you can take with you as you leave here.
We said that there are four cities who have commissioned intercessors and those cities are Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Sonoma and Windsor and the reason we emphasize that is the same reason that we emphasize your assignment in your city. It lends intentionality to what you are doing and how the body of Christ can unite. It also allows us to contact you about further things. We get spammed all the time with all kinds of junk, but this is the glory of God, you'll want to get to all of this and so make sure that your name is on this list. With this intentionality brings a conviction to the 39 pastors in the city to get together and to actually call forth the intercessors and to commission them.
We want to pray for the further release of resources and blessing over the commercial sphere of business endeavors and personal finances in Sonoma County. Last month at city reach we gathered at Shook and Waller construction company in Santa Rosa. We pray for them of course just as we prayed for PCC tonight, but we also prayed into the commercial sphere. God is never in recession and that is what we are looking for.
Another thing that is coming up is, we hope by the end of February the building plans for the construction of the Jewish free health clinic facility in Cotati during the months of January and February. This has been a major conviction that has been put on the body of Christ here, not only to reach out to the poor, but to bless the Jews who have been laboring at their own cost at the Jewish free health clinic. Their facilities were totally inadequate, and so some Christian Brothers agreed to upgrade their facility at no cost to the Jews. They have recently moved, so we need to follow through with our commitment to do that.
Pray for a stirring of courage and faith for Santa Rosa Christian school as they prepare to occupy an educational facility at what used to be Christian life center church and is now Wells Fargo center, and we believe this to be a major undertaking for the body of Christ in this County. As we shared the prayer of what was happening at the school meeting with the board we were convicted to pray and fast in these next five days and today over 20% of the secondary students at the school have committed to fasting and prayer also. That's a good thing.
Petaluma just concluded their pastors prayer summit on Wednesday afternoon and that will be on the website as well. They are planning to have a city wide prayer meeting with their congregations.
We are also praying for the continued establishment and Ministry of hope works and their relationship with the Sonoma County business community.
The last thing I am going to turn over to Sam to discuss with you, but the first thing on the list was... the commissioning and funding of Sam Tillery to full-time city reacher in Sonoma County. Sam has served faithfully and is recognized by the pastors and other leaders as one that God has put the mantle on to take leadership and prayer movement in this County, but we need to take heed to the prayers as we came into the conviction that Sam needs to be commission in what he is already been doing and brought into full-time ministry, and that is in the process as we speak. If you want to know more about that please ask any one of us.
(Sam Tillery)
One of the things that we have felt within our prayer movement that we need to embrace is God's heart for Israel. We believe that God's heart is that the leaders here in Sonoma County would continue to walk together in unity and so we are next week going to be going to Israel with a group of selected 39 pastors and community leaders.
We want to pray that we would hear God's heart for our land here, that we would embrace that which God has for us understand about Israel and that we would walk in greater unity amongst one another as leaders. These are all senior pastors or marketplace leaders. There are 21 denominations represented, nine ministries, city, government, education, medicine, the business community and media. We will be going into Israel to represent this County and Together in Christ.
We will be meeting with leaders throughout the country in Israel, this is kind of a study tour more than a trip, and a bonding together time so that when we come back to this area God will have given us greater direction in unity as we labor together. This has never happened as far as I am aware of in the history of Israel, where you have such a diverse expression of the body of Christ walking together in community. Most groups that go to Israel are from a single church or a single denomination, but when you have the diversity of the body of Christ it will look so different.
I'll give you one example: We have chosen several of the denominations who have been fractured throughout the years. The Azusa street revival, the Church of God in Christ was birthed out of that. Then, you have the Assemblies of God and then out of that you have the Four Square church and these are all distinctive groups carrying something unique and special by God, but they still are walking somewhat independent, so representative of these three groups are on the trip not by accident, but that they would walk together in unity. That they would hear God together and come back and influence their denominations that we would walk together in Christ, therefore that is why we have changed our name from pastors prayer Ministry alliance to a broader term that really speaks to the vision of this unity movement and now we are "Together in Christ". It is easy to remember and it keeps us mindful of why we are coming together and not for unity say but for Christ sake. And is easy to remember the website www.togetherinchrist.net, and so that is where you can find out what is happening and where city reach prayer will be held.
We want you to be aware of this and be able to pray into, because it is very strategic.
As leaders together and Israel, we are going to be walking through Jerusalem in kind of a mini spring clean. Nothing like the Crusaders who marched through the land and said come to Christ by the sword and that has infected missions up to this date. We are posturing ourselves as servant leaders and are going to go to pick up the garbage in Jerusalem and we are going to love them and work with the Arabs and the Jews and share that we together are coming together in Christ and that they too can do the same. We want to be a living example, and the idea is that in the future we will be able to work with them to see them come together with a greater move then what we are seeing happen here with spring clean in our area.
So these are some of the things that are stirring within our movement and we need your prayer for protection and direction as these very specific leaders will be walking, praying, is serving together. Please pray for me as I am the facilitator of this particular trip and Miles Weiss who will be assisting me and other leaders as we will be moving together. We want to come back and used the influence that God has given us to impact our denominations our communities in the body of Christ here.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
So, don't forget to go to the website to find out more information and to be praying for us February 12-21 as we will be in Israel representing you all can going together in the unity of Christ.
I also just wanted to show you this book and to let you know that this is a book that is worth getting, it's called, "Understanding your personal prophecy", by Gary who is right here and you can get the book off of his website which is www.morethanwords.org.
We lastly want to pray for the board members of PCC who are here tonight, so if you are a board member of PCC please stand and we would like to pray for you.
(Harry Skandera)
It is no surprise to me that the first place to welcome us in to Rohnert Park is PCC. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a place for family. We do not want to overlook the destiny and purpose that God has for you in this place and that this is where we are first praying into Rohnert Park as a city reach prayer gathering. We have puzzled over the city for many years. It is not a black hole, but it is a void, just as there were only a few represented here tonight from this city, that is unusual and it is telling us something, so thank you for your commitment and courage and we want to stand with you now and pray with you and give you our support.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
This came to my mind, it is not something that we are going to launch into tonight, but I looked over and saw Dr. Ruth who has for years been a primary veterinarian for the service dogs of canine companions and their national headquarters here in this County. I want to tell you Ruth, that we appreciate you serving those who are disabled and caring for the service dogs who are really blessing people all over this nation. My family and I certainly have been those who have been greater/caretakers of these dogs. We have had over 80 puppies that we have been a part of and serving of the community in now way has been a blessing.
I am aware that there is going to be a time when we are going to pray into those who are disabled in our community and in to all of the ways that we can be involved in helping and serving that part of our community, and so Ruth you may be an open door for us to go into some of these facilities and begin to pray for them and the people that they reach. We are in many ways unaware and uneducated on the ways that we can serve the disabled and our community and as the church have often been naïve and in different to the disabled population and that is to change.
Also, as we are moving into this whole new realm, a whole new stage of the together in Christ movement, which is about as praying together and caring for the community so that we can share the gospel, the whole gospel. We want to encourage this movement to move from simply praying, to physically caring by way of your financial support for this movement. I happen to be one of the first recipients of that in establishing the salary and income. I do not say that in a way to say that it is all about me, I simply have to represent a movement that God is doing as we are doing this together and that it has never been done before, that the churches in the County and the community would come together.
We have been praying, caring for the community and sharing the gospel, but as they step up and begin to financially back of this movement as we move into realms of influence in other countries, we need your prayers and we need financial support. Of course that would be above and beyond what you give to your local church. I encourage you to do this and we are asking you to do this because it is scriptural to give to Ministry and it is our task to make the need known and provide opportunity to work and labor in this to gather.
Checks can be made out to PPMA for now, but the name will soon be getting changed to Together In Christ. We are a 501 C3, nonprofit organization and such, but we are moving into a whole new place. I have been pastoring at Foothills Community Church for the past 20 years and I have been a senior pastor at First 30 years and one of my concerns was the fact that I am stepping out from where I have loved and cared for the people and having to trust that God will take care of that, so we are in a search right now for a new pastor and we need your prayers that the right person will step into that place.
We have had some financial difficulties in this past year and God has in an overwhelming way provided and funds have been coming in. More dollars have been coming in since I have decided to shift position, so I am just trusting God. Also more and more are committing to membership ever since it was told that I was leaving, so I don't know if I should take that personally (Ha, Ha, Ha), but God is blessing this step of faith. As I move into more of a missionary status to the body as a whole, God has been taking care of one of the biggest things that has been on my heart which is to invest in the body as a whole, and the Lord is taking care of the foothills as if to say," Sam, it was never yours in the first place". So, I certainly know that God is going to provide and I appreciate your prayers and we are excited about what God is doing and I just wanted to make sure that you knew and that you would pray about your part in all of this.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document. |
