Elevate Graduation

This past Sunday, I graduated from Elevate, a ministry internship program at Healing Place Church. After two years in the program, it felt so good to finish something as awesome as this. Elevate is a lot of hard work but it was worth it. I learned more about the Bible (thanks to Mr. Mike Ferris), more about ministry, more about God and more about myself. It has been two of the best years of my life! I have met some incredible people in Elevate, and have gotten to know others even better.

HPC recognized us at the services on Sunday morning. Most people know I hate stages, and the fact that I actually walked onto the stage (lights up) is a miracle! The best part, however, was when the pastors asked the family and friends of the graduates to stand in the audience – I looked over to where my family was standing, and saw them clapping as loud as they could, and my sweet dad stretching out his arms as far as he could, clapping, as if to say, “I’m so proud of you!” I was FIGHTING the tears BIG TIME! I couldn’t mess up my makeup while onstage! haha!

The graduation ceremony was at 4:00 p.m. at Healing Place Church. It was a beautiful ceremony, complete with (I think) the world’s biggest cake and punch! Michelle Gros and Tiffany Dupree do an incredible job heading up Elevate. Tiffany arranged for each of the 60+ graduates to give Michelle a flower and a card as we walked onstage to receieve our degree. It was a great suprise for Michelle! Scott Bledsoe, the pastor at Household of Faith, addressed the graduates and special awards were given out also. Susan Rogers won Elevate Student of the Year!! She is an incredible servant and definitely derserved it! My family loves her so much! Congratulations, Susan! And congrats to Jordan Gautreaux for being selected as Valedictorian of the full-time students.

I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, and amazing friends, who’ve supported me through the last couple of years. I couldn’t have done it without their love and encouragement! It meant so much to have my whole family come to such an important event as the graduation. A big thanks goes to Pastor Dino for creating such a great program as Elevate and thanks to all the staff and teachers who donate their time to educating us. As I was sitting there ready to receive my degree, I had to keep fighting back tears, thinking about how awesome the last two years have been, and how grateful I am for the experiences I’ve had. I am so thankful that HPC puts such an importance on this program, and recognizes and rewards those of us who complete it! I love the feeling you get when you finish something!

One last thought…my favorite moment of the night was when my family and I were on our way back from eating dinner at J. Alexander’s (thanks mom and dad!).  My grandmother opened my degree and held it up to the sky and said, “You see this, Forrest, I know you are very proud of your granddaughter, she’s following in your footsteps! We are all so proud of her!” Wow! It was an unforgettable memory in my life! 

Heroes

Sunday night, I went to my parents house to watch Extreme Home Makeover with them…and to just spend some time with my family. The show featured a family living in New Orleans who lost their home in Hurricane Katrina, and then moved to another small home - but had part of that home destroyed by a tornado! What was so touching about this particular episode was that the husband and wife (along with their 2 daughters) took in the husband’s two brothers and mother since they had no place to live. They were all piled into this one small house, sharing a bathroom, with the brothers sleeping on the sofas. And the husband and his brother were volunteer firemen, who went out in the community every day to help people rebuild their lives! Wow! It was amazing! All three men cried throughout the whole show, saying that they just wanted to help people…even though they needed a great deal of help themselves!

The pastor they featured on the show who lost his church to Katrina was the same. He just wanted to help others. Their church fed and helped others start getting back on their feet again. The pastor kept saying, “Life is not about what you get, it’s about what you give!”

Ty Pennington and his crew just kept saying they were all HEROES, but the “heroes” of course denied it saying, that’s just who they are…they just want to help others! This got me thinking…how many people I see on a day-to-day basis who may go unnoticed, but are in my book, “heroes.” They are the people that extend their hand to help hurting people. They all have big hearts of compassion, just like the family and pastor in Extreme Home Makeover, and just want to give whatever they are able. They give their time, their talent, and their love. And they are probably the same as the pastor and the others in the show…they would rather go unnoticed and wouldn’t consider themselves heroes. Here are a few that I thought about:

1.  Peter, a man who comes to Winbourne every Friday to get fed and to help out. I don’t know much about him, but I know he doesn’t have much. He prayed over all the Cooking For Christ volunteers last week and couldn’t stop thanking them for cooking every week. He told me, “I am more blessed when I give than when I receive their blessing!” He’s a hero in my book!

2.  Cooking for Christ – don’t need to say a lot…they just give and give and give! They are all heroes!

3.  Susan Rogers who I spent this past year getting to know in Elevate…she’s amazing! I love her joy! She comes to Winbourne every Friday and keeps some of the “little people” – the cute little toddlers, so their moms can enjoy the Bible study, then she takes them with her to eat…and they follow her just like little ducks! Susan is a hero!

4.  The Turners – Carole, Dean, Evangeline, Steele…they are such an incredible family. They also come to Winbourne every week to help out. I think it’s so great that they take their kids with them. They are learning to serve others at such a young age. They won’t know anything else. And they are getting ready to adopt their second child, a little boy named Abel, from Africa. They are giving him a chance at a better life…hope for the future. Yep, they’re heroes!

5.  The leaders of Sparkle, the Jr. High girls life group. They give their time (lots of it), their energy, their teaching abilities, and their love to the many girls who come to the life group each month. It’s a life group about PURITY.  They teach the girls purity in the way they dress, the way they talk, and the way they live their lives. I’ve seen some amazing transformations in some of these young girls lives. Heroes.

6.  My grandmother, Mrs. Johnnie Hall, who lost my grandfather almost 5 years ago. I’ve seen her come out of depression from losing her companion, someone she was in ministry with her entire life. She is now 74 and doing so great. She has resolved not to let her loss destroy her faith and trust in God. She has been leading worship at Young at Heart (formerly Pioneers)…it’s so great to see her back in ministry again! She’s my hero!

7.  Nancy Clary, my co-worker, friend and mentor, who leads our girls Bible study every week at our office. She gives so much time to the girls here at our office, providing them with Godly advice whenever they need it. Not to mention, she is an awesome mother of some pretty amazing kids! Another hero.

8.  Natalie Spera, my amazing friend, who has devoted a year of her life to Africa. She lost both her mom and her dad several years ago – within a year of each other. Now she is in Africa, loving on kids who have AIDS and have no parents. WOW! She’s a hero! 

9. And finally, my incredible parents. They have endured so much this past year, but have kept the faith, and persevered through the toughest time we have ever had as a family. Their strength has been such a great example of what God can do in times of tragedy. And they continued to serve at HPC every week (my dad with Cooking for Christ and my mom with Young at Heart) and still do serve. One thing we have definitely solidified, is our strength as a family and the love we have for each other. They are still married after 35 years of marriage! One thing my dad always taught me that has stuck with me, is to NEVER EVER give up! They are my heroes.

Who are some people who go mainly unnoticed, but who you consider heroes? I’d love to hear your picks!

Rollin’ on the river

So, this past weekend, our life group went out to Blind River to relax and have some fun. One of our close friends, Shane, hooked us up with boats, jet skis, tubes, skis, etc. (courtesy of him and his awesome family). We had a blast. It was quite exciting…especially seeing Andre Fortier’s mad skills on the tube! The girl would not give up!! Seriously! At one point, the tube almost flipped completely over, and when it turned back over, she was still hanging on! It was crazy! One of the best days ever…with my closest friends…nothing better than that! Here are some pics so you can see for yourself!

Jessica, Kacie and Emily

Hunter, Chuck (standing!) and Daniel

Chuck, Daniel, Hunter – crazy boys!

Andre’s legs, Kacie

Andre and Kacie rollin’ across the river after they fell of the tube!

Send Your Light

Hey friends! I wanted to post another picture Jena drew. Her favorite song is “Send” by Lauren Best and Mike Haviland, which explains why she drew this picture. I am so proud of her. So about the picture…she says the black in the background behind the tree is the “darkness of this world,” and the gold swirl that goes around the tree is the “LIGHT from the Holy Spirit that guides us through the darkness of this world.” The kid is impacting the world from Teen Challenge in the middle of nowhere! Pretty cool, huh?

He is Real

Hey guys! Wanted to give you a quick update on my little sis!  She is doing great and has decided that she wants to go to Bible college when she finishes Teen Challenge.  No words can truly describe the change in her, so I thought it would be best to show you. Jena is extremely talented and has always been a creative child. She loves to write poetry, draw and do anything else artsy! Here is a picture she drew a few weeks ago at Teen Challenge…we thought it was so powerful!  She said once the transformation started happening in her life the first week she was there…she realized how real Jesus is…she just kept saying, “HE IS SO REAL!” We as a family are so proud of her! Hope you like the picture…she gave me permission to put it on my blog!

 

How He Loves Us

This is a video I got from Andrew…thanks to him for discovering this awesome band…they’re called Jesus Culture, and the lead singer is Kim Walker. They are from Bethel Church in Redding, CA. Great song, great band, great passion! Enjoy!