Grateful

I'm grateful today to God for allowing me and others to see His activity so evidently in the lives of people around me. Yesterday was an incredible day at UCity Fellowship. Celebrating the journeys of four very dear friends (Lonnie and Angela Clouse and Trent and Carmen Post) is an honor. I will miss them all tremendously, but I am so excited to be a part of the next thing that God has for them as they establish and lead orphan care initiatives in Ethiopia and Mexico. I look forward to visiting them in their new works and planning effective partnerships for the Kingdom.

To follow a morning like that with a Baptism Celebration - was amazing. The way God continues to transform the lives of people young and old just completely floors me at times. Here is an email I received last week from a man who was baptized yesterday.

David,

I’m writing to you because of the deep connection that my wife and I have felt since attending UCF for the past month. I can’t speak for Nancy but for me, the moment that I walked through the doors, for the first time, I knew that there was something powerful working and that I belonged.

I was raised in an Episcopal church and ran as fast and as far as I could when I turned sixteen. While I never stopped talking to God all of these years, I have not attended a church since long ago because the message that I kept hearing didn’t jive with what I knew to be true; it doesn’t matter who you are, where you’ve come from, or what you’ve done but it’s what’s in your heart.

We used to live in a small town named Stanfield. Nancy worked in Concord and I was self-employed working all over the area. Our oldest son was struggling in the local school system and we were struggling financially. One day on her way home, she still can’t explain it; she was passing First Assembly and pulled in. She walked into the school office and asked for a tour, it was pajama day and the Principal happily gave her a tour; in his pajamas!
She promptly came home and proclaimed that we were sending Blake, our only child then, to that school; HOW! was my reaction…? Well, we stepped off the edge and SOMEHOW we found a way.

It was Blake’s sixth-grade year that this occurred and now he is going into his senior year at college and the part that God has played in his life is almost overwhelming.

I recount that story, and of course there’s many more, just to acknowledge the role that God has always played in our lives but that I have never truly served HIM.

Listening to the Rhodes’ story Sunday was something that Nancy and I are way TOO familiar with. I know and believe that as Tim said, “God has been breaking me down”, over the past three years which has left a huge hole in my life, and I think Nancy’s too. That’s what got me to the doors of UCF a month ago. The really cool thing….since we’ve been attending, some of the stuff that I care about deeply, veterans and Marines in particular, has entered my life at UCF. Something wonderful happened with this on Sunday and I spent most of the gathering crying!

As I look back over the years, it is so obvious that God has played such a huge roll in our lives, because there really is no other explanation. And because of the love He has shone to us, Nancy and I know it’s time to get off the sidelines.

I have listened to the cd and read the booklet but I have to say that when I saw this booklet a couple of weeks ago, before even reading it, I knew what I was to do. The cd sealed my commitment. I am ready to make “a public declaration to a new association with Jesus Christ” and be washed. Since revealing my desire for Baptism to my family, Nancy has also expressed her desire to be baptized.

My oldest son Blake has never waivered from the path; he has been an amazing example of Gods’ handy work and, if you accept our request for Baptism, I would like for him to be involved, if possible.

Thank you for this ministry,
Ron DuDonis

And if this was the only story like this, it would blow me away. But there are so many more amazing stories of God's activity.

Again ... I am grateful... just very grateful.