A Trip to Georgia
This past weekend I (Matt) was able to take a trip from Jacksonville to Georgia to preach at Moon’s Grove Baptist Church (Tracey Deavors’ new church for all of you who know him) and to stop in LaGrange to meet with and spend time with some of our wonderful supporters there. It was a very fun and encouraging trip as I got to meet some people for the first time and hear about how GOD is working at some of our supporting churches. I cannot wait to do it again.
I was also able to spend some time with a few of the people who make our LaGrange Fundraiser happen each year, and we have a tentative date for this year’s fundraiser! I say tentative because we have not paid the deposit at Del’avant Event Center yet to make it official. As of now, our LaGrange Fundraiser will be:
Thursday October 17 at Del’avant Event Center in LaGrange
We would love for you to go ahead and make plans to attend that event and to invite everyone that you know in and around LaGrange to be there. Once everything is official, we will start announcing it on our Facebook pages and begin sending emails and invitations as well. We would love to make this year our biggest event yet and get some new people, churches, and organizations involved in the ministry of All Things New. The format will be a little different this year as we will attempt to tell the history of ATN in pictures, skip the silent auction, have a live auction, and have a fun night talking about our ministry in Haiti.
As for the trip, I left early Friday morning to drive up to LaGrange and spent the rest of Friday and Saturday meeting with people and spending time with family and friends. One of the great things about LaGrange is that a lot of the All Things New supporters I spend time with are also friends and I am always really encouraged after spending just a couple of days seeing people there.
LaGrange is such an important part of All Things New that it would be difficult to put into words how much that city has meant to us personally and to our ministry. All we can really say is thank you and we hope that all of you guys understand that we would not exist without you!
On Sunday morning, I woke up and drove to Moon’s Grove Baptist Church (just outside of Athens, GA) and got to preach for the first time in a while. It was a blast and it was really good to see Tracey and Shannon and meet their church family and see where they are now doing ministry. I was also reminded of how much I enjoy preaching when I get the opportunity and how much I enjoy worshipping in english. Tracey has been a good friend for a while and it was really good catching up with he and his family.
A lot of what All Things New has accomplished over the years has been a direct result of relationships with people in Georgia, so occasionally I go up to spend time with people and help to keep ATN in people’s minds. The truth is, every time I leave, I am more encouraged by the people that I have spoken with and it turns out that the trip was very needed. The only downside is that I cannot spend time with everyone, but I would love to try to get together with some of you the next time we are there!