Exciting Things Are Happening!!!

HGR waiting for the bus to arrive at the Red Carpet

We have had some very exciting things happen recently.

We currently have around 30 young people involved in the bus ministry and it has transformed from a fun things to do with friends into a true ministry.  You can see the burden beginning to settle in on our young people as they are now establishing relationship with the kids they have been picking up on the bus.

We are now regularly picking up over 100 kids to Sunday school on our two large buses (one an 84 passenger and one a 72 passenger) and our shuttle bus (18 passenger).

A while back I had the amazing opportunity to knock on a door.  The lady that answered the door was very sweet and after a short talk she agreed to let her three kids go with us the next week to Sunday School but only if she could go to.  Needless to say, we were more than happy to do so.

Unfortunately the next Sunday she (Kathryn) was not able to come but her kids did and they have been faithfully doing so ever since.  She has also attended several times and Sis. Rebecca Cowen and Nathaniel have done an amazing job is befriending this family and providing rides to church on services.

Kathryn getting the Holy Ghost

Then it happened, after a whole lot of prayer and work, God did it.  On a Sunday night last month, Kathryn received the Holy Ghost speaking in other tongues at the altar surrounded by young bus workers.  While it seemed like the fulfillment of a lot of prayer, I earnestly believe that it is ONLY the beginning.

We have been encouraging the bus workers to "adopt" a bus kid; to build a relationship with them, to befriend them, to provide rides to church on services other than Sunday morning and to sit and pray with them at church.

The bus workers have been AMAZING in this regard and two Sunday nights ago, there were over 30 bus kids in church that came in a variety of vehicles and by the invitation of a variety of our youth.  In this group was Jose, a young man that attended our church for the first time that morning.  He only came to accompany his sisters but was eager to attend that night at the invitation of Areli Alvarez.

Two sisters praying with each other last Sunday night

That night, we saw the first person who came on our bus get the Holy Ghost!  Once again our bus workers were surrounding him as he began to speak in other tongues, a bewildered look on his face.  It was the most beautiful sight we had ever seen!

We are expecting even greater things to happen.  Last night, we had around 12 bus kids at church and at the end of service there were at least eight of them in the altar, crying with their hands raised, praying.

Seeing God touch the lives of these bus kids in just PART of the blessing that God is pouring out.  The other half is seeing our young people that have been, in many cases, raised in church, make connections and build relationships with our bus kids.  For them to be the ones who invite them back to another service, for them to be the ones who pick them up in their cars or have their parents do so, and for them to be in the altar praying with them and watch them get the Holy Ghost is one of the most incredible, yet slight unanticipated, aspect of this ministry.

I truly believe that this is only the beginning... only the tip of the iceberg of what God is going to do in our community.  I firmly believe that in the next couple of years, hundreds of young people from all social circles and backgrounds will be filled with the Holy Ghost.  There is  NO TELLING what God is going to do!