Reporting Live from Laurel Hill, FL

back to Our Walk of Faith

This is part two of the story...it would probably make more sense to read the post after this one called "From Leonia to Defuniak…still Here in Florida" before you read this one. ;-)

God’s fingerprints were on the next several events…we went into CVS so I could put on pants and my boots, and we met Armanda. She didn’t really know why she was working at CVS and didn’t really enjoy it, so God opened a door for us to share His plan and purpose for her life. Pretty exciting to say the least!! Then we started walking…after about 10 minutes we saw this truck pull over. A man in a suit got out and started taking a picture of us and then started talking to us as if he knew us. Almost immediately, we realized it was Pastor Mike McVay. He was on his way to the hospital to visit and “just so happened” to pass us. (Thanks for having your own plan God!) As we got into the truck, a person on the radio was reading Isaiah 55 in Spanish. I did a double-take. I asked Pastor Mike if he spoke Spanish, but he didn’t have a clue what they were saying or why he had even left that station on…I had just read that passage the day before…just a little confirmation that we were supposed to share that passage at church that night (First Baptist Laurel Hill)! So we went to the hospital with him and met Mr. John who has had some pretty serious problems with his leg. He’s doing much better now!
We’ve learned so much this week from Pastor Mike!! He surrendered everything to be able to serve the Lord. When he learned that the Lord was calling him into ministry, Pastor Mike accepted a call as a bi-vocational preacher. He soon learned that wasn’t what the Lord was asking for…He wanted more. After much prayer and support from his wife, Runae, he decided that they should step out on faith. The church hadn’t offered him a full-time salary, but he heard God’s call to be a full-time preacher, so he accepted God’s call. They’ve never looked back! God has provided for them in every way imaginable!!!
We’ve seen God’s living Word again this week through the lives of Pastor Mike & Runae. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul says “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” And that’s been what we witnessed, from volunteer fire fighter, to embroiderer of gym bags and letter jackets, to chef (He taught me how to make buttermilk biscuits.), to pastor, to farmer, to counselor, to mentor at the school to hunter, Pastor Mike encompasses them all. He’s even started dressing up as a Hobo (Laurel Hill School’s mascot). The kids (young and old) love him! He’s at their home and many of their away games just to support the teams as the Hobo! It’s amazing. Runae supports him in all he does even when she can’t be there. He’s the embodiment of becoming all things to all people by all means possible that some might come to know the Lord!! What great mentors this week!! They have an amazing heart for the community especially for the youth. Please pray for them as they are in search of a full-time youth pastor/youth director. (If anyone is interested, let us know and put you in touch with the right people. It's a very supportive community!!)
God’s living Word isn’t the only thing we’ve seen this week…we’ve also seen answered prayers. We know that so many people have been praying for open doors for us to speak and God threw them open this week at Laurel Hill School. It all started because we went early to meet some students in the hall before the FCA meeting. Chris & I went into the library to pray before we spoke and we ran into Skyler, Jace, Alex, Taylor & Lane—5th graders who wanted to come to FCA, but are too young to join. Since they couldn’t come to the meeting, they invited us back to their class to speak to them during Social Studies (with Mrs. Honz’s permission of course). After we got them back to class we made our way to the gym where we met Anthony, the FCA president, and Sally, a member of the girls’ basketball team. We had a great time sharing with FCA to close to 100 of the 445 students in the K-12 school and talked with several of the students after the meeting. Then we ate at the Laurel Hill Grill!! Thanks, Mr. Earl Jernigan for lunch...it was soooo tasty! Finally it was time…we went back to speak to our 1st classroom since we left our classes at the end of last year! Thanks, Mrs. Honz, for leading the way at the school!! God lead the way as we discussed why we were doing what we were doing…we even included a little geography and long division. Their invitation opened the door for us to speak to Mrs. Strickland’s 3rd grade class as well. Monday night we went to see the girls’ play basketball—Katlyn who we met at church Sunday night plays on the team. We sat with the cheerleaders, so we got to know them a little (and were impressed by their spirit & knowledge of what was going on in the game.)
Tuesday, we went to a grave-side service with Pastor Mike and then rode to the girls’ basketball game in Pensacola with Keith Free-Katlyn’s dad and Mrs. Barbara-her grandma. Mrs. Barbara is spunky to say the least! She just went to Colombia (Yes, the same country that we’ve been praying about entering or not.) this past summer. She had a great time sharing the Gospel, and told us that she never felt like she was in danger. It was pretty exciting!! At the game, we ended up sitting with Emily—her husband (Andy) was reffing the game—and getting to share with her back and forth about the things God is doing in our lives. Interestingly enough, they go to the same church as the FCA area director!! We were excited about making contact with her…who knows what God will use it for, but it’s still fun to see God connect people together! We rode back from the game with Stacy, Cindy, Chris and the kids—Ashley, Michael, and Moon. (We had a ball in the back with him!!)
Wednesday took us to church and we sat in with Ms. Carla and the youth class…Ashley, Colton, Chance, Jeffrey, & Daniel. After church, we went to Frank & Judy Bowen’s house to eat supper. Frank (in the hat on the right)can do just about anything “handy” that you can imagine. He is laying a wood floor in his house using lumber from his own land. (This is in addition to the walls he already put up!) He says God picked out the trees and knocked them down…he just cuts them up and makes boards out of them. In addition to the floor, he laid the rock wall around his free-standing fireplace. Plus he had us howling with laughter at his huntin’ stories and tales about Red-his pet pig. It’s pretty amazing how God made people to fill every role & job in this world.
Thursday, we were invited back to the school…remember how I was talking about opened doors and answered prayers…
We spoke to Mrs. Mitchell’s 4th grade class (pictured on the left...Stacy from church was subbing that day, so she's in this picture as well)is and did much the same with them that we did with the 5th graders…a little Social studies, a little math and answered their questions. We tried to impress upon them how important it was to love one another and to be kind to each other. Before we finished talking to the class, Stacy came in and told Pastor Mike that Ms. Tyner’s class-the other half of the 4th grade (pictured on the right)wanted us to come visit them. As we got into the class, I was worried we were interrupting their reading lesson, but we started much the same as we had in the other classes. They had tons of questions…one particular question stuck out though…one of the boys said, “How do you get to heaven?” We didn’t say anything for a second because we were shocked that the door would be opened that wide!! In the time we were silent, several of the students started answering—“be good,” “No, you have to have Jesus in your heart,” “you have to believe in God”. When we were able to open our mouths, we were able to share with them that there is punishment for the bad things we do. God can’t be around bad things, so we need something to clean us up and pay our debt, and that is Jesus. Then one kid said “yeah, it’s kinda like a pencil, you make mistakes, but Jesus is the big eraser and He erases your mistakes.” WOW! Only God could orchestrate such a conversation!
The rest of Thursday and Friday were spent catching up on e-mails, working on this post, and going to basketball games. Both of the boys’ JV games were won at the buzzer two nights in a row. The same Hobo shot the game-winning, long 3-pointer both nights. The Varsity boys played good games both nights as well—winning on Thursday and only falling 4 points short of beating a 5-A school on Friday night. (Laurel Hill is a 1-A school so you can understand the significance of the score.) The 3rd-5th grade girls-The Hoboettes-were also at both games to perform a few cheers. They were so cute and excited about the game (and that we had come to see them). Thursday night, Chris got to sit beside Darron—an 8th grader at Laurel Hill. They chatted quite a bit. Friday night, the Varsity cheerleaders performed their competition cheer for the crowd at half-time. They were so nervous, but they did a great job!
On Saturday, the cheerleaders went to their very 1st competition ever. (They placed 2nd and were awarded the trophy for “Most Spirited Squad.”) We went with FCA to see the movie “The Nativity.” It was a pretty accurate depiction of the Christmas story! I won’t give it away if you haven’t seen it yet, but there’s some really good symbolism that I wasn’t aware of. We enjoyed our time with them. Then Scott & Angie Fortune (She’s the Huddle Coach for FCA at Laurel Hill.) invited us to eat and watch Luther with them at their house. We chatted quite a bit over dinner about FCA and shared ideas with them since they are just getting started. We also talked about missions and the Lord! (We stayed with Scott & Angie--pictured in front of their fire place--last Sunday night, and had been looking forward to a time we could meet with them and share!!)
Today, we taught the teen Sunday School class with Mrs. Willadean. Katlyn was there again, so we were able to share a little more!! Then we spoke briefly right before Pastor Mike preached. Again, it was so interesting that it all tied together…What the Lord had laid on Chris’s heart, my heart, and Pastor Mike’s heart…none of us discussed it before we spoke…just God moving and tying things together. God has an amazing plan for each of us…it’s just a matter of surrendering to that!! Don’t ignore the people in your path…they are there for a reason...look to God to figure it out! Tonight we were in with the teens again…this time with Angie Fortune. Katlyn, Chance, and Colton were with us as well. The church was having communion, so Angie asked the kids if they knew what that meant. They were a little sketchy on it, so we read from Matthew 26 & 1 Corinthians 11 to explain it to them. We were pretty impressed by their understanding, curiosity, and questions! It was really a great discussion, and then we went in to join the rest of the church for communion. Well…we’ll have to see what tomorrow holds…it looks like we may be moving on, but we’re still praying. God bless you! We love you tons!!



Here's a few more Laurel Hill Pictures...

From left to right-- (1) the Varsity Cheerleaders, the Hoboettes, and other students line the entrance for the Varsity Boys Basketball team, (2) Some of the JV Cheerleaders, (3) RE with Mikala who made a book for us to take on our journey!! (4) Pastor Mike McVay aka "The Hobo" (5) Alex with CE & RE...he asked for prayer for his family