toliveischrist.cc | The weblog of Jonathan Howes

I’ve already heard several cool Easter stories of people experiencing an “Ah Ha” moment.  God is changing lives at both the Ozora and Walton campuses.  There were 4 people who were spontaneously baptized in the clothes they wore to church and 24 people were baptized in all.  PRAISE GOD!

There were 350 people at our Walton campus for our 10:30 Easter service at Loganville High School.  WOW!  This is a total God thing.  It took Graystone Church over 4 years to grow to 300 people in attendance.  Graystone Walton is less than one month old.  We launched on 03.03.13.  Also, there was not enough room for 350 more people at our Ozora Campus, so Graystone Walton is already creating opportunities for growth and impact at both campuses.

All 3 services were full at our Ozora campus with the 9:00am reaching overflow capacity.  We brought in as many chairs as possible.  People were standing in the back and over 40 people were watching the service on a flat screen TV in the lobby which became a make-shift overflow room.  A big THANK YOU to everyone who came at 9:00AM and 12:00PM to make room for new people at 10:30AM.  Without people making the shift to 9:00 and 12:00, 10:30 would have felt like Hwy 78 before the 20,000 egg Helicopter Drop (which was amazing but is another post for another day.)  BTW, if you came at 9:00 or 12:00 and liked it, we would love for you to make this a normal part of your Sunday.  It would be great to keep making room for new people at 10:30.  :-)

As I said at the beginning of this post (I somehow got sidetracked…ADD maybe?), I’ve heard many cool stories of life change.

Here is one of my favorites so far…

3.5 years ago before we moved into the new building on Ozora Road while it was still under construction, our small Graystone Church family gathered at the unfinished building to pray.  We prayed over, around and through the entire building. We prayed for every person that would walk through the doors and down the halls.  We prayed over every kids room and for each child who came to experience the love of God.  And in every place in the building (main auditorium, student room and kids rooms) where there is now carpet, we wrote in sharpie on the concrete floor the names of people in our community who we were trusting God to change their lives for all eternity.  Well yesterday, a wife/mom from one of those families whose name was written on the auditorium floor was baptized.  And guess where the baptism tub was sitting?  Directly over the spot on the floor where her family’s name had been written in faith on the floor 3.5 years ago.  God is good!

If you have any cool Easter stories, I would love to hear about them. It always increases my faith when I hear of God working in communities, churches and people’s lives.   So, if you have a cool God story to tell, let’s hear it!

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