R a i s i n g C a n e y . c o m

As most of you know, Tasha and I live in Ruston, La. As you also probably know, we are members of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. Having said that, we have considered Chi Alpha our “church” for quite some time. The love, fellowship, and community of college-aged believers here is incredible. The campus pastors truly have a heart for reaching the students on this campus. We love it. While we value Chi Alpha and it’s place in our life, we also want to be a part of a traditional church that reaches out to a broader community than our campus. Also, Chi Alpha encourages it’s members to participate in and find a “home” church.

Tasha and I have visited First Baptist – Ruston, South Parkway Church, Crossroads Baptist Church, Warrior School (AoG), and Jonesboro AoG over the past two years. We’ve met terrific people from/at all of the churches, but we never truly found a “fit.”

When my Mom gave her life to Christ several months ago and asked me to help her find a church family, Tasha and I went round and round trying to decide where to take her. She thought I should take her to her old church, Fellowship Baptist. I thought that I should take her to my old church, First Baptist. The night before she was to come to church with us, I stayed up until around 3am…praying that God tell me what to do…where to go…what to do.

Finally, God spoke… He told me “It doesn’t matter where. You bring her to church, I’ll bring her the message.” Wow. That having been said, my decision was made. If God would truly bring her a message regardless of where she went, then I might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I could bring her to Fellowship (making my wife happy), and I would be bringing her to church (making God happy).

After service that Sunday, my Mom asked me “did you tell the pastor I was coming?! It was like he was talking SPECIFICALLY to me!” I laughed, because I knew that while I hadn’t told Brother Don anything, God had (given him that message).

Since then, every time Tasha and I have been in town, we go to Fellowship. If my Mom is off work she usually comes with us. I had never been to Fellowship, so I had never given it a chance! Basically, I’ve fallen in love with this family of believers. They are sponsoring me in my mission trip to South Africa this summer. They are allowing us to host our baby shower in their reception hall. They have a true heart for outreach and service to our community, and they have a strong heart for young believers (as well as reaching young non-believers). The preaching and the teaching is relevant and powerful. We went to Sunday night Bible Study there for the first time this weekend, and it was awesome.

Tasha and I both have a strong desire to invest in this church’s ministry. My biggest fear about this right now is the fact that our future is so uncertain right now! I really hope I get a job in Shreveport-Bossier so that we can continue to grow and invest in this wonderful family of believers after I graduate. It would truly be a blessing to be able to raise our daughter in a church family with the love of this church.