Monday, June 25, 2012

Hope Chapel Metro - 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

This past weekend we celebrated the one year anniversary of our church, Hope Chapel Metro! It's been inspiring to look back and see all that God has done in only the first year through this church plant. We had been anticipating and planning for this service for a couple of months. We knew that this would be a great opportunity for people to invite friends and family to join us in the celebration.

Before the service I (DJ) admit that I was nervous, and I wasn't even the one speaking that night! But I was nervous about the videos that I edited being any good, if we could set up everthing in time, if people would show up, and I was just nervously excited for what God would do.

The night was incredible, the place was full, 200 people attended and about 25% were first time guests joining us. We were blessed to see a friend, that Lynnette met and connected with through her youTube video blog, bring his entire family to celebrate with us for the first time. 

You could feel God's presence, the room was filled with joy and many were moved to tears by His love for them as they listened to the message given by Pastor Nolan and the stories of some church members whose lives had been transformed by God. Over 80 people responded to God that night by giving their lives to Jesus or rededicating their faith. It was powerful!

Then like a cherry on top of an already awesome sundae (and Sunday), we were able to raffle a brand new iPad, it was encouraging to see a yaya (nanny), accept her prize in tears. We were able to further serve the people with a giant 65", 600 slice pizza - the biggest in Quezon City!

For Lynnette and I, the past few weeks leading to the celebration have been busy, and crazy! Our days were filled with shopping for equipment and supplies, organizing teams, late night video editing, and countless other details. But it was all worth it to see lives changed, and Jesus glorified. In the end, without His strength and help, we couldn't have accomplished anything.

With the anniversary over, now the hard work begins! Now we must now focus our efforts in connecting with all the new people who joined us, to thank them, and to hopefully help them become a part of this awesome Hope Chapel Metro family!

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