My wife, Deliah, and I came to Heartland Vineyard Church a little over two years ago, just about this time of year. We were struggling in our marriage and I was dealing with severe anger issues.
The first Sunday we were here, we sat right there in the front row. We asked Dan before we sat down if anyone sat there, thinking a pastor probably did. He said… “Sit anywhere you want.” We have been sitting there ever since. We love the front row because there are no distractions. When we are here, we want our complete focus to be on Jesus on what he has for us.
Within the first couple of Sundays of being at Heartland, we got invited to a picnic. At the picnic Celebrate Recovery leaders, Blaine & Liz Freeman, invited everyone to attend Celebrate Recovery the following Tuesday. We went! It was just what we needed. Our lives have changed because of Celebrate Recovery! We are so thankful!
If it weren’t for Celebrate Recovery, The Building may never have come to be. For those of you that don’t know, The Building is a ministry that Deliah and I started about 6 months ago. We bought into the idea that relationships are the currency of the Kingdom and we felt God leading us to start a ministry around building relationships. The Building is all about building relationships!
It started slow. 6 to 10 people were coming for the first couple of months. We now average 35-40 attending weekly and have had upwards of 70 people come on several occasions.
We eat together and play Uno, Skip-Bo, and Pepper. It has become a way for people that go to Celebrate Recovery to enter into deeper personal relationships. We encourage each other and have fun together. We look forward to it every week.
We have started doing outreaches in the community together. The Building hosted a Trunk-a-Treat event on October 25th and over 250 kids showed up. It was a great way for us to love the kids and families in our community in a simple way. Nearly 20 people from our group decorated their cars and trucks. It was a blast! We served hot dogs and gave candy out to all the kids. It was an awesome time of building relationships. We hope to do another outreach sometime very soon.
If it was not for this church, I would still be an angry hateful person consumed with myself. If God can fix me, he can fix anyone. Through relationships I have built at CR and The Building, I have become the man that God intended me to be.
We all have baggage we may be holding on to. Some of us sit at home on Saturday nights thinking about drinking or worse. If you are in this place and want to be a part of a group that will love and support you, come join us at The Building on Saturday night at 5:30. Come as you are. You are accepted by God and you’ll be accepted by us.
Check us out on Facebook to see pics from our Trunk-a-Treat event and to get more information.
We hope to see you soon