by: Pastor Jack Ninaber
Ministry at the Manor continues to take on a life of its own. I have been told that I am a nice f____in pastor! That’s a first! I have also been able to use our van to help one of the guys who lives at Sue’s Inn get his trough and materials to his work sites.
As we continue to work on a house renovation that we are flipping, we have hired some of the guys who attend our services, and they have done great work from hanging drywall to framing and plumbing. Some days, they feel sick with tooth pain or back pain. It has led to some intense times of prayer, but healing has been experienced, praise God! They have joined in the prayer as well and seen God work. They have shared how they feel "100 times better." Wow, God is good!
Sharon has also taken on the role of "surety" for a young lady, and we have seen God at work with her as she talks about her own discovery of faith.
In many ways, this resembles the way transformation takes place on the house we are working on. People are not projects that you complete in one day, one week, one month. Yes, I know people aren’t projects, but what I do see is that transformation continues to take place and our goal is to call out of them what Father God created them to be! They need to see their own full potential just as people are beginning to see the full potential of our renovation. Just as our timeline for the completion date is fuzzy, they are on God’s timeline, and we cling to the promise of Philippians 1:6 for them: ...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
We were also so blessed by the ministry of Maggie Barrato, who spoke to us at the beginning of September and was amazingly used by the Spirit of God. Almost everyone was going forward for prayer! She reminded us of our mission to call the heart of the orphan to their true calling as children of their Heavenly Father.
We have had as many as eighty people attend on a given Sunday, but average around forty. We had seven baptisms at the end of August, and we have seen three people come to faith over the past few months.
See our baptism video below: