Pastor Bruce’s blog

Hey, I had a great trip to Brownsville, Texas this past week!  The picture I put here isn’t really fair; I only saw cactus off in a field of scrub brush.  Brownsville is a thriving city of mostly hispanic people, being on the border with Mexico.  I didn’t go down to see the sights, though, I went to spend time with our friends the Ordemans and their amazing church family.  I love spending time with Pastor Bob, his wife Libby, and their senior leaders because they are really reaching their city for Jesus.  The church has about 2,000 members and every week 25 to 35 people come to Christ in their services.  They have a leadership development school called “Vision Academy” and I witnessed a graduation service for the end of a term, last Wednesday night.  It was a real celebration!  They, like us, have small groups meeting weekly for discipleship and outreach.  There are many things that they do that contribute to great success in building God’s Kingdom, both in Brownsville and in Mexico, which they consider their prime mission field.  But you know where their success really lies?  It’s in their prayer life.  Every day their staff gets together and prays for an hour.  They pray together before services.  They have monthly church wide prayer meetings and weekly early morning men’s prayer meetings.  For the first three weeks of the year they have a 21 day fast and every week night they met as a church for prayer.  No wonder! No wonder they see so much happening in the Spirit and have so many coming to the Lord!  That’s the reason I went down, because I love these people and want what they have to rub off on all of us.  But hey; do you hang out with people more mature in the Lord?  Have you said to someone more mature, “please give me what you have?”  It makes a huge difference as to how much and how fast you’ll grow!  PB