Blogging Anew

Well,

At both the prompting of a brief, text message-based conversation with Rachel K. Draper and a 4-month intent to provide some form of regular insights into my life, here is a blog. I know not, yet, what shall specifically be contained within the "pages" of this blog, so I suppose you shall find out with me.

Some brief updates and catch-up information for any IN readers, should there be any:

I am at First Wesleyan Church in Kannapolis, NC. The church is in its 100th year of existence, so it technically predates the Wesleyan church as an organization. Which I think it is awesome. I think this particular church was a Pilgrim Holiness church before that denom. merged with the Wesleyan Methodist Connection to form the modern day Wesleyan Church.
Anyway, the staff here is young. And full of dreams, ideas, visions, and all those good things. As a church, we are beginning to implement plans to reach our immediate neighbors, the people who live within a 1 mi. radius around the church. We would like to be a group who is known for serving the community and aiming directly at the needs of locals.
The youth group, named FUEL, averages about 40 people per week. We have had around 10 student visitors since I came, those being students who weren't already a part of the regular group. Recently, we went to a regional Wesleyan youth convention here in Charlotte where 2 of our students gave their lives to Christ. Following Love Mercy (the youth con), it is our aim to surrender our lives daily to Christ, so that we can be different and effective in our schools.
I also have a young adult group. We picked a name for it once, or rather I did, but I'm not sure it will stick. So I'll just leave that out. We have a tight group that is growing bit by bit. At our last event, bowling night, there were 6 of us. We are slowly creating a skeleton for what will, someday, be an organized ministry. (Hard to imagine anything I do being organized.)

Personally, I feel blessed every day just to wake up and know that all of this is reality. God has given many more chances than I humanly feel I deserve. To capitalize on one, finally, has really paid off. It is with all of my energy that I throw myself toward Him. What I feel had been a long, long dry spell finally ended. Costly, yes. Worth it, not my place to say. But I will not slip away again. If not for my own sake, then for the sake of the people who would be affected by my failure.

I could go on, but I'm gonna end it here, with this:

"I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us."
- Romans 8:39 (Emphasis added)

Thanks for reading, those of you who did. I'll write more later. Ciao.



Brandon M. Brown