Monday, September 13, 2010

Original Forgiven to Walla Walla, Pendleton, and Standing Stones

I was hugely blessed to take Nathan Jacobsen, Jonathan Stanton, Peter Richardson, Peyton Burkhart, and Jim Dixon on a PFC worship concert tour to Walla Walla, Pendleton, and Wapato at Standing Stones.  Each one of the team flourished in their participation.

We started out Friday night at the Juvenile Detention in Walla Walla with seven inmate boys and one girl.  Peyton preached on the characteristics of our Christian lives from Ezekiel 1.  Jim played several songs and Nathan, Jonathan, and Peter played their first phenom set of the weekend.  Our altar call rolled into individual prayer time with each of the inmates and that was a rich experience.

The inmates named our band the "Original Forgiven," which really fit them.  Right away, I could see the group was going to far exceed my expectations to God's praise and glory.

Saturday, we held services at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary-east chapel, the Eastern Oregon Corrections Facility in Pendleton, and back to the penitentiary on the west side for an evening service.  Yes, that was one full day. 


Our first service on the east side was shortened to 75 minutes with prayer and breakdown of instruments as we needed to scramble down to Pendleton by noon.  Jim and the OF each played shortened sets and I preached a shortened message on being a friend of Jesus from John 15.  We had 34 and enjoyed a fruitful time of prayer with 12 in our closing.

We ended up ministering 2 1/2 hours to 83 in Pendleton, pictured to the right, highlighted by Peyton message on defeating giants and Jonathan's really transparent testimony. Again, we enjoyed fruitful prayer after our altar call with 18 men.

On the left here, on Sunday night back at the WW State Penitentiary-West chapel, we provided a shortened musical presentation for 32 as we shared the service with another group, which was very unexpected.  We participated in the entire service with prayer at the end.

Sunday morning we drove to PFC's Standing Stones Orchards and enjoyed fellowship with Dave and Gail Gorton, pictured to the right, with three program residents. Here on the left, Jim, Nathan, and Jonathan were enjoying bringing back peaches and apples from the SS orchards.

They are overseeing the Christian recovery program there.  We were privileged to hear an introduction to the transformation happening there and an overview of their program.

I am heading back over to Standing Stones this Tuesday to Friday afternoon to fellowship with Dave and Gail and support Dave with the teaching after he broke his left shoulder and cracked ribs last Tuesday.

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