Coming Home

It has been a great trip and God has been good!  Can't wait to come home though...a week away from the wife and kids is one long week.  Looking forward to seeing them tomorrow night however looked at the weather report and not looking forward to a high of 44 and low of 33 on Wednesday...yuck!

To tell all the things that God did on this trip would be impossible.  I am continually amazed at how when we are obedient to God and attempt to follow His direction how he uses us.  There was so many things that were spoken during the church services that directly impacted peoples lives.

Sunday morning, there were two couples who just walked in from the street who were on vacation.  One couple from Norway and the other from England.  God spoke encouragement to the couple from England.  As most of you know I am a cancer survivor and I shared the story of God's healing in my life during the morning service afterward we find out that the lady visiting has breast cancer.  We will be praying for God's hand of deliverance in this ladies life.  There are no accidents with God!

Well the internet is extremely slow here and I don't have the time or patience to wait for the pictures to download so I will post some when I get back tomorrow.

Blessings!

Pictures from Trinidad

 These two are pictures from the Youth Workers Training Seminar.

Picture on the left is AIMers Joseph & Cassandra Landaw.

The other is from the the youth conference in St. James.

Pictures from Trinidad

The view outside of the soon to be new Bible School in St. James

Sponge Bob & I went jellyfishing :)

The National Sunday School Director Bro. Griffin praying for a young man.

Here is Missionary Landaw in his new Sheaves For Christ Vehicle!  His old vehicle has over 250,000 miles on it.  Thank you for giving to SFC!

VERY BUSY...but God is good

Well it has been non-stop since I got here.  Bro. Landaw the missionary has a full schedule for me but that is o.k. my wife is at home.

Yesterday (Thursday) we to Marracos Beach for some world famous Shark & Bake, it is worth the trip just to eat it.  

Thursday night we met with the youth worker & pastors for a training seminar in San Juan and had a wonderful time.

Friday night we were in St. James with the Youth of Trinidad & God did some awesome things.

Can you tell I am exhausted I have pictures and more things to tell you from the first two nights and I will post those tomorrow but I can't hold my eyes open I gotta sleep.

God Bless you all!  

Trinidad

Landed in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago at 7:30p.m. tonight.  A full day of travel but a beautiful day to fly.  It is a perfect 74 but Bro. Landaw the resident missionary says that it is a cool winter night.  It is a perfect 45 back home in Bloomington.  

Going to crash now and enjoy tomorrow.  Nothing official until 7:00p.m. tomorrow night.  We will be at the Bible School in St. James in session with the youth leaders throughout the Islands.  

The Bible College is nothing short of a miracle.  Our own Indiana Young People helped kickoff the purchase of this building with a $12,000 offering in 2006.  

Blessings,

Pastor Bowman

Covered by Him!

We moved into a new house February 1.  A beautiful home that has plenty of space of our boys and dog to romp.  Quite an upgrade in space from where we lived before.  We hadn't really done any exploring into the woods behind the house until today.  The seven inches of snow that fell yesterday made it an even more exciting exploration.   Everything was covered by the snow snow so each step was an exciting adventure.  On our trek back to the house I heard Caleb call out excitedly look at this truck!  What typically I assume is an eyesore had become the highlight of the days adventure.  Yet we didn't see it as ugly, actually we didn't see it al all because it had been covered by the new fallen snow.

My mind ran to the passage in Psalm 147 where it reads beginning in verse 7.

7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

make music to our God on the harp. 

8 He covers the sky with clouds;

he supplies the earth with rain

and makes grass grow on the hills. 

9 He provides food for the cattle

and for the young ravens when they call. 

NIV

No matter how ugly our lives may be, there is hurting in the penthouse in the middle of Manhattan that is hid behind the mask of affluence.  Or the ugliness and pain in our lives may be as easy to see as the old abandon truck in the woods behind our house.  Either way or anything in between, His blood covers like the new fallen snow.

He supplies our needs not our wants!  I sometimes question the things he thinks I need.  I question what I see others go through and I question what I my self goes through at times.  Yet I know when I look back there is a heaven to gain and although I may have to walk through the storm sometimes my faith is locked in on him.  Though He slay me yet I will trust in Him!

The old song says "He's Still Working on Me"  Why?  Because I am a work in progress!

He makes all things new...It really is as simple as letting the blood cover you!  The amazing thing about His blood that is unlike the snow...although the snow covers, what ever is underneath it will resurface once the snow melts away.  But when His blood covers you something supernatural takes place!  What was underneath disappears never to be remember again by God.

He is my provider!  I saw my first robin yesterday...how ironic was that seven inches of snow and my first robin sighting of the year was all on the same day!  I bet he was thinking that weather report I got was a little off I should have stayed south a few days longer :)  Yet even though he came back to early and all the food needed for survival is covered by snow he wasn't stressing and in need of a Xanax to get through the day.

  

We get so stressed in daily living.  Why are we stressed?  Well someone said "we spend money we don't have, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like."  That pretty much sums up why we are stressed.  

Luke 12:27

27 "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

NIV

 

Our God will provide!

Lastly aren't you thankful that God isn't impressed by the strongest, the fastest, the richest and the most popular?

Psalm 147:10-11 states that

10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; 

11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,

who put their hope in his unfailing love.

NIV

Living for Christ may be the simple life...but it is the best life!

BTW...

It's 28 degrees while I type this blog in beautiful South Central Indiana my next update should be from the Islands of Trinidad & Tobago.  Current temperature as I type this blog a balmy 77!  If I can just make it to Wednesday!!!

Exciting Happenings at New Life

Sunday, April 6, will mark the beginning of a new schedule here at New Life. This new schedule will give God's people the opportunity to fill their heads and hearts with God's truth.  God's Word makes a difference in our lives!

Please note the schedule and make your plans to join us. Let's ask the Lord for a packed church and more importantly for changed lives through the ministry of the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

In addition on the last Sunday of the month we will have a potluck lunch and an extended opportunity to fellowship together.

New Schedule beginning April 6

10:30a.m. - 11:30a.m.  Sunday School

11:30a.m. – 11:45a.m.  Prayer in the Sanctuary

11:45              Worship and the Word

 

Fellowship Sunday will take place the last Sunday of the month where we will have a potluck lunch following the 11:45 service.

 

Although this could be a permanent change we will reserve the right to amend this schedule change because people are more important than the schedule.

 

As Pastor I feel that this scheduled will allow our families and our people to truly rest and worship the Lord on the Lord’s Day.  At times our former schedule caused us to operate at a hectic pace.  Sundays should truly be a refreshing day!

  

Add me to the list...I'm a Blogger!

Here I am blogging!  Why am I doing this?  Well first and foremost to stay connected to most importantly my two fine young boys, Caleb 10 & Reagan 6 when I travel.  Secondly for our local church to be able to do the same thing...stay connected!  Finally to keep you all who wish to follow along and be informed with what is going on with us as we endeavor to do the work of the Lord.

Well first off this has been just one more incredible week!  God is certainly good!  It has been a very stressful month of February to say the least whether it came in like a lion or lamb I was just ready for March to get here.  

We started the month preaching One Degree a youth convention in Lincoln, Nebraska and while we had a great time there and preaching at The Church of Omaha with Pastor Jimmy Toney & Damon Magee.  My wife made a frightening discovery while in Lincoln and that was a lump that she had never felt before.  We tend to be a bit jumpy when it comes to lumps, my mother in law Judy Pedro had breast cancer 12 years ago (she beat it) and I had cancer in 1999 in which the words from my oncologist Dr. Lawrence Einhorn (also the oncologist for Lance Armstrong) I am cured!  So Natalie went to her doctor when we got back into town and she thought it to be suspicious so she scheduled her for a mammogram in which she had on February 21 and that is when it got interesting.  After the mammogram the doctor scheduled an ultrasound that immediately following.  The doctor then shared this bit of wonderful news, it appeared to him from looking at the mammogram to be cancer that is why he did the ultrasound then when he looked at it he was even more confused because that looked even a bit stranger than the mammogram and his results from viewing were conflicting.  So a biopsy was scheduled on February 27 and we were told we would meet again with the doctor on February 29 to discuss the diagnosis.  

Well according to my wife the biopsy was very scary because it was there where she saw the mass and it actually scared her in a major way.  I have a strong and wonderful wife but this was really setting her back.  God was going to have to intervene on our behalf.  

Maybe you have no problem with this but as pastor & wife we both tend to have a bit of trouble praying for ourselves & to be honest sometimes even having faith for ourselves as our lives are continually giving to others, praying for others, helping others.  And that is where friends come in!  We told our church of the situation and they began to fast and pray.  We told our closest friends and they too started holding us up in prayer.  

We are blessed to be apart of a very active arm of the United Pentecostal Church and that is the Youth Division where we serve as Youth President of the state of Indiana.  This allows us to have and unbelievable network of close friends not only in Indiana but throughout the United States & Canada.  Shay Mann our North American Youth President along with Administrative Assistant Cindy Sorrels got the word out for the need of prayer to take place and did our friends ever more shake the foundations of heaven with prayer.

Wednesday and Thursday the waiting game kicked in and it seemed like an eternity until Friday afternoon then God kicked into motion several things that just awed me!  My wife who was very down received over 150 text messages & emails from our saints at New Life and our friends involved in Youth Ministry throughout Indiana, the United States & Canada.  She stated that this was the thing that kept her faith strong and Thursday night she just put her Blackberry on her chest and those messages were and extension from the throne of God, something was happening.  And in her words God changed something in her body between Wednesday and Friday. 

At 8:30a.m. on Friday morning the phone rang and looking at the caller i.d. I saw that it was the doctor.  To be honest with you I braced for the worst while giving the phone to my wife.  I expected us not to see her doctor but to be referred straight to a surgeon because that is exactly how it played out when I was diagnosed with cancer.  However, that was not going to be the case.  We wouldn't have to wait until 4:00p.m. the word on the other end was all your test came back normal, it is just a fibroid tumor the doctor doesn't need to see you for 6 months!  Praise God!  So we quickly celebrated with our family and friends then it was her day.  A trip to McAlister's Deli and the mall followed up with dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise!  Does life get any better??? 

All that leads me to my sermon for March 2.  I am going to be preaching from Isaiah 43.  What an exciting passage of scripture as it follows the depression of Isaiah 42 in which the wrath of God is being poured out upon the children of Israel.  Isaiah 42 is the worst case scenario that we can face in our lives but in the midst of the worst of times...God is still there and in Isaiah 43 it reads...

Isa 43:1-3

43 But now, this is what the Lord says —

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

3 For I am the Lord, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

I give Egypt for your ransom,

Cush and Seba in your stead. NIV

God is teaches us important lessons in the midst of crisis moments but there are six words in the first three chapters of Isaiah 43 that can transform u in the midst of these crisis situations.  And they are...

BUT NOW...No matter what we may be going through, no matter the trial we must stand still and remember that it is He that made us and that it is He who is God!  Faith hears in the midst of the bad and the words from Isaiah bring us through.  Is it dark, yeah BUT NOW...God steps on the scene!

Fear Not...Maybe you want to see angels and get all hyped up on the supernatural!  But if and angel shows up at my place I am tripping out!  Evidently we might would be a little petrified if an angel shows up.  How can I have no fear?  Because no matter what it is He has already been there.  No matter what it is the price has already been paid on Calvary.

I Am...When He finally talks Moses in to going back to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go.  Moses asks God this question...Who shall I say sent me?"  The I AM!  The self-existent one is in control of what ever the situation.  So I got a feeling everything is going to be alright! 

So when the worst happens in your life...you lose your family, you lose your health, you lose your job, you lose your identity!  When tragedy overwhelms and grief overcomes us Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.  

Be Still and Know that I am God!

Have Faith!  Don't Doubt!

For when God speaks words world's are formed!