Dear Pastor/Friends,
It was wonderful to see many of you at the Awakening in Arlington last week! I want to commend Pastor Corey Jones and the Crossroads Tabernacle staff for their hard work and faithfulness in hosting this event each year! They are always so gracious and efficient! Incidentally, I want to congratulate Pastor Jones on the
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Corey and Beth Ann Jones
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outstanding pastoral review he received from his board in September. He and Beth
Ann have completed 23 years at Crossroads!
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Allen and LeAnn Hughes
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Pastor Allen Hughes of Wichita Falls First also had a wonderful pastoral review in early October. It was a blessing to meet with Allen's board as they tearfully recounted the faithfulness and love of their pastor and his wife, LeAnna. They have served wonderfully in Wichita Falls since 2005!
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Kochersperger Family
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Congratulations, also, to Amarillo North Beacon on the unanimous election of their new Pastor, Rev.
Steve Kochersperger. Pastor Steve, his wife Mary and their family will be moving to Amarillo in December from
Evansville, IN
. We are very excited about having the Kocherspergers as a part of our WT district family!
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Paul and Esther Lee |
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I met recently with Pastor Paul Lee, of our Antioch Korean congregation and learned of the wonderful work he and his wife Ester are doing in Carrolton where they are planting the Watered Garden
C
hurch of the Nazarene, which meets in Carrolton First Church. They are reaching out to the large
Korean population in the area through computer classes, martial arts, and art classes. Ester is meeting weekly with a women's Bible study she is teaching among her coworkers. I am very proud of the Lees! We are so honored to serve the Lord with them!
It was a blessing to host newly licensed ministers at our annual "Discovery Weekend" in Abilene this past week
. This annual event guides recipients of district ministers licenses through the licensure/ordination process and focuses on their giftedness using Strength Finders. Each year we have the privilege of having Dr. Linda Cantwell of SNU as our resource person. Pictured here with Dr. Cantwell are this year's female participants. Special thanks to Pastor Earl Robertson who has been the primary organizer of this powerful annual event.
It's time to begin registering for this year
's Shepherds
' Sabbath with Dr. and Mrs
. Fili Chambo. Please see the flyer below for registration information.
Please take a moment to read the Cactus Nazarene Ministry Center article below. Next weekend is Bundle Up
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Dr. Robert Broadbooks
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Cactus/District W&W weekend at CNMC. We are delighted about the leadership of new co-directors, Phil and Denise Anderson. Incidentally, CNMC recently received a $15,000 grant from SDMI for after school children's programming. The
beauty of this grant is that the funding came from the 2017 denominational summer children's offering. Our district led the denomination in this offering that year, as I recall. Incidentally, the USA/Canada region has been extremely generous with the WT district over the past eight years that I've been our superintendent, contributing over $350,000 in church planting grants, Alabaster grants, and other gifts! We are extremely grateful. I have invited regional director, Dr. Robert Broadbooks to attend the upcoming district assembly so we can express our gratitude personally.
Thank you to Pastors Greg and Lori Key and Ft. Worth Renewed Life Church for their offer to host Pastor Michael
Gatkek and the new Mid-Cities United African Church of the Nazarene. I had the privilege of worshipping with RN two weeks ago as they
welcomed Pastor Gatkek and their core group. They will launch the new work in December! Also, Michael is spending one week monthly in Arizona, where he is planting two new churches. He is pictured here with a one of his African partners in Phoenix and Arizona DS, Dr. Doug Pierce.
I had the privilege of meeting with our lead pastors from the Amarillo zone on October 1st. This is an awesome group! Several of the most dynamic and powerful ministries I know of taking place in the western panhandle. It is an honor to be associated with this great group. Susan and I are looking forward to being with them again on Dec. 13 for their Christmas gathering. We are also scheduled to be with the High Plaines zone on Dec. 14, Lamesa
zone on Dec. 3
rd
, and Lubbock zone on Dec. 4th.
Finally, we are almost 3/4 of the way through our church year. Pastors, please double check the updated Funding the Mission report provided by our finance officer, Dan Davisson to make sure it is correct. It is important that each pastor make every effort to lead his or her church in this important responsibility.
For you and with you,
Pastors David Downs