Last week I received an email from Pastor Prabhudas in India. Many of you may remember that I interviewed Prabhudas in our weekend services at Fellowship of the Parks about six weeks ago. I wanted to share what he said, not because I feel boastful or bigheaded about any of this, but because it reminds me yet again of what a group of people can do when God is invited into the story. Here is the email that Prabhudas sent me:

 Dear Pastor Doug walker & Kim,

 

Greetings from India! Ruth and I want to thank you again for allowing us the opportunity to come to your church and share our ministry. We never anticipated the opportunity to share the needs of our children’s home with you. We were so excited to share our testimonies of all that God has done and to speak about the various needs in India. Your overwhelming response and the great outpouring of generosity to those needs was such an encouragement to us. Praise God for His faithfulness.

 

How happy we were to tell the children, pastors and church planters here in India how God had answered their prayers through your generosity. Hallelujah!

 

We thank God for you and your congregation. It was a dream comes true for us to sit and to visit with your family and friends. We waited many years for this opportunity, and it is one we will never forget.

 

Your child Yobu is fine. He is overwhelmed to hear about you and for the gifts you gave for him. He was showing his shoes to all and running here and there. What a blessing he has through your family! I praise God for His mercies. You can see his picture with new clothes in an attachment. We could see the big smile in the faces of the children in the children home after we shared about the support from your Church. 

 

May He richly bless you for all you have done for our family and for the kingdom of God in India! We love you and miss you.

 

In His service,

Prabhudas & Ruth Papabathini 

 I am so grateful to Pastor Prabhudas for inviting us into the story that God is telling in India. I am also grateful for all of those from FOTP who have accepted the challenge to make a difference in the life of a child. It never ceases to amaze me what God can do with a group of people who are hungry to serve. 

Here are some pics of Yobu:

  

We are halfway through a series called "Wasted." We have been looking at a set of writings from the Bible known as the Minor Prophets. This past weekend, we looked at the book of Amos. I don't know many people who have actually read through Amos (or would even know where to find it), but I have found that it has so much to say to us in our world.

 As we talked about in the services this weekend, Amos' message is loaded with anger. But Amos' anger is not pointed toward people who are outside of the religious circles; it's directed toward the very people who considered themselves to be God's chosen. God is angry because this group of people--the Israelites--have been abusing and taking advantage of the poor and marginalized members of society. He even goes so far as to say, "Stop singing your worship songs and celebrating your festivals; you're making me sick." More than rituals and ceremonies, God wants us to care about the people in the world who are hurting. This is the message of Amos.

 As I was preparing for this message, I couldn't help but think of a little boy named Job. Job lives in a home for children without parents in Andhrapradesh, India. For the last seven years, Kim and I have been sponsoring Job. We have been able to maintain communication with him and keep up with how he is doing. Every time I hear from or about Job, I am reminded not only of how much God has blessed me where I am, but of how much responsibility I have to care for people who have less. I am reminded of how significant Amos' message is to me.

 If you have been looking for a way to begin serving or helping people who are less fortunate or marginalized, one quick way to do so is to go to our Compassion Works page on the FOTP website. Here are some other websites that you might be interested in:

 wateraid.org (Clean water and sanitation)

bread.org (Hunger and poverty)

 notforsalecampaign.org (Human Trafficking)

 one.org (AIDS)

 These websites are a great place to start if you're interested in learning more about helping people around the world.

 We still have two more weeks left in this series, and I can't wait to see what God will do. Join us for one of our five weekend services:

  4:45 pm Saturday

8:30 am Sunday

9:45 am Sunday

11:00 am Sunday

 12:15 pm Sunday 

Last Sunday I finished our series on the Miracles of Jesus by looking at the story of the healing of the blind man from John 9. I talked about how our obedience to God is deeply important to our lives. I told a story about my own need for obedience that showed up when I took my son Mark to McDonald's for our weekly father/son outing. I was sitting in our booth, trying not to think about all of the germs and diseases that Mark was coming into contact with as he played on the playground. My mind was not even in the moment before my son came up to me hold a french fry in the air with ketchup dripping down his arm and said, "Dad, I love you!" I almost missed the feeling of experiencing my son at this age because my mind was elsewhere.

 Sometimes, we get our minds going on so many things that we miss the fact that God is calling us to be obedient to Him in our current situation. Our minds are elsewhere, and we so often miss the whole thing.

 

This weekend, I'll be starting a new series called "Fearless" where we'll look at some of the stories from the Old Testament and see how someone's faith can give them the courage to stand up to seemingly impossible odds. I hope you'll join us at one of our 5 services where we start this exciting new series.

 4:45 pm Saturday

8:30 am Sunday

9:45 am Sunday

11:00 am Sunday

 12:15 pm Sunday 

Storms

 

Last Sunday my message was entitled “Calming the Storm” and was the second in the series called “Miracles”. I talked about storms that arise in our daily life and how God works through them to teach us and how they are by His appointment, with His presence and for His purpose. Last week I had a storm of my own. Although it did not fit into my schedule God used it for good. My father was in the hospital recovering from surgery.  Although it was a tiring week with no sleep, I ended up having more time with my dad, mom, and my brother and good came from all of us being together.  I realized that by having storms arise in our lives that God is growing us and maturing us to be all that He wants us to be.

 

Join us at one of our 5 services this weekend for the next message Casting Out the Evil Spirit.

4:45 pm Saturday

8:30 am Sunday

9:45 am Sunday

11:00 am Sunday

12:15 pm Sunday

 

Upcoming events:

Baptisms at FOTP -May 2 after 4:45 PM service

National Day of Prayer -May 7 6:30 am- 8:30pm. Stop to pray for our church, our community and our country.

 

Upcoming events

 

I want to take the time to thank all of the volunteers who made the Easter services run smoothly from the parking ministry, to the children’s area, to the greeters and to all those in between. Volunteers are an important part of the FOTP family. Come check out how you too can be a part of this important ministry.

 

I will be continuing on to the second part of the series that we are in called “Miracles”. This weekend the topic will be “Calming the Storm”. Join us and find out how God can work in your life when storms arise.

 

Some upcoming events at FOTP:

 

Town Hall for Hope with Dave Ramsey- April 23, 7pm in the FOTP auditorium.

He will talk about the economy, your money and real answers.

 

Baptism- May 2 after the 4:45 service

Live It Forward Cookout

 

I don't want to fail to mention the awesome turnout for our Live It Forward cookout this past weekend April 5^th. I am very excited to say that there were 30 baptisms that took place at FOTP.  There were 3 individuals from the Grapevine campus that also took part in this important life changing event. This is very exciting because baptism is an outward expression of the commitment that each individual has made in accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior.

 

I also want to remind everyone once again to come join us for one of our Easter services that are coming up this weekend April 11th and 12^th.

Saturday, April 11 4:45 pm

Sunday, April 12  7:15 am

                             8:30 am

                             9:45 am

                            11:00 am

                            12:15 pm

 

I will be starting a new series called “Miracles” this coming weekend. The first message of the series is called “The Ultimate Miracle”. Since it will be Easter weekend why not start with a strong miracle of God’s wonderful love reaching out to us through the resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ. Join us to find out what this miracle means for you today.

 If possible, members should try to attend either on Saturday Night or the early or late service on Easter Sunday so that we can have enough seats on Easter for first time guests in the 9:45 & 11 am services.  All services will be identical with the exception of the Sunday 7:15 am service.  At this service you will have the opportunity to participate in Communion.  Invite your family and friends and join us this Easter Weekend.

 

Saturday, April 11^th at 4:45pm

Sunday,   April 12^th at 7:15 am

                                    8:30 am

                                    9:45am

                                    11:00 am

                                    12:15 pm

 

God Bless

We will be finishing up our 40 Days of Purpose study this weekend.  We will discover that we were all made for a mission.  Think about that for a moment...God designed you not just to exist and live a mediocre life.  He designed you with a mission in mind.  A mission that I pray you will choose to accept.  Think of the impact that FOTP can have on our community and even the world if we choose to accept our mission in life.  This weekend we will also be announcing our next teaching series, which you will not want to miss.  It is an exciting time at FOTP!  And I want you to know that I love and appreciate all that you do to make our church a caring and friendly place every weekend.  I will see you Saturday afternoon at 4:45 or at one of our 4 services on Sunday! 

We are approximately halfway through our 40 Days of Purpose.  The key thing for us to remember is that this isn't just about 40 Days of Purpose, but a life of purpose.  This is 40 days that will change our lives forever.  My prayer has been that you will begin to see that while your purpose in life can be lived out where you work, that your purpose for existing is not directly tied to your title or position.  So many people across the country are losing their jobs and in doing so they feel that they are losing their identity...their reason for living!  Through doing this study we are all reminded that God created us for so much more than what we do for a living.  He created us to fully live!  As we all begin to focus on fulfilling the 5 purposes we were created for...we will truly begin to understand what Jesus meant when He said that He came so that we may have an abundant life.  I hope that you will join us this weekend as we move toward our third purpose and in turn learn where God is and what He wants us to do when we experience the three terrible Ts (troubles, temptations, & trespasses)!  What was that...did you ask what I mean by trespasses?  It is when people come into your life uninvited and cause you to experience pain and suffering.  It is the three terrible Ts that can cause us to doubt whether God is truly in control.  You will be glad to know that He is fully in control and it is in this third purpose that we can begin to embrace that truth.  I love you and look forward to continuing the journey with you at FOTP this Saturday night at 4:45 or at one of our 4 services on Sunday. 

First of all let me say thank you to all of you who made our first Saturday night service a huge success!  I am very encouraged at the number of visitors that we had and very thankful for the many that were willing to volunteer their time to make it go smoothly.  We kicked off the 40 Days of Purpose by discussing life's three biggest questions.

The first question we all have is a question of existence.  It is why am alive?  Secondly we all want to know, does my life matter?  That is a question of significance.  Lastly, we have a question about the intentions behind our existence or creation.  In other words we simply want to know, what is my purpose?  I want to encourage you to download the sermon by going to iTunes so that you can get the answers to those questions in depth. 

Briefly let me give you the answer to the above questions.  You were created to be loved by God, to last forever; you will find purpose in life through getting to know God.  The memory verse for the week is Ephesians 2:10.  It says, For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Read that verse daily and do you best to get it into your long-term memory.  This verse will begin to have even more meaning to you as we continue to go through the 40 Days of Purpose.  You will begin to realize that even though your parents may have called you an accident, God put you right here for a purpose.  He hand designed you with all of your gifts, abilities, and personality.  I hope to see you again this weekend as we continue to unveil the love that God has for you and the plan that He has for your life!