Leah Rade

Christmas Eve at New Horizon Church

This post is for my blog friends and FB friends who have never been to New Horizon Church or have never met my wonderful colleagues and wonder what they're like...Check out this awesome promo video, then DON'T MISS our services on Christmas Eve at 4:24 & 6:24.  It'll be the highlight of your Christmas!

New Horizon Church Christmas Eve 2009 Promo from New Horizon Church on Vimeo.

Isolation Leads To Desolation

Last Friday we attended the memorial service for a 27 year-old man who had taken his own life. Throughout the service, as well as afterward, we began to understand how isolated this young man had become.  Suffering from depression all of his adult life, we learned from his blog that he felt ostracized by society.  Most unfortunately, according to a blog entry, he felt especially ostracized by Christians, who he stated "judged him". Feeling like life had no meaning, no purpose, no future & no one to help, he sadly choose suicide as the only way out.  

Our culture and sadly, many churches, turn away from depressed, mentally ill people who require a lot of intervention and support.  The depressed person therefore isolates themselves and unfortunately, we let them. Isolation leads to desolation. 

The antidote, which is counterintuitive, but right, is "insulation".  People struggling with hurts, hang-ups, additions & mental illness, easily isolate themselves.  Churches, we need to sound the alarm that we are the life-saving stations that God intends us to be, not the country clubs that many have become. We need to create a culture counterintuitive to current culture, where the depressed, down-and-out, hurting, and addicts can come as they are and find hope. People, take off our blinders and look around. Slow down and help someone who is without hope and has isolated themselves.  It'll take a lot of your time and resources, but you'll grow, and maybe even save a life.  

If you are reading this post and you feel you are without hope, believing no one cares, come this Sunday to New Horizon Church; where you'll find people who want to come around you, support you, and love you enough to not allow you to stay where you are. Then, come back on Tuesday night at 7pm for Celebrate Recovery, where just about everyone you'll encounter, has felt exactly like you feel now.  God designed community and His word describes this support very clearly - 

Two are better than one, 
       because they have a good return for their work:

 ¹⁰ If one falls down, 
       his friend can help him up. 
       But pity the man who falls 
       and has no one to help him up!

 ¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. 
       But how can one keep warm alone?

 ¹² Though one may be overpowered, 
       two can defend themselves. 
       A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

A Child's Gratitude

Check out what came in the mail today from one of our friends from C. C. Spaulding Elementary School. It speaks for itself!

Unstoppable Outreach!

Following on the heals of our Cameron Park outreach last week, and providing coats & shoes for the entire student body of C. C. Spaulding School yesterday; is another amazing opportunity to impact our community this Friday night.

Over 5000 fliers were distributed to every elementary school student in the Orange County School system inviting parents to drop off their kids this Friday night, December 11th, and have a great date knowing their kids were having a great & safe time too.  Many of these families are unchurched or do not currently have a church home.  What a great opportunity to introduce these families to New Horizon Church and our awesome family environment!  I know I can't wait to have fun playing with a group of kids, eat way too much fun food and watch "Night at the Museum 2".  Want to have fun serving these families, while introducing them to New Horizon Church?!  Click here to sign up and Kid's Pastor Cathy will be in touch with the details.  Join us in making a difference!

More Unstoppable Impact!

Good morning world!  I just received a story from one of our long-time New Horizon Church members.  Her story demonstrates how God uses us to impact people, far beyond how we can imagine.  It started with our pastor's vision and his obedience to God and continued with our obedience to God.  DD's story says it all and I know we'll hear even more impact stories in the coming days.

"Leah, I work with the parent of one of the CC Spaulding kids. She came into work showing the voucher to our co-workers (not knowing that I was a member of NHC). She was overwhelmed! She said that her little girl was so excited and could not wait to pick out her coat. She told us how she has seen children standing in the cold waiting for the bus, many with no coat. I have always been proud of my church and my church family but this day, I was not only proud but also thankful to be the member of an UNSTOPPABLE church. Thank you Jesus!"

Unstoppable Gratitude!

Today was delivery day and we thought that our delivery of coats filling three cars and an extended bed truck would overwhelm the staff of C. C. Spaulding School. It's not too often when an entire student body of extremely needy children gets to pick out a brand new coat and pair of shoes and have them delivered on the coldest morning of the season, thus far. 

Guess what?  We were the ones being overwhelmed...with overflowing gratitude.  We weren't two steps in the school lobby when I heard through multiple school radios, "They're here, they're here!" Immediately, all auxiliary staff, along with the principal, Ms. Kelley were eagerly pulling bags from our cars and truck, thanking us each time they grabbed a new handful of bags.

To top it off, at the end of our delivery, when we asked Ms. Kelley if we could capture a few words on video, she exclaimed, "It's my birthday today! What a great gift!"  Wow!  The truth is that the gift is ours.  How amazing it is to be part of God's plan in providing the bare necessities to "the least of these." Matt 25:40. New Horizon Church, you're awesome!  J. C. Penney's, you're awesome! Linda & Randall Poythress, you're awesome!  C. C. Spaulding staff, you're awesome! C. C. Spaulding kids, you're awesome!  And we can't forget Pastor Dave, who listened to God and shared his vision...you're awesome! Ultimately, God, you're awesome! Amen.

Continue to pray for Ms. Kelley, her staff, the children and their families as we enter this Christmas season.

I'll be posting a video later this week, so stay tuned!

Unstoppable Impact!

What does an Unstoppable church look like? What kind of impact does an unstoppable church have on its community?  Here's a snapshot:

An Unstoppable church listens to the heart and vision of its pastor and participates in his vision.  Three months ago Pastor Dave shared that God was leading him to ask the church to provide every child attending C. C. Spaulding School with a new winter coat and new pair of shoes.

An Unstoppable church is filled with leaders unwilling to take "no" for an answer and makes the seemingly impossible happen. Our C. C. Spaulding Impact leaders weren't willing to settle until they formed the best partnership possible with a vendor who was willing to bend over backwards to help take care of all of the kids attending C. C. Spaulding School. The adventure for the children began two weeks ago when each child was awarded a voucher for a new coat and pair of shoes purchased through J. C. Penney's. The new store manager, Dianna Ravenell, along with Linda Poythress, designed a wonderful system that enabled each child to choose their own coat and shoes. The store lovingly labeled each bag and stored the purchases on ten big racks until we paid for them today. Dianna even came in on her day off to finalize the purchase and assist us with the pick up.

An Unstoppable church impacts everyone it encounters, inviting all to join in. While finalizing the purchase today, several customers asked about what was going on.  After one of the sales associates shared what we were doing, one of the customers handed me some money, telling me, "Please put this toward this project. God bless you."  And, many of the sales associates thanked us for "letting" them be part of this.

An Unstoppable church obediently and faithfully brings a "first-fruits" offering, expecting God to do amazing things through its resources.  Today, less than 3 hours after the tithes and offerings were accounted for, New Horizon Church tithed the first-fruits offering, finalizing the purchase of coats and shoes for the entire student body of C. C. Spaulding School.

This is only the first installment of this Unstoppable Impact posting.  We'll be delivering the coats and shoes to C. C. Spaulding School on Monday at noon and I can't wait to share how God works in and through us.  If you'd like to help deliver the coats and shoes, meet us at New Horizon Church at noon and prepare to be Unstoppable!

My Friend Laura

And Other Amazing Stories From C. C. Spaulding Local Mission Project

God has been so faithful this week in so many ways and I want to share a couple of stories and photos with you.  I mean, why should I experience all the joy...I need to pass it on.

The wonderful community of people at New Horizon Church have provided backpacks and supplies to an entire school for six years.  Every year we pray during the collection period that there will be enough for all 300 kids.  Each year God makes sure that we have enough.  With the economy being what it is this year, we prayed extra hard, knowing that 300 kids & their teachers needed us.

On Wednesday night 40 volunteers showed up promptly at 6pm and started packing the bags.  At 6:15pm, they were done! Many hands make work light! We had 300 backpacks packed with ALMOST all of the necessary supplies.  While we had an abundance of some items, we were lacking 76 packs of markers.  We had just counted the packs with missing markers and set them aside when Laura Griest walked into the lobby with a tote bag on her arm lamenting, "I'm late and now you're all done and I have all these markers."  Laura had 30 packs of markers in her bag along with as many colored pencils.  Ask her and she'll tell you that my reaction was not what she expected, as I began to do the "happy dance", leaving her thinking that we all had gone crazy.  Everyone else standing there was in awe too.  Laura was so excited when we told her about our missing markers that she promptly exchanged the colored pencils for more makers and picked up the remaining few we needed and provided just the perfect amount!

Laura showed up on Friday too, to help deliver the bags to C. C. Spaulding.  Chris Gilham, Malcolm Hester, Tiara Blount, D. D. Barnes, Kimberly McBride, Randall Poythress & Michael Johns gave up a couple hours of their Friday afternoon to deliver the bags.

We arrived at C. C. Spaulding and were greeted with hugs from Spaulding's principle, Ms. Kelly, along with hugs from many staff, who helped bring in the bags.  That's Ms. Kelly in the picture on the right.  After we brought 300 bags and 10 boxes of additional  supplies into the school, we asked Ms. Kelly if we could pray with her staff.  I was stunned by her enthusiasm as she gathered her staff together, along with our volunteers even suggesting we all hold hands.  It was an awesome moment.  Please join me in continuing to pray for the staff, students & their families, as they begin this new school year. 

Another Win!

We received a written prayer request from a second-time guest and the request was serious enough to cause me to pray, then act.  It was serious enough that I had to call the person and offer help.  When I didn't get an answer, I left a voice-mail, as well as sent an email offering help.

The second-time guest returned my call this morning.  While the conversation was filled with pain, it also was filled with joy and hope.  The caller was new to the area and had been invited to New Horizon Church by a friend (the first win of the conversation).  The caller then shared that Karen, at Next Step(s) had been so helpful during her first visit (win #2). On Sunday, upon her second visit, she shared her delight when Karen remembered her from the first visit and walked out from behind Next Step(s) and greeted her (wind #3).  The caller continued to tell me that she had never experienced this kind of friendliness from a church...win, win, win!!!

The biggest win, though, is that we are equipped with care ministry leaders who can offer help and hope with the pain in her life.  We can connect her this weekend to a small group where she will find care and acceptance from people just as broken as she is, who are relying on God and experiencing restoration.  Did I say, "Win"!  Did I say, "New Horizon Church!"  BTW - Karen Fulford - You're the best!!

Guest Blogger - Beth Bivins

On Saturday we held Activate, our 2nd annual small groups conference, where we equip our small group leaders with the resources to successfully lead their groups.  Since groups are all about relationships, our best resources are our people.

Beth Bivins is a small group member who started attending Celebrate Recovery in the Spring.  Beth shared her life-change testimony with our small group leaders, bringing many to tears, including me.  I was so impacted by Beth's story that I asked her to share it with you.  Here is her testimony of recovery and support found in Celebrate Recovery and through her small group. 

     "I am a grateful believer in Jesus Christ and I suffer from self esteem, food addiction, confidence, rejection, fear, guilt and shame and for many years I thought no one cared..  For years I have felt broken, unwanted, unloved and hopeless.  These feelings have festered like wounds.    I tell myself that these things are the reason that I have had risky and harmful behaviors, the reason that I have had many sexual encounters, the reason that I overeat, the reason that my self esteem has been nonexistent.   I was an unwed mother at 17 years old in high school,   I endured and survived abuse in my first marriage,     I have raised 3 children alone, I have so many stories I could tell you of hurts. I have dealt with  shame and guilt that I felt from my family after having my son and which sent me into years of depression with  low self esteem.            

            All these hangups, habits and hurts made me retreat from God and the world.  I hid behind a mask that made me feel empty and alone. When I attended my first Celebrate Recovery group I was very skeptical and the next day told my colleagues at work  and my small group leader that I would not return to another meeting. My small group leader sent me a long email encouraging me to try again and broke down the obstacles that I put in front of myself and the excuses I made.  But the next week, I was back.  As I sat and listened to the lives of the women that I was among I felt accepted.  I felt a sense of relief coming over me each week as I walked into that room….knowing that I could remove the mask I had long hidden behind.  I didn’t have to try to prove anything to anyone.  I didn’t have to pretend that everything was ok and that I was fine.  I didn’t have to do anything but be myself and for that I was accepted and welcomed with open arms and loving hugs.   I have been in therapy for years trying to break down the walls and barriers that I put up for myself.  I found myself responding to these hangups, habits and hurts and accepting myself for who I am in CR ….. something I couldn’t do in therapy.  Being able to share my thoughts no matter what they are without fear was comforting.  Each week I feel blessed with my fellow CR friends as they reach out to me with a hug, or to just listen, or to check on how I am doing.  I will forever be grateful for finding this group and know that I will continue to grow in the presence of my friends, confidants and sisters that sincerely care about me.  If I am down they are a phone call away and I am so grateful to them and NHC for offering this wonderful program.  It has changed my life and I know it will continue to impact me and my hangups, habits and hurts.  I don’t worry as much as I use to.  I feel comfortable speaking and sharing my life’s experiences, yes, even the bad ones in open share.  Everyone has a story and it is amazing that each week I listen and can relate to something that someone else says.  One time or another, we all suffer from various things that disrupt or interfere with our daily lives.  One week it may be jealousy and the next it may be anger.  I may have problems trying to relate those exact feelings and someone else just nails it on the head and you agree and admit that is what is wrong. It is a judgment free zone. Each week a new revelation about myself emerges.  When I see others in pain it makes me realize how much I have to be grateful for.   We work on ourselves from the inside out.   It is a growing experience and changes, which means that we change…..but as the creed goes “to accept the things I can not change and the wisdom to know the difference.”   CR works, the people make it work and make you better.  Give it a try."

Beth Bivins