Last Nights Meeting

The Spaghetti feeding frenzy went well last night, with band on hand to deliver some awesome music and worship. Several testimonies were given, including one from Harvey! Yes, he's back! It was great to see and hear Harvey, along with the other (MEW Moss Landing included) who shared with us. Several others were first timers, and we welcomed them with open arms. Will try to post a couple of pictures later....Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

An another note, we have an update about Scott and Melissa provided by Angela. Following is the text of her e-mail update:

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. I an personally having a bit of a crisis involving my sister. In the last 5 weeks, Terry's body has been plagued with a few tumors. These tumors are growing and spreading rapidly. She has a great doctor and is a breast cancer survivor, so they have done biopsy's & scans of the growths. Should have results in a few days. Please pray for her and thank you.

The reason that I bring this to you all is that this week is Melissa's friends visiting day, and I usually round up a few friends and we go to see her together. This week I will be going to see Terry instead so I am asking that if the Lord puts a visit on your heart and you are available between 8 and 9 am this Saturday, please go see Melissa. She really needs the encouragement from her friends. All you need to do is bring your id and know her booking # which is 0900315. You can get info @

http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/SHERIFF/contact.htm
Thank you and if you can't visit her please try to write and definitely continue to pray for her. It is really not a pleasant place to be and she covets those letters, visits and prayers.

And for Scott, AWESOME NEWS to share and I am just going to use his direct words from his latest letter to me. 8-31-09

"I have some pretty great news! God has answered our prayers for Fire Camp! Medical hold is released and the Dr. says my body mass index looks very good! Lost 30 lbs so far and am running 3 miles around 5x a week. Imagine that! LOL. So anyway, they say I could be sent in 30 to 60 days and I am so grateful to God for this! He is so good, isn't He? This means, God willing, I'll be home to all of you, hopefully in 16-18 months from now! Maybe even learn to be a fireman as a new career choice if the Lord sees fit...

It's starting to feel and seem like that maybe the hardest part is over. Still, not without pain from missing my babies, but I'm learning to thank the Lord for all the hard stuff too. Thanking Him for this trial, for prison and this time of chastening is difficult to say at first, however, I can see even now that I'll be so thankful this happened later cause I'll know the Lord in a closer and more special way because of His walking us through this. So good things, right? Amen!

Please say hi to everyone at the Bridge and Most Excellent Way. Also please give big Harvey a bear hug for me. I am grateful to him and his family. Please send love to Pastor Geoff and Denise and all of the staff at Calvary. I will write them as well. Please let everyone know that I love them dearly and I'm staying dedicated in learning and growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing quite frequently and trying to keep up with all the letters. I'm blessed to have so much support it's a challenge to keep up with the letters. But that is definitely a good thing!

Bobby Gwin is being blessed by the "treats" and having coffee like that is a pretty special thing in here. Our bible study is down to three of us right now but it's kind of nice like that as well. We continue to pray to have God use us in here and now some are coming with prayer requests. I love you guys and thanks for everything".

I will let you all know as soon as I have a new address for him and praise God for His faithfulness in answering your prayers for this family. Please continue to pray that God will provide a place for Melissa and the 4 children when she gets out Nov 20th. She trusts that the Lord will provide but is still a bit anxious over not knowing where she will go when she gets out. If you know of a place or hear of anything please let me know and I will do whatever I can to help this family. Jesus loves us so much. Glory be to God! Until the next update, thanks so much for the prayers, love and encouragement to this family and to me.

Blessings.

In His love,

Angela

Were You Once In A Hole?...

This past Monday we had a bitter sweet celebration. We celebrated Charlie,Mike and Sylvia's leaving. They are moving on. Both are relocating to other states.... They will both be missed a great deal. Charlie just celebrated one year clean and sober. He has also been a great drummer while he was here. Charlie shared a few things that have helped him over the past year stay clean and sober.

Mike & Sylvia have been a part of our church for 20 + years. This will be a huge change for them and their family. They are moving to Montana. Mike has had victory over his addiction from sexual sin for 2 1/2 years. Him and Sylvia have been working with two groups dealing with sexual sin. Their marriage was able to be salvaged because they allowed God to do an amazing work in it. The Bible says that in this world we will have trials.............. But, we are to be good of cheer for He has overcome the word. Mike and Sylvia shared a bit about how their marriage and how it has been put back together. Thank you Mike, Sylvia, and Charlie.

July Birthday's and Harvey's Testimony

Praise God for another great night of food, fellowship, worship, birthdays and testimony.
If you didn't get a chance to come last week and had to miss Harvey's testimony, don't be discouraged, look for a video version to be upload to the blog within a couple of days.
Thanks MEW for always blessing us with God's abundance. I hope that you enjoy the pictures.

Another Scott Update

Hello Everyone,

It has been a busy June and already the second week of July is ending. Time flies! I have received a letter from Scott that includes praise reports and answered prayers, so I wanted to share the good news with you all. God is so faithful to answer prayer; praise the Lord oh my soul!

Some Praise

• “God has been faithful to give me the strength to endure this. I am diving into His word and I am being conscious of other men and how God wants me to be of service to them. God keeps moving me around a little bit and everywhere I go there’s at least one or two really strong Christians to hook up with and make strong bonds with. We are planting the second bible study as of yesterday and there are obviously a lot of men hungry for the Lord. It is good to get outside of myself and help them.”
• “As far as fire camp goes, I am still very much in the running for it, nevertheless, God’s will first. I do pray for His favor here as it should get me home about six months early and you know how much I love and adore my family. I can’t wait to be with them again. I love my kids so much and never wished to hurt them or anybody for that matter.
• “As far as camp goes, honestly I would be close to passing the test today! I’ve been training for 90 days and I am getting in pretty solid shape! I am very confident I’ll pass the P.T. test! The Dr. just had to go by an “old school” chart at 5’ 91/2” I should be exactly 200 pounds. I have lost about 20 pounds so far and I am about 235 now.”
• “ I want to let you know that I include Pastor Nate, Pastor Geoff, all the support team, friends and family in my daily prayers.”

Some Requests

• “If you ever want to send me a prayer need list from the Saturday prayer group, I would love to receive it and pray over it.”
Well brothers, obviously I don’t go to that prayer meeting but if you do and the Lord puts it on your heart, PLEASE meet this request for him. I know that it would bless him and encourage him greatly to have a bit of his church family brought to him while in that dark place. I have found that it is better to put my thoughts and prayers on others than to put them on my self, my circumstances, feelings or emotions.
Scott Nichols
CDC# G60555
N.K.S.P. A-GYM 34L
P.O. Box 5004
Delano, CA 93216

• Scott also asked for some books. I sent him 3 last week, and I don’t know how much longer he will be in reception but I do know that any book sent will be passed on and used by the Lord in some way. Some of Scott’s favorite authors are Chuck Smith, Jon Courson, Greg Laurie, Dr. James McDonald. If the Lord puts it on your heart to bless Scott with a book or two, the books must be shipped directly from a source such as http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.christianbook.com/

Prayer Requests

• Scott still cannot receive or make phone calls and cannot have any visitors yet. Please pray that communications would open for the family and that they would be able to visit Scott soon.
• Melissa’s letters to Scott are being returned so please pray that he would get approval to receive her letters. She is a mess over it so please pray for her to trust God in this area.
• Continue to pray for the Lord’s will to be done regarding fire camp.
• Pray against depression and any spiritual warfare that may oppose what God is doing in and through Scott.
• Pray for unity within the family and for God’s love and grace to fill their hearts to overflow.
• Pray however the Spirit leads you and then pray some more☺

Thank you all for your love and support of this family. I am so blessed to see the Lord working through all of your prayers and love. May God bless you and shine His face upon you.

In His loving service,

Angela

2:42

I have been a little busy and apologize for not getting the pictures posted sooner. I hope that you enjoy. Guys, sorry about the pink.

Scott Nichols Update

Hi everyone,

I hope that you are all well. I just wanted to share with you that we had the garage sale last weekend and raised a total of $600.00.  I will put $100.00 on both Scott & Melissa's books and give Bonnie $400.00 to bless the kids. Praise God for such a success and such wonderful helpers and generous givers, oh yea and the buyers too!

The more important news is that Scott has a new address. So if you were inclined to bless him with a note of encouragement this should be the address that he will have until he is processed and moved from reception. 

Scott Nichols
CDC# G60555
N.K.S.P. -A-GYM-N34L
P.O. Box 5004

Delano, CA 93216

Also, Scott was denied fire camp because of a weight issue. He is on an exercise and diet regimen so please pray that he would lose the weight safely and that fire camp would become available to him, if it is the Lord's will. It would knock off quite a bit of time from his sentence and that is a good thing, but God's ways are not always ours, are they?

God bless

Angela