The recent flooding in Baton Rouge has forced many from their homes and caused damage to homes and businesses throughout the area. First Church in Baton Rouge is no exception. Many of the members of their congregation have been affected severely by this terrible flooding as has the church. The church is one of the longest continuous congregations in the area and they have been involved in shaping and developing Baton Rouge through prayer and outreach for decades. Now they need help.

Through Give Forward, a great crowd funding platform designed for emergency and difficult situations, we are able to raise funds to help the church and its congregation in a timely fashion.  All money raised from this funding opportunity will go to assisting the church. It will help the church with any and all damages caused to their facilities, and will also assist in helping families of that church and people in the community who have been affected by the tragic flooding over the last few days. Thank you in advance for your donation and God Bless.

Read more and donate here.

Hello All.  Hope you are having a great week and looking forward to the weekend.  With Christmas right around the corner, we wanted to offer a great idea for you to give your loved ones this Christmas: The Way.  Also, the whole month of November and December, we are shipping The Way for free anywhere in the US and Canada!  Want to see why you should choose The Way?  Look at these four great reasons:

1.  It's a comprehensive and immersive look at Christ's Beatitudes.  There are several books that look at The Beatitudes from one perspective or another, however, The Way actually takes you inside of each Beatitude allowing you to experience them completely.  We use multiple techniques to engage the reader including a retelling of a Biblical story, a devotion-style layout to each section, several facts about the time period that put Christ's words into context, and challenges that make the reader think and respond to what they are reading.  No other book on the Beatitudes offers this level of immersion into the text.

2.  It's not long and it's written simply.  There aren't thees or thous and the vocabulary is kept to an easy to understand level.  Author Chris Farris isn't trying to confuse anyone so he can make himself look super smart.  He wants everyone to understand this important passage of scriptures so they can get the most out of them in their life.  Why make it hard to read?  Also, at 180 pages, it's a fairly fast though engaging read.

3.  The core message is taken solely from the scriptures.  Aside from a few factoids that work within the context of what is being said, the content of The Way is pulled directly from The King James Version of the Bible.  It doesn't rely on hearsay or centuries removed texts, but the Bible alone. 

4.  It helps missions.  When you buy a copy of The Way, you are aiding and assisting missionaries.  We dedicate our profits to the furtherance of missions around the globe.  Part of that missions giving has been seen with our Dios project, but we've also provided assistance to missionaries in the past.  When you buy a copy of The Way, you aren't just furthering your or your loved one's relationship with God.  You're furthering God's Kingdom

So get your loved one a copy of The Way today and give the gift of deeper relationship with God, while also helping out His Kingdom around the world.   Click here to go to our store.  Any purchase you make goes towards missions, so buying a physical copy of the book or a download of the book is a great help.

.Thanks and Blessings be upon you this Christmas Season.

We've finished our Dios Bible Study on the identity of God!  We wanted to share these images with our loyal readers and contributors before we go into final editing.  While we consider this project 90% done, we will go through and edit it to ensure all grammar and translations are 100% correct before publishing.  Thanks to all who have contributed so far to the development of this project.  If you would still like to assist us, we need donations to publish this Bible Study so that it retains the quality of the design.  You can do so by making a purchase of any of our digital offerings or you can contact us to find out how you can donate directly to this project. 

We have a logo for our Bible Study project for Rios de Agua Viva!  If you want to learn more about this project, visit the Missions page on our blog.  Check it out below and read the description and why we chose this approach.  Note: This is a preliminary drawing and may not represent the final product.

As you can see, we have gone with the the word Dios, which is Spanish for God, for the logo.  We chose this one word approach because the topic we are examining in this study is God and His identity.  The colors are placeholders for now so that the church and our viewers can imagine what the logo would like in multiple hues.  Please let us know your thoughts on the colors in the comments. The one element we and Pastor Gama wanted to include was a subtle nod to the oneness of God.  We accomplished this with the i in Dios.  It is an artistic creation of the number one.  As the number one is in the middle of the word Dios, the oneness of God is at the heart of the identity of God. We used Affinity Design to create the logo on a MacBook Air. 

We hope you enjoyed this update and look forward to sharing more updates with you on this project as it develops. Remember to share your thoughts in the comments as your voice may help in the development of this project.

We mentioned it recently on our Facebook page, but we have secured a writer and translator for the Rios de Aqua Viva church in Alexandria to write them content specifically for their needs in reaching targeted areas of their community.  This content specific method of outreach is an exciting venture for us and them and we are excited to see the results. 

Already, we've seen an initial draft produced in English that goes over the identity of God and how He relates to us as One being manifesting in multiple ways.  We will be adding on an optional study about baptism as a next step option for teachers. 

Once the edits to the first draft are completed and the Baptism add-on is finalized and edited, we can then go into the process of designing the layout of the study.  Our plan is to create two versions: a teachers version with helpful tips to guide the teacher along the way and a student version that primarily has the scriptures written out with some thought provoking questions and encouraging statements.  This will require design work, which we have factored into the planned project. 

Next, the final layout will be translated into Spanish and we will go to the printer to have copies made.  It is our hope to raise enough funds to have professional prints made so as to show the professionalism and seriousness of the church's efforts to reach their community.

The last item we are looking to accomplish is to fully train those individuals who will be tasked with teaching this specific lesson.  We will look into a few training sessions that will require their time and the time of qualified teachers. 

Thus far we've accomplished the goal having the primary topic locked down and the majority of content agreed upon and written out with only a few minor edits to make.  We've also secured a translator that will take our final product and translate it into Spanish.  We are in negotiations with a trainer and a printer and should have those locked in by the end of the month.  It is our hope that all things will be ready to go to printer by end of month and we will have people teaching this study in October. 

You can help by visiting our missions page here describing this mission opportunity and looking at the many ways you can support with your funding. There you can find how you can support this mission by buying any of our downloadable content or donating via Paypal. 

You can also pledge via our contact page with your information and the amount you would like to send via check.  All checks should be made out to POA Missions.  The money will be filtered through the Pentecostals of Alexandria and delivered directly to Rios de Agua Viva. Thanks again for your help and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks again for all your help.  Our hope is to raise $3000 to cover the cost of services, printing costs and training for this project. We look forward to updating you with some numbers within the next couple of weeks. 

The Way is partnering with Alexandria Home Missions work Rios de Agua Viva (Rivers of Living Water) to help them further advance the gospel of Jesus Christ in their community.  Check out the details below and how you can help.