KIDS & YOUTH CAMPS REPORT
Anyone present on these wonderful Campgrounds witnessed the Godly impact made on our students during Kids and Youth Camps. Every speaker was dialed in and delivered anointed messages from the throne. Many times, an invitation was not needed for the altar calls, as children and youth alike rushed forward and passionately cried out to God. Many were impacted by the Spirit of God with numerous Holy Ghost infillings and re-fillings. There really is no place like our beloved Campgrounds.
Kids Camp registered 1,116 students and over 350 received the Holy Ghost or were refilled. We may have witnessed a record number of volunteers, parents, and guests present that week. The lower level was full while many sat in the balcony for the services. Junior Camp registered 1,020 youth and Senior Camp registered 890 students on site. A total of 130 received the Holy Ghost at these two youth camps!
We give a standing ovation to Brother Gorden, Brother Galloway, and their teams for the excellent work of planning and hosting the greatest kids and youth camps on earth.
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MISSION LOUISIANA (LA District Campgrounds Upgrade Program)
I have been overwhelmed by the desire shown by our pastors, congregations, and friends to assist in our new campgrounds upgrade program, Mission Louisiana. There is great excitement to be part of the building and renovating of our campgrounds facilities to ensure generations to come will also have a place to experience what we have experienced.
In March of this year, we celebrated as we crossed the $1,000,000 mark for Mission Louisiana! This was a monumental accomplishment since nearly all our 2024 departmental offerings were record offerings during that time. Our pastors and congregations never cease to amaze me when with our level of giving to the mission. I want to thank our pastors and their wonderful saints who have made Mission Louisiana a part of their mission efforts.
This year on Friday evening at our annual Camp Meeting, we will receive a sacrificial offering for Mission Louisiana. I know you will probably not receive this Communique until after Camp Meeting, but I am requesting that you will help us pray that God will provide the funding for the building of new facilities and remodeling of existing buildings.
This is God’s church and these are His Campgrounds. I know our great God will make a way for these Campgrounds to remain for generations to come, should He tarry His return.
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NEW CHURCH GROWTH RESOURCES
For over a year I have been working with several headquarters staff members, and under the direction of Brother Johns and Brother Bernard, creating two very vital resources to make available to all our UPCI pastors and churches.
These two new resources from the Strategic Growth Initiative will assist our pastors in growing their churches. The first is the Church Health Check-Up, an 80-question survey dealing with the main growth elements in your church. At the end of the survey, an individualized report is produced showing the health of your church and introducing you to the second new resource, the Church Growth Track. This growth track is comprised of eleven video sessions, taught by Apostolic pastors, ministers, and leaders, covering the basic elements of church growth.
These two resources are the first of their kind in the UPCI. If you are a pastor, please access the resources on the Ministry Central home page at www.ministrycentral.com and choose SGI at the top of the page. Both resources are located on the SGI page.
I hope you find the resources helpful as you move your church into position for the growth God has planned for you. Feel free to give me your feedback at
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THERE ISN’T ANYTHING I WOULDN’T DO FOR HIM
Sociologist and author, Tony Campolo, tells the story about being on a train leaving Victoria Station in London. There were two men sitting across from him. It wasn’t long out of the station before one of them began to have an epileptic seizure and began to shake. The violent shaking caused the man to fall off of the seat and onto the floor. Campolo said he became frightened.
The man’s friend reached down and picked him up and put him back on the seat. The man continued to tremble and then, all of a sudden, the shaking stopped. His friend put his coat over the man as though the coat was a blanket, wiped some beads of perspiration from his brow, and then turned to Campolo and said, “Please forgive us.” In a shaking voice, Campolo said, “Hey, nothing to be forgiven.”
The man said, “We were in Vietnam together. My friend is an Englishman and I’m an American. We were wounded in the same battle. I lost my leg.” The man pulled up his trousers and showed his artificial leg.
He said, “My friend here had half of his chest blown away by a hand grenade. The rescue helicopter that came to pick us up was blown out of the sky and I was sure that we were going to die. It was then that my friend got up - to tell the truth, mister, I don’t know how he got up, but he got up. And then, what was even more amazing, he grabbed me by the shirt and began to drag me through the jungle. Every step he took, he screamed in pain. I told him to let me die because, if he tried to get me out, we’d both die. But my friend said, ‘Harry, if you die in the jungle, I’m going to die with you’. And he got me out of the jungle. Two years ago, I found out he had this problem with seizures. So, I sold what I had in New York, I closed down my apartment, and I came over here to take care of him, because the doctor’s say someone must be with him all the time.” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “That’s our story.”
And then he said this, “I don’t tell you that to impress you, you may not understand, but after what he did for me, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.”
That’s how I feel today! After all God has done for me, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Him. It really brings our sacrifices and our efforts into perspective. We could never repay God for all He has done, but we can give Him our faith, our energy, our obedience, our future, and our worship. After all, look what He has done for us.