Newsletter

August 2010 Newsletter

Featured Church: Eastmont Church

Eastmont Church
John Lodwick, Sr. Pastor
62425 Eagle Rd.
Bend, OR 97701
541-382-5822

For the past two years, Women's Ministries of Eastmont Church has studied the Amazing Collection. We will complete the series this next year. Our church affiliation is with the Conservative Baptist Denomination and has an average attendance of 500. We are located in the central part of Oregon, a semi-desert region within the Cascade Mountain Range.

I'd like to tell the story of how we came to study The Amazing Collection. Two and one half years ago, our women's Bible study was in its 14th year. Women's Ministries Director, Judy Renner, had been talking with long time friend, Mary Pat Lacy from Georgia, who mentioned a great Bible study she was in called The Amazing Collection. Later, a Leader's meeting was held to determine where God would lead us for the coming fall study. The consensus was that the women needed to know the Bible from beginning to end, how the books all fit together, to see the continuity from Genesis to Revelation. Judy remained silent till the question was raised "Where does one find such a study? Would we have to create our own study?" (We had three Bible study writers in our midst.) Then Judy told of her friend and the study that came out of Georgia. What followed was one of those moments when everyone in the room knew that God had 'spoken' to us. The rest is history.

We have 7 Tuesday morning discussion groups and 2 evening groups. We also have a children's program from 0-5 yrs of age, using the The Amazing Adventure curriculum. We have 60-80 children in our program. Each week we have a leader's meeting before our class begins to pray for the class, women, children and discuss the week's lesson. The fruit that has come from this study has been AMAZING! Our Women's Ministries Director's greatest joy has been to hear the women exclaim, "I get it now. I understand how all this is fitting together" OR "I've never studied the entire Old Testament before." OR "I always thought the Old Testament was a book of judgment and now I know it is a book telling of God's love for His people" OR I've been in Bible studies for years and this is the first time I've been able to understand it as a whole." OR "every church needs to do this series."

To all the TAC founders we humbly say thank you for your obedience to God's calling to make this AMAZING COLLECTION available at "such a time as this". We wholeheartedly can recommend this study, knowing the huge difference it can make in a believer's life to study chronologically "the greatest book ever written".

- Judy Renner
Women's Ministry Director