Sowing And Reaping

Sowing And Reaping
March 2010

CENTER GRADUATION CEREMONY

The Guido Center for Christian Training graduated its first class on Sunday, January 23, 2010. Three students completed the Certificate in Biblical Studies program and were recognized for their achievements in the Hamstra Worship Center. The three graduates are representative of the many occupations and denominations represented among the student body.

Blake Hicks is the owner of Blake’s Electrical Contracting. During his studies he was ordained to the gospel ministry and is now serving as the Associate Pastor of Pine Grove Baptist Church, Metter, Georgia. He continues to manage his business and looks forward to the day when he will be the pastor of a church.

Keith Horton serves as the Youth Minister of Calvary Baptist Church, Vidalia, Georgia. Keith has been a member of this church all of his life, having accepted Christ as his Savior as a child. As he matured in the Lord, he was called into ministry and has been serving the youth of the church for several years. He has led the youth on many mission trips and is active in training his young people to win the lost to Christ.

Jeremiah Stache, a Captain in the United States Army, is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and will deploy with his unit to Afghanistan in the spring. He is stationed at Ft. Stewart, Georgia and serves in the Army as a civil engineer.

There are forty-five students currently enrolled in the Center. The two classes now being offered are “Revelation and God” and “Introduction to the Old Testament.” The classes scheduled for the spring term are “Evangelism and Discipleship” and “Introduction to the New Testament.”

Complete information concerning the Center is available on the web site – www.TheGuidoCenterforChristianTraining.com or you may phone Larry Guido at the Association office.

– Larry Guido

NEWS FROM THE GUIDO CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN TRAINING

The Guido Center for Christian Training is currently developing a new program of study to train individuals to witness and minister through the internet. The course, “Certificate in Internet Ministries”, will be available this summer. The faculty will come from Georgia Southern University and currently serve on their faculty. With the expansion of the internet and its dominance in the field of communication, we believe that this will be an unique opportunity to train individuals to claim a portion
of this media for the glory of God. Pray with us that God will supply the funds for the equipment we will need and the salary of the instructors. As yet we do not know what the initial set-up cost will be, but we do know that our God is bigger than the internet and as we serve Him, He will meet every need that we have. He always has, and we know that He will. Join us in prayer for this need.
– Larry Guido

REPORT ON RELIGION

“The Air Force Academy in Colorado is about to recognize its first Wiccan prayer circle, a Stonehenge on the Rockies that will serve as an outdoor place of worship for the academy’s neo-pagans. Wiccan cadets and officers on the Colorado Springs base have been convening for over a decade, but the school will officially dedicate a newly built circle of stones on (or) about March 10, putting the outdoor sanctuary on an equal footing with the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels on the base” – Joseph Abrams,
FoxNews.com, February 1, 2010.

“Most Protestant churches reported that the economy negatively affected their financial resources over the last year, resulting in an average decline of 7% across all such congregations. The Barna study shows there have been three major ways that churches have attempted to weather the downturn: reducing spending, cutting staffing and missions, reducing facility budgets. Nearly half of church leaders (45%) said they had not made any changes to their ministry as a result of the economic problems of the last year”
– Barna Update, February 2, 2010.

“Global Restrictions on Religion, a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that 64 nations - about one-third of the countries in the world - have high or very high restrictions on religion. But because some of the most restrictive countries are very populous, nearly 70 percent of the world’s 6.8 billion people live in countries with high restrictions on religion, the brunt of which often falls on religious minorities…The highest overall levels of restrictions are found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, where both the government and society at large impose numerous limits on religious beliefs and practices” – Pew Forum: Global Restriction on Religion: Executive Summary, December 2009, PewForum.org.

FACTS AND FIGURES

“Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data from 2008 and 2009 reveal that the 29% of Americans who are not well-rested are significantly less likely to be thriving. Those with lower incomes, those who have children, women, and those between the ages of 36 and 49 are among the least well-rested” – Gallup.com, February 2, 2010.

“The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade, raising alarm that the long campaign to reduce motherhood among adolescents is faltering…The pregnancy rate among 15- to19-year-olds increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 – the first jump since 1990, according to an analysis of the most recent data collected by the federal government and the nation’s leading reproductive-health think tank” – Pew Forum, January 26, 2010.

“Gallup’s Job Creation Index shows that job-market conditions nationwide deteriorated slightly in January compared to December. Conditions are best in the South and the East, improving in the Midwest, but deteriorating in the West” – Gallup.com, February 4, 2010.

“Billy Graham, whose crusade in Los Angeles in 1949 vaulted him into the public square, is far and away the top living preacher that has most influenced Protestant pastors, according a recent survey by LifeWay Research” – Rob Phillips in LifeWay Research Update, February 4, 2010.

“Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.”

– From A Prayer in Spring, by Robert Frost

SNIPPETS FOR MARCH

A person’s faith is not judged by what he says about it, but by what he does about it.
Doubt makes the mountain which faith can move.
Christianity helps us face the music, even when we don’t like the tune.
Genuine faith is assuring, insuring, and enduring.
Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next.
Faith is the hinge that holds the believer to a personal relationship with God.
Living without faith is like driving in a fog.
Belief in God will help you most if you also believe in yourself.
Fear falls before the fortress of faith.
How would a person know whether his faith was weak or strong unless it has been tried and tested.
There is no better demonstration of faith than a man planting seed in a field.
People are guided to heaven more by footprints than by guideposts.
God’s promises are like life preservers. They keep the soul from sinking in the sea of trouble.
Selfishness short-circuits prayer.

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The Guido Evangelistic Association, Inc.

"Youth With A Mission"

Come enjoy the JJ Weeks Band at the "Youth With A Mission" event, Saturday, March 6th from 6 to 10 PM in the Hamstra Worship Center in Guido Gardens. There will be free food, prizes will be given away, and you will be energized to find your purpose in life. And there's no admission charge!

The Guido Evangelistic Association, Inc.
Metter, Georgia 30439
Phone - 912-685-2222
Fax - 912-685-3502
E-mail - thesower@thesower.com
Internet - www.GuidoGardens.com
Comments / Prayer Requests:
Larry Guido - lcguido@SowerMinistries.org
Copyright© MMX, Guido Evangelistic Association

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