No one person can ever grasp the greatness of God!!! This is the contention of the Psalmist as he declares Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, His greatness no one can fathom. Psalm 145:3 I just left about 20 REACH 2024 participants who spent about 90 minutes helping all of us there grasp more of that greatness as they recalled where they saw God at work this week at REACH. Here is some of what we heard: 1. The caterer for Wednesday night’s dinner, a member of Hopewell Baptist Church, our host, told Vickie Byler, our REACHgathering Coordinator, that they were not charging us for the meal!!!! This is such a gracious and significant gift to REACH. 2. People sensed the enthusiasm for REACH among the participants, especially all the new and young people attending. 3. We had 20 students attend, our largest student representation to date. 4. We had 40 women attend, our largest contingent of women to date. 5. We had 205 overall attendees, our largest REACH to date. 6. One of the new people, a staff person for one of the sponsors, commented to the leader who brought her, “I thought I was the only one doing sports evangelism. Coming to REACH, God has expanded my view of the movement he is authoring. 7. God confirmed to one leader who attended that the leader was in the right place, really encouraging him. 8. The diversity of ages, cultures, and people interacting, singing and worshiping together really encouraged several. 9. God used REACH last year to help one sports minister start some initiatives, even though he felt overwhelmed and unprepared to do so. Now, he looks back as sees, “God did that!”, with great encouragement to press on and try other things from coming to this REACH. 10. It encouraged several people in seeing people grasp the HEART of REACH, especially in reaching out to the new people. 11. One first time attender is going back to his church committed to invest more in his volunteers in sports ministry and hopefully bring a few of them to REACH next year in Columbus, Ohio. There are just a few of the ways God worked this week. There is much more to that work that we need your help to recognize. Post in the comments where you saw God at work this week so that we might "celebrate his abundant goodness and joyfully sing of his righteousness."

Posted by Bob Schindler - Community Host at 2024-04-18 14:21:17 UTC