The Paine Family

A busy time is ahead for our family and those here at ITC. With around 600 or so people being housed here at the training center for a good part of week, all will be kept busy. I head out to the Northwoods with the Life FOCUS team for there own Journey to the Heart. There is a great team spirit among the guys, and I believe that they are looking forward to this time. It will be a unique experience for them all, especially since they all have gotten to know each other. This will add a different dimension to the week of the Journey and an opportunity to draw even closer to one another as well as to the Lord.

Pray for us as a family, that we will be salt and light to all those who will be housed here for the FFA National 2008 Convention. That God would give us grace and wisdom to serve with excellence. Also, pray for the FOCUS Journey this week. That the Lord would work mightily in each heart and life…and that each of us would be receptive to the truth.

God bless you all and have a great week!!

It was a great week that kept us busy. But it was awesome to hear the different testimonies of what God had done in the lives of those who attended the Counseling Seminar. It was a wonderful time of spiritual encouragement, good fellowship and sound teaching. The Lord was exalted and glorified as a result of this time.

I was blessed by some of the teaching that Dr. Davis gave Saturday night to the staff. How that we were once lost and “alone” in our sins. But Christ came to earth to reconcile us to the Father  by His death on the cross (”t”). He made it possible for every person to be “at-one” with God. He was the “atonement” for our sin.

Praise God for an awesome time!! This next week there will around 600 people coming here for the FFA convention (Future Farmers of America). We look foward to the opportunity to be a testimony for Christ and a chance to serve these people.

A big thanks to Daniel Walsh for the great pictures… =)

The 2008 Counseling Seminar started yesterday here at the Indianapolis Training Center. We are excited to see what God will be doing in the hearts of the young people that are attending. It is a smaller group than “normal”, but the potential for a powerful movement of God is the same. Please pray with us that God will open the minds and hearts of all and that His truth will prevail. 

Bill Gothard is excited about sharing vital truths with the young people that God has freshly laid on his heart. Pray specifically for him, that God would grant him grace, give him His unfailing strength and a peace that passes all understanding.

I look forward giving an update on the incredible things that God will do this week….Take part in this week by keeping us in your prayers!!

It has been an amazing week here at the Northwoods on a Journey. God has done a great work in the hearts and lives of the guys. Competing affections, hidden sin and stubborn wills were surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As we sought the Lord day by day, He faithfully revealed Himself through His word, His creation around us and the testimony of His working-power in the material.

One of the passages that was meaningful to me is found in Isaiah 30:21,

“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”

A couple of chapters later, Isaiah refers again to a certain “way” that we are to walk in,

“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness…but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isaiah 38:8-10

This seemed to be a fitting passage for all of us guys as we return home. There is a way that the redeemed are to follow. It is a narrow way, a way of holiness that God has called every Christian to travel. If we turn off that path, God in His faithfulness and love for us will come and open our eyes to the the error of our way. He will not leave us to wander or continue to go astray without His Spirit coming and reprimanding us. He paid the ultimate price to set us free from the bondage of our sin, we have been bought with a price, we are now the ransomed. As we walk in the light and follow Him in this journey and way of holiness, God promises that we will have everlasting joy and gladness. For truly, in His presence there is fullness of joy! Psalm 16:11

That is what God has blessed each one of us with as we return home. A true and everlasting joy that cannot be taken away as long as we maintain a right relationship with Him. Praise the Lord for the work that He did at Calvary and the work that He continues to do the heart’s and lives of His children.

I have the privilege of heading off tomorrow to the Northwoods once again for the final Guys Journey of the year. Jordan Webster and myself will be leading this Journey with 23 other guys. In my mind, there is no better time to be up in the Northwoods than right now. Leaves should be just about in their full color, and the weather should be crisp and cool.

I am very much looking forward to what God has in store for each of the guys and myself as well. Please remember us in your prayers as we all seek the Lord. Pray that:

• We would be sensitive to His voice
• We would have the grace to obey
• There would be a unity among the teams

May the Lord richly bless you all….Have a great week!!