ARC 2012

[Stan Hallett]

The Ministry Group from Biddeford is now headed home (three vehicles) for the 2012 ARC Conference.  Bro. Marc Worrell and family headed out first,  Bro. David Capotosto and Family are in the van in front of us (Bro. Bruce Edwards and I) as we are just coming into New Jersey.

The Eleven of us had a fantastic time! Everyone that I polled said that they want to come back next year.

It was good to see old friends, Bro. Prevost, Bro. McKinley, Bro. and Sis. Huston, Bro. Hulsey, Bro. Moses, etc.. It was also good to make new friends and see some face to face for the first time.  God is so Good!

The teaching was great, the testimonies were fantastic.  It was wonderful to see what God is doing in so many assemblies!

I want to thank Bro. Huston, and all the team that put together the presentations, and put in the time and effort to put this all together and make is such a success! We are headed back to Biddeford, Maine enriched.

[David Huston]

On behalf of the Carlisle elders, I want to thank all the wonderful folks who participated in ARC 2012. It was a great time of fellowship and spiritual development. There were several remarkable happenings in our small groups sessions, which perhaps those affected will describe on this forum. I also want to publically acknowledge all those from our local assembly who helped to make this year's conference such a success. May Jesus bless each of you with the bounding riches of His grace.

[Stan Hallett]

Good suggestion Bro. Huston.  I'd like to be the first to respond to that request. . .

While I enjoyed all of the fellowship and the teaching, most of it was a refresher for me. Each evening I looked forward to our small group sessions. From the very first evening everyone just opened up to one another, with many giving very moving testimonies. Three of the testimonies stuck out to me as having a similar theme.  That theme was that they were basically "loved into the Church".  Some saying that they felt the power of God and the love of the people from the first. So much so that they "knew they were home". It has been an underlying theme of what I have spoken of to our assembly.  If each of us in our local assembly is in a right standing with God, full of the Holy Ghost, and knit into the body, then we as a whole will express the love of God that fills us and we will have a love for souls. "It's like a sponge that is so full of water that you can't help but spill some on everyone that gets close." People know the real from the fake. They are looking for the real, and they are hungry for it!

The other thing that truly blessed me was our young people.  Our small group was the only group that was in the lodge with them, so the rest of you missed out. Each evening we were moved by the prayer coming from their area.  It was moving and powerful! That was our children!  They could have been on the streets, in jail, on drugs, or getting pregnant and lost.  But there they were, worshiping, praying in the Holy Ghost. They were loving God with worship that spilled onto us just like a sponge dripping with water getting everything wet that came near it. My daughter Rebekah came home built up and refreshed in the Holy Ghost. I noted that it had an effects on some of our other youth as well.