Monday, January 30, 2012

Weekly Announcements!

There's still time to sign up for Home Teams! Visit pdbc.org to find out which time works best for you!

Prayer starts this Friday at 7am at John and Elya's house! There will be free coffee!

The Super Bowl Party is this Sunday at PDBC! There's gonna be free food and lots of fun!

Spring Break Mission trip will be at Bastrop this year! It will be around $200!

Join us for Bible Study at 9am, and then come for FREE! meal at 6pm!

See you soon!

Light in the Darkness - January and John 1

It is a well-known fact that Texas weather is crazy. And sometimes, I am very thankful for it. I was pleasantly surprised, overjoyed actually, to find myself soaking up the sunshine on our 80°+ day last week. It’s the end of January, Winter is not supposed to bring amazing warm days. But sometimes we are blessed with them.

Now imagine if it were 80° every day, all year. We wouldn’t be too thrilled about the thought of yet another warm day ahead. Winter’s season of bitterness and cold, with a warm day sprinkled in, is a wonderful metaphor of how God’s light shines through our darkness. Sometimes we may feel we’re going through a dark or cold part of our life. Things may not be going as we hoped, plans get altered, we get sick or feel down. But what a great place to be in, because God can step in and brighten everything up. Cold days give us an appreciation for warm ones (or vice versa, if you actually love the winter season) and life’s struggles give us the chance to see God work in amazing ways

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

This Week!-FREE! Breakfast/Home Team Sign-Up

We welcome everybody back! We hope your semester is off to a great start!

Join us Sunday for a home-cooked FREE! Breakfast!!! We will start serving at 9a.m. followed by Bible Study! We begin our new series on the life of Christ!

FREE! Meal begins Sunday @ 6p.m. We will post our menu at noon on twitter (@PioneerCollege) and Facebook. Invite your friends,it's going to be awesome!

Our Home Teams begin next week (Monday, the 23rd)

Here are your spring semester Home Team options!

Monday - Ladies
Allen & Chris Wilson, Taylor Horn & Kaci Millay
Monday - Men
Blake Fox & JT Thornton (Begins October 3)
Tuesday - Ladies
Duane & Laura Donaway, Sarah Wesley & Hillary Ford, Traca Broadstreet
Tuesday - Ladies
Dawson & Rhea Rodriguez, Miranda Gibson & Allison Lovejoy
Wednesday - Men
Billy & Connie Stone, Chad Moore & Landon Long
Wednesday - Ladies
Dennis & Cynthia Laster, Autumn Taylor & Kelsey Evans
Wednesday - Ladies
John & Elya Whitten, Chelsea Barker & Kendra Holt
Thursday - Ladies
Alexa Gabaree, & Jessica Johnson

Looking for a Spring Break Mission Trip? We are headed to Bastrop! Cost will be around $200 and the dates will be March 16-22! Final details will be announced soon!

Pioneer College Ministry Staff



Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Meet our New Intern!




Pioneer College Ministry is excited to welcome Kendra Holt to our ministry staff beginning this spring! Here's a little about Kendra:

Major: Ministry and Psychology

Hometown: Mansfield

Hobbies: Playing and singing music, collecting unicorns, and making pinteresting arts and crafts. Playing Zelda on Christmas break, oh and I really do collect unicorns, that wasn't a joke.

Life Dreams: Visit all seven continents, go skydiving, and get a pilot's license.


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Encouraging Book Review, "Kisses from Katie"

I just finished reading an amazing book called Kisses From Katie, about a 23 year old girl who now lives in Uganda, has adopted 13 girls, and started her own non-profit ministry! Katie felt a tug on her heart to do mission work after high school, while having no intention of actually living overseas. But as she followed God’s lead, she realized abandoning everything and going on the adventure God had for her was what she needed to do. It was truly inspiring to hear about her life, and how God is so powerfully working through her – all because she answered his call to go and serve.

Here is an excerpt from Katie’s story:

"The night in 2007 was cold and rainy. I was walking out of the supermarket on Main Street in downtown Jinja, on my way home. Then I saw hm. Huddle son the street corner, drenched and shivering, was a little boy. At that moment, all I really wanted to think about was getting home, getting dry, and crawling in to my warm bed. But a voice inside told me to stop.

I took the little boy inside the supermarket to dry him off a bit and bought him some biscuits and juice. I gave him my sweatshirt, a small wooden cross I carried in my pocket, and some change so he could get a ride home.

As he left, he called out, “What is your name?”
“Katie,” I responded, “Auntie Katie.”
“Me, I am Daniel,” he shouted and disappeared into the wet, chilly night.

About a year later, I walked into the supermarket to buy food for my family and got caught in a big hug. Two small brown arms wrapped around me as a child’s voice excitedly proclaimed, “Autie Katie!”
I looked down to see Daniel. Beaming.
“Wait,” he urged me.

He hurried to the nearest street vendor and bought me a popsicle with the little pocket change he had. He then dug his little hand in his pocket and pulled out the small wooden cross. Looking at me with a wide grin, he spoke words that pierced my heart: “I have never stopped praying for you every day.”

To this day, I think of that story and stand amazed at the goodness of our God and the enormous things He can accomplish if I am obedient to His command to stop and love the person in front of me. That rainy night, I really just wanted to hop on a piki [a kind of motorcycle] and go home. But I stopped, because that’s what my heart told me to do. I only gave him a sweatshirt (I’m sure I have eight more)…some cheap biscuits (I can eat biscuits anytime I want to)…enough money for his ride home (probably less than the equivalent of fifty cents). But Jesus gave him hope that night. And he remembered. He didn’t just remember my face; he remembered my name. He prayed for me. He prayed for my safety and for the opportunity to see me again. I blessed him just one cold night, and he blessed me every day after that for an entire year." (p. 101-102)

Many times we pass up the opportunity to serve someone because we simply don’t feel like it. It may be inconvenient, we have other things to focus on, and we just want to go on with what we were doing, not being interrupted. But may this be a reminder to us, that it is always best (even if we don’t get a “thank you”, like Katie received) to reach out and take that extra step to show someone we care. Loving others is what we are called to do. It is always worth it to put others first!

You can read more about Katie and her journey on her blog: kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com

watch a short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfXgCx3f_1c

or purchase her book: Amazon, Wal-Mart online (cheapest price), Christian retailers – you can find it most places!