By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
ALBANY (LBM) – Liz Lowe was at a breaking point while recovering from a serious illness, but the long-time attender at Blood River Baptist Church, finally found peace in the person of Jesus Christ after sitting for 30 years in the pews.
Lowe, who had been enduring years of health concerns, finally humbled her heart to Christ in March. But she resisted being baptized for months, until realizing her need to be obedient if she truly had surrendered her life to Him.
“After having such a difficult time in my life, the baptism was a really nice way to celebrate what God was doing for me,” Lowe said. “It was a great feeling to have my church and family members there to see this God-moving experience.”
Pastor David Collins celebrated Lowe’s salvation and her obedience through baptism, and he said her story is representative of how God has moved through the congregation since August 2016, when its educational building, worship center and parsonage all took in between 4 inches and 2 feet of water when the area flooded.
Since the flood, the congregation has witnessed 14 baptisms and added 32 new members.
“Through this situation, God has increased our faith and the blessings have been overwhelming,” Collins said. “All along the way through the rebuilding God has provided the money and volunteers to help us finish the work here on our facilities. It’s been humbling to see God move through the community and start a revival right here at our church that I believe will spread out into Albany and surrounding areas.”
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Without flood insurance, Blood River Baptist faced a seemingly desperate situation after the August natural disaster. The cost to rebuild was estimated at more than $200,000.
But the congregation was able to worship in the Family Life Center that was minimally impacted, and, in the months ahead donations poured in as well as disaster relief teams and other rebuild volunteers from Louisiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Mississippi.
By mid-February, both the parsonage and worship center were move-in ready, and in July, the education building reopened.
“It felt like a fresh encounter with the Lord to move back in,” Collins. “He saw us through and provided for us.
“That was definitely a big milestone for Blood River,” he continued. “To see everyone get back together was big time for me as their pastor because I know how it feels to be displaced in their own homes because I was one of them, living in a camper outside my parsonage for seven months until the parsonage was renovated.”
PATH TO REVIVAL
In the midst of the renovation, Collins received a divine revelation that would set the path for the revival the congregation is experiencing now.
One May morning, Collins was in the worship center when he said he felt a nudging of the Holy Spirit.
“The Lord spoke to me while I was on my knees, praying,” Collins recalled. “He said ‘you are on the altar of God and get ready for the harvest.”
Soon after, Collins took a trip to the LifeWay Christian Resources on the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary campus and spent six hours in the store praying for God to reveal to Him what steps he should take next.
He said in the end he felt God’s leading to take his congregation through “The Fresh Encounter: Experiencing God’s Power for Spiritual Awakening.”
Developed by Blackaby Ministries, the Bible study guides believers through the biblical pattern of experiencing God’s presence which leads to revival in the church a spiritual awakening in the world.
The church has been going through the study since June, with Collins preaching a Sunday message related to the material and members participating in Wednesday night small groups to discuss the lessons.
Wednesday night attendance has grown from five at the first meeting in early June to 22 in late July. Meanwhile, Sunday morning attendance reached 151, the highest since Collins became pastor to the congregation.
The study led to one of the most powerful weeks in the life of the church, Collins said, explaining that during the July 30-Aug. 2 revival, three people came forward and were baptized.
“The Lord impressed upon me the need to start living out the theme verse of the study, 2 Chronicles 7:14,” Collins said. “People need to humble themselves to God. Revival begins with changed hearts.”
Moreover, he said, revival is needed now especially because of the breakdown of the family.
“Satan is trying to destroy homes,” Collins said. “We are trying to do our part to reverse that here.”
Church member Russell Osborne said God has restored his joy since the August 2016 flood. A facilitator of the “Fresh Encounter” study on Wednesdays, he has seen first-hand a restoration of families.
“The revival merely helped to stir up God’s people and get them excited about reaching the world with the Gospel,” Osborne said. “The greatest blessing during the revival was seeing two precious souls get born again. That’s worth more than all the money in the world.
“I’ve had my joy restored after going through a period of discouragement before I started attending at Blood River,” he continued. “It felt as though no doors would ever open but now God has put me in a place where there are more doors open than what I can go through.
“What’s more exciting than anything is that God isn’t finished and is still moving,” Osborne continued. “My wife and I are more excited than ever and we look forward to what God is doing at Blood River and are eternally grateful that God is allowing us to be a small part.”
Since revival services have concluded and the “Fresh Encounter” study is nearing its end, the church soon will turn its attention to discipleship and new outreach efforts, Collins said.
He said the congregation already offers ministry through a food and clothes pantry, and that they host a monthly community family fellowship offers people in the area an afternoon of games and food. All of which helps to draw people to worship services or Bible study.
Now they plan to do even more planned ministry.
“Instead of having a Sunday night service, we want to be of service to the community on Sundays,” Collins said, adding that they will go into the community to perform compassion ministries and share the Gospel in place of corporate worship on Sunday evenings.
“We will continue to listen to the voice of God,” Collins explained. “He’s already shown us that if He calls us to do something, He will see it through. We’ve been a very blessed congregation in which many have shown Christ’s love to us and we want to show it to them, like He’s done for us since the storm.”
