New Church Sign and First Baptism

Things are happening fast at LifePoint! We continue to make renovations to the exterior of our building. On Friday, our brand new sign was added. My lovely wife Sarah, who is a graphic designer by trade (we've got the student loans to prove it), designed the sign and the color scheme. Rapid Signs, located here in Ruston, installed it.

Random letters

Acting like I have a clue as to what's going on

The "L"

Doesn't that look great?

Interior Renovations

One of our church members decided to make some renovations to the interior of the church on the fly. Deciding that the air conditioner wasn't keeping them cool enough, they decided to do something about it. "I've got it! I'll install my own personal, electric, fan at my seat." The following two pictures illustrate why we humans are the superior beings on earth. We have unmatched creative abilities. Said church member no longer has to use a church bulletin to manually fan themselves. The strategically placed and strategically aimed fan does it for them. I've been around church a long time, but I admit, I've never seen this one!

Jim's Baptism
Although I've known his son for a number of years, I met Jim Harkins for the first time six months ago. Some serious health complications had landed Jim in the hospital and the family asked me to go pray with him. He is an elderly man and I don't think he would mind me telling you that he had not followed Christ during his life. Thankfully, Jim got well enough to be discharged from the hospital. Over the next several months I would periodically visit Jim at his assisted living facility with my guitar and bible in tow. What a spiritual transformation I was able to see in him. On Sunday, I had the wonderful privilege to baptize Jim Harkins for the first time in his life. It was also the first baptism that we've conducted here at LifePoint Church.

Jim's wife, son, and daughter-in-law during worship service

Jim's grandchildren

Lincoln Leadership, New Baptistery, and La Style Fish Fry

Lincoln Leadership
For the past 9 months I participated in a class sponsored by the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce called Lincoln Leadership. Lincoln Leadership's mission is to raise up citizens that become leaders in the community. Throughout the class we learned the intricacies that make Ruston the unique place that it is. We toured everything from schools to local businesses to a pregnancy crisis center and everything in between. We topped it all off by taking a trip down to the State Capitol during the current legislative session and met with some of our area legislators. Thanks to Judy Copeland who administrated the class on behalf of the Chamber and Sue Billberry who served as our fearless class president. The class was not just educational, but was also tons of fun and introduced me to some great new friends.

Receiving my "diploma" from Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Scott Terry.

Our class photo: Adam Hohlt, Angela Lee, Joanna Allen, Derrance Nichols, Sue Billberry, Blair Walpole, and myself. Not pictured: Chris Craighead and Neill Kirkland.

New Baptistery
We are very excited about our new baptistery. We will be even more excited when start using it! Yes, it has a built in water heater. Yes, we are going to put a few coats of really nice stain on it. And yes, we are taking baptismal requests.









This tank is very, very, heavy and was extremely difficult to unload. A huge thank-you to those that dropped what they were doing to come help.



FISH FRY
On Saturday, June 6th, about 70 people turned out for a Louisiana Style Fish Fry. Not only was there a strong showing from the LifePoint family, but lots of guests joined us as well. The weather was absolutely perfect, the fish cooked just right, and the fellowship was ever better. The kids made sure we got our money's worth out of the spacewalk and the adults were a wonderful audience for the worship and bluegrass singing.

Sarah's sidewalk art

Ben Christmas and his crew catered for us.

Well you didn't think I was there JUST for the fellowship did you?

Hurry up and serve the food!

Isn't Dylan a little too old for this?

Look at those two politician smiles.

A politician smile on performance enhancing supplements.

Sarah hanging out with the Warren family..by the fan.

The bluegrass brothers..the Chipmon family and me.

Jessica, Alan, Caleb, and me doing some worship songs.

There's our raffle winner! A digital camera.

" A Man of Constant Sorrow", just for fun. And it was fun!

LifePoint Work Day 2.0

Happy summer everyone! It's been a great spring at LifePoint Church and we've got the pictures to prove it.

In the first picture, Caleb, is trying his hand at leading worship while playing the keyboard. Caleb is a great addition to our worship team and does a great version of "Great Balls of Fire" on the side. The next two pictures are of Alan Roberston and Brandon Turner speaking at our midweek service. It was the very first time for these two budding young ministers do something of this nature at LifePoint. They did a great job and I'm proud of the ministerial initiative that they are taking.

The remainder of the pictures consist of renovations and aesthetic improvements to our building. Workday 2.0 produced a great labor-force turnout, more than partially motivated by Sarah's gumbo for lunch.

God bless you all and thank you for your ongoing support of LifePoint Church.

Jathan Maricelli

March Happenings!

I'm thankful to say that a lot went well at LifePoint Church in March '09! I thank all of you for your continued prayers and support. Without so many of you partnering with us, it would not be possible for us to see the beauty that God is unfolding here in Ruston. Continue to pray for us and enjoy the pics!

ORDINATION CEREMONY
I was blessed to receive my Ordination from the Lousiana District of the United Pentecostal Church last week. It was a very special moment for some of my closest friends, family, and me. Thanks Louisiana District for giving me your faith in and support.
My grandfather Maricelli, Sarah, and me. Sarah is holding the certificate, I'm holding the ceremonial towel, and PaPa 'Celli is holding the pose.

Some of my dearest friends and family praying over us.

It's not a bad night when you get prayed for by your hero. Thanks dad.

NEW CHAIRS!

We have padded chairs! Get the word out in Ruston that no longer do you have to sit on a hard, metal, folding chair if you visit LifePoint Church! The great thing was that the truck showed up right in the middle of midweek worship. What did we do? We promptly shut the service down, unloaded and set up the chairs, and started the service back up. Isn't church planting a hoot?

There are 10 chairs in one of those bundles. We have 10 bundles...do the math.

The promised land!

TIMES OF REFRESHING-BOSSIER CITY

I want to thank Bro. Gordon Poe for reaching out to me as a Home Missionary. He invited me to be a part of his conference, Times of Refreshing, in Bossier City pastored by Bro. Jerry Dean. Not only did he allow me to share our story with the audience on Friday night, but he gave us a very generous offering as well. Thanks Bro. Poe for having a heart for Home Missions.

Sharing the LifePoint story at Times of Refreshing at The Pentecostals of Bossier City.

CELEBRATION SUNDAY

On March 15th we held a special service that we entitled "Celebration Sunday", during which we publicly gave God thanks for what He had done for us our first year. It was a great day, it was a big, phat day..it was a CRAWFISH BOIL day! Celebration Sunday brought about something else to celebrate, a new LifePoint Church attendance record. 107 people were in attendance, with 59 of those being guests!

Lots of work went on to get the Children's ministry rooms ready. The decor looks fabulous!

Rod holding the rug in place...in a very artistic manner I might add.

That's what 107 in our building looks like.

THe Batman bouncy thing was a hit with the kids.

The crawfish were a hit with everyone else..well, almost everyone else.

I'm not sure how much of a hit they were with Alan (pink shirt) who had them for the first time.

CHICAGO

My lovely wife and me took a little trip for our 6th wedding anniversary. Where did we go? Chicago...in March...it was 10 degrees the first night we were there! High tea at the Drake, breakfast with Pastor Jack Yonts, visiting my old friends at Wredling Middle School, the Burrito Bol from Chipotle, and worship service at The Orchard Church pastored by my dear friends Rachel and Vito LoCascio made for a wonderful time.

Pastor Jack Yonts and me at Colonial Cafe, where else? There's a church planter right there.

Some of the children at The Orchard Church.

Vito and his trusty assistant Joel praying that I would not get hypothermia before I made it back to LA.

Not only did the wonderful people at The Orchard have to hear me preach...

..but they had to hear me sing as well.

God Bless,

Jathan Maricelli

January '09 at LifePoint Church

Hello to all! God is really blessing us here at LifePoint Church of Ruston these days! My last post documented that we had just purchased and moved into a brand new building. Here are a few pictures that show what we've been up to over the past month.

Crowd shot

Jessica, Rod, and Alan's worship trio debut! Very melodic indeed.

Our overhead projector rocks!

Trying to read handwriting on the prayer request cards

Alan teaching the children something about a spy. Nice costume I must say.

This past Friday night we had out first every student fellowship/pizza/Wii party!

Alan ROFL'ing!

Laney and "Red"

Dylan staring at a piece of pizza...he didn't stare for long.

Brooke, Alex, and Katie

Kevin and Syd playing Wii

Is that John Mayer or....its only Marshall...oh.

First Service in Our New Building

This past Sunday we held service in our new building for the first time! There are future renovations to come, but we are very excited to have a "home". On the days leading up to Sunday, we had lots of help cleaning and getting the building in shape to have a service. I have posted a few pictures of that and of our service for your perusal.

Jathan
Alex posing on workday Not only did Greg put up our temporary sign, but...what is that dance called?

Lots of cleaning happened

Lots of coffee drinking happened

Sarah thought that if she stared long enough at the stain, it would just go away

Finally, it was ready to go at about 8pm on Saturday night

We Bought a Church Building Today!

Today, December 22, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. we finalized a purchase on a 3,028 sq. ft. building that will serve as LifePoint Church's brand new place of worship! There are future renovations that will take place in order to retrofit the building to our needs, but I did want to show you all a few pictures of what our new building looks like today. Thank you so much for all of your prayer and support.

God Bless,

Jathan