The Kerusso – May | 2019
Kerusso (Greek): “To publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done.”
EMC Youth Spring Retreat @ Cedar Lakes - Ripley, West Virginia Every retreat is amazing in its own right, but some years are more remarkable than others. By all accounts, this year's Spring Retreat stands out among the best! Over 170 youth and adults representing 9 EMC churches from PA, WV, VA & NC gathered at Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley WV for a weekend focused on “Handling The Truth.” Our speakers were Jason & Whitney Doolittle. Jason is the Pastor of East Bend (NC) EMC. Jason spoke Friday and Saturday nights with Whitney sharing Saturday morning. They came together, during the Sunday morning service to share their testimony of how God's truth changed their lives. The Doolittles challenged and encouraged everyone with relevant, biblical teaching on how we discern truth and how we live out truth in a world that easily disregards it. Their messages were thoughtful, challenging and compassionate. I especially appreciated their openness to the Holy Spirit in their preparation and presentation. As an example, Saturday night, Jason put aside his prepared message and gave a powerful message on the faith of Stephen. We witnessed a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the altar that evening! Another blessing of the weekend was having Halle Martin as our worship leader. Halle serves with her Worship Pastor father on the Worship Team at Pathway Church (Evangelical Free) in Beaver Falls PA. A junior in high school, Halle has a great gifting and passion for leading worship. It was wonderful for our youth to have one of their peers leading them in worship. I received many positive comments about our musical worship and her leadership. Halle was joined last minute by 2 friends from Ohio who came to assist her. Another unexpected blessing from the Lord! Beyond the 4 powerful worship gatherings, we enjoyed beautiful weather, lots of free time to be with and make friends, small group discussion, open prayer and lots of fun. Saturday we had a Cup Challenge with each of the groups competing against each other for a "mystery amount" gift card. The prize, after several competitions involving plastic cups was claimed by Old Richmond (NC) EMC. We praise God for His outpouring upon us over the weekend. Please continue to pray that the numerous seeds planted will keep growing into tangible fruit in the lives of all of us who came, and across His entire kingdom! Youth leaders should mark March 27-29, 2020 for the next Spring Retreat @ Cedar Lakes. ~ Pastor Russ Van Nest, Spring Retreat Coordinator Pastor Russ is an ordained EMC Elder who served as the Associate Pastor of Faith Country Chapel New Castle PA (2004-16). Since 2017, he has been serving as Ministry Catalyst for Real Love Ministries International whose purpose is to Engage>Equip>Empower Haiti.