“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”

                                        Philippians 1:3

     As we come to the end of 2012 and begin to reflect on the past year my heart is filled with thanksgiving.  I remember the radical commitments that so many of you made as we began 2012 and completed our study of David Platt’s book “Radical.”  So many of you have stayed faithful to those commitments to 1. Pray for the entire world.  Thanks to Barbara putting together the data on each country and Nancy so faithfully getting it into the bulletin each week, we have prayed for every sovereign nation in the world during this year.  2. Read through the entire Bible.  On the last Sunday in December many of you were recognized and rewarded for completing the reading of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Many of you for the very first time.  3.  Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose.  The success of the finances of South Fork this past year has been amazing.  4. Spend your time in another context.  Well over half of our congregation has been involved in ministry in some other context rather than just in the regular service at South Fork.  Hundreds of lives have been touched by the congregation of South Fork during the past year.  5.  Commit your life to a multiplying community (your own local church – South Fork).  As the year has progressed we have seen our Sunday School as well as worship service attendance steadily increase.  I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”

     In the beginning of the year we began a series that would place a two month emphasis on the six traits of a growing church.  i.e. 1. Steadfastness in their practice. 2. Miraculous in their product.  3. Practical in their love for each other.  4. Unity in their participation.  5. Joyful in their fellowship with each other.  6. Abundance of praise in their hearts.  As we focused on these traits and did our best to incorporate them into our fellowship we did indeed see the Lord begin to “add to the fellowship such as should be saved.”  I believe there have been a total of eighteen folks added to the church during the year.  That blesses my heart.  “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”

     Almost everyone of you have been involved in the collection of food for distribution through our schools to families in our own community that are challenged with hunger.  Dear Ones, I can’t even begin to tell you what it means to me and to those families to know they will have something to eat.  One of my prayers is that God will let me take care of every orphan in the world.  I thank my God upon every remembrance of you for helping answer at least a portion of that prayer right here in Ashe/Watauga countries.

     Barbara and I are thankful to know that as we begin 2013 we are in the very church that God would have us to be in and doing the things that He has chosen for us to do.  I am truly excited to see what God has in story for 2013.  I honestly expect to see our church double in size in 2013.

     To God be the glory, great things He has done.

                      Homer