Jae Hively, President of Pottstown, PA Community Lighthouse was contacted earlier this year by Pastor Joel Kolb. He extended an invitation to Jae and her teammate, Dina McAfee, VP of Financial Development to partner with Spring City Fellowship to introduce Aglow to Spring City.
After conversations, it was decided to hold the meeting on Saturday evening, March 9th, and a speaker was invited. Pastor Kolb’s church allowed Aglow to use their building at no cost and even provided coffee. Aglow provided light refreshments. Aglow helped to advertise and introduce Aglow to the city, inviting people, planning and overseeing the meeting with worship, and taking care of any follow-up.
As they planned, Jae felt impressed to make this event a time to remember in Spring City. However, as the time for the meeting approached, it was pouring down rain! There was even an alert for flooding in the area. They prayed! A volunteer from the church went into the parking lot to help direct traffic because the lot was full of cars!
As the meeting began, the rain lightened up. The sanctuary had seats for 105, and people kept coming! Folding chairs were brought in to seat 145 people! While 25 of the attendees knew about Aglow, all the rest were new to Aglow! The shofar was blown and a hearty welcome was given to everyone who braved the weather to attend. The Aglow history video was shown along with a GameChangers clip about identity – later 6 people signed up to attend the next GameChanger class.
Because they wanted this introduction to Aglow to be special, Jae and Dina created Prayer Stations in two rooms off the sanctuary in the Church. The first room was entitled, “Step Up to Life” which was a self-assessment of where a person was in relationship with the Lord. The second room was divided into two parts. One part of the room was a Cross with a guide to process “Issues of the Heart”. The other end of the room was an opportunity for each person to partake in communion. Jae said that about 40 people went through the Prayer Stations with soaking music and scriptures on big screens. It was a beautiful time.
Worship was led by a young woman from Bethlehem. It was a meaningful and powerful time. People were heard saying that it felt like a family reunion as they saw people they hadn’t seen in a long time. The meeting closed at 9 pm; however, the people continued to stay and visit. As they left to go to their cars, the rain came down again.
Altogether, it was a memorable experience.
Aglow has had a prophetic word since 2006 that there would be an Aglow presence in every town, city, and village around the world. Don’t be surprised if He asks your group to plant a seed in the next town over. Just do it! Keep your leaders above you informed and they will come alongside you to help you get that seed in the ground.
Has your team thought of having an interest meeting in a town in your area that has no Aglow? Why not try it? There might be people there just waiting for you to come!