Happy Anniversary, Pastor and Mrs. Ava

Sunday our church celebrated the 20th anniversary of our dear Pastor and his wife at Faith Baptist Church. We had a wonderful day, and I believe that they felt honored. We are so thankful for them and the work they have put into the ministry of Faith Baptist Church.

Mrs. Liz Parris, our Youth Pastor's wife, took several weeks in seeing this banner made. It was really sweet. The hand prints are of the children in our church from nursery age to SIGMA.


Pastor was touched that two of our college boys, surrendered to the ministry, took the time to call him from school Saturday night to thank him for his faithfulness while they were growing up at Faith. And to say thank you for standing on the WORD of God, never making apologies for taking a stand for Christ. That touched Pastor deeply. And he was touched that another one of our college boys that has surrendered to any work the Lord will lead him to drove all the way home for this day.

It was good to see a full house for the LORD, but also to see a full house of men and women that love our Pastor and wanted to be there for his and Mrs. Ava's special day.




When the choir went down, the Sons of Faith got up and sang "So Good To Me." And God has certainly been good to us!!



Then the Sounds of Faith got up and sang also. Here they are singing "I'm Blessed."


Mrs. Ava was asked to stay on the platform with Pastor because we had some presentations to make and because the special men that were there were going to say something to both of them.


Brother Johnny presented Pastor with a plaque from the church.


And of course we gave him a standing ovation.


The family of a Pastor knows the work and hours that he puts into the ministry more than anyone on the outside. SOMETIMES there are circumstances that will cause bitterness to set into the heart of the children. But Pastor has always showed a balance of love to his family and leadership to the sheep of his church and now has both his sons serving in the ministry at their churches. We wanted to honor them as well with a love gift of the work and time they spent while at Faith. Like Brother Johnny said, "When you honor the children of the Pastor, you honor the Pastor."


Mrs. Ava was given a bag of goodies. There were all kinds of things in there just for ladies. Along with gift certificates to get her hair done and her nails, and I would say it was basically a "pamper yourself" gift bag. She loved that. As a matter of fact, our Associate Pastor's wife, Mrs. Vondie, presented it to her and wanted to keep it.


Mrs. Ava also teaches the Senior Ladies class and they purchased these twenty beautiful roses for the front of the church in her honor.


Another thing we did was had a portrait of Pastor and Mrs. Ava set on canvas to hang in the foyer of the church. We hope to have one of Pastor Cook and Pastor Boone eventually. They were the two Pastors of the church before our Pastor...three pastors in 52 years!!



We also invited all the men who have gone on into the ministry out of Faith Baptist Church while under the leadership of Pastor Goodman. Of course, not all of them were able to attend, but we were so blessed to have the ones that were able to be there and hear their emotional testimony of what Pastor meant in their lives and how they are trying to MOVE ON in the work of the Lord....just like he has. Some of them shared tib bits of advice that he gave them before entering into their ministries and all Pastor Goodman could do was cry and say, "To God be the glory."

Brother Lemmons, working in a Bible ministry now


Eddie Hawks, Pastor in Rocky Mount, NC


Ryan Kiser, Pastor in the Caymen Islands


Mark Leonard, Associate Pastor in Indiana (a church voted on him to be their Pastor last night...haven't heard the results of that yet.)


Ken Carter, Director of the Young Married Class here at Faith


Brother RJ Parris, Youth Pastor here at Faith...he grew up in our church, graduated from Bible college, and went on to work at a church in Massachusetes. When the Lord called Brother Leonard to Indiana, He sent RJ home to fill the position.


When the testimonies and presentations were over, our Associate Pastor preached...about ten or fifteen minutes. It's funny how much a man of God can get out in that little bit of time. LOL It's always wonderful hearing Brother Johnny preach. We love him and know that the church would have a hard time functioning without him too! We're thankful for the time and work he puts into Faith Baptist Church also.

This concluded the morning service. Now onto the Evening service. :)

The choir assembled...


We sang "I'm Not Ashamed." The congregation raised their hands to say the same!

During the last chorus of the song, people were raising their Bibles.


I couldn't get a picture of our orchestra, but I did get a picture of Pastor's "front porch boys." Yes, an orchestra on one side and pickers on the other. LOL A definite balance here!!


The Youth Choir got up to sing. They sang "Thank You...for giving to the Lord" and "Sweeter As The Days Go By."


Pastor talking directly to the children in youth choir is not an unusual sight. Always pushing them...always challenging them. Last night was no different.


Then there were more testimonies from men that were called into the ministry or under the leadership of Pastor Goodman when they left to begin their ministries.

Brother Dusty Brackett


Brother Chad Jones, Pastor of Springmore Baptist Church


Brother Micah Brackett, Pastor in Virginia


Brother Bo Wagner, Pastor of Cornerstone Baptist


Vintage Faith sang after these testimonies. They were singing "The Lifeboat" here.

Another "not unusual sight" to be seen at Faith, is seeing Pastor Goodman praising the Lord. Here he is praising the Lord and shoutin' it out on the communion table. :)


It blessed Pastor for Justin to break out his harmonica for the first time last night. It was a sweet sound as you could see the Lifeboat coming from the glories of Heaven!


Brother John O'Malley, Director of World Wide Baptist Missions and a member of our church who is greatly admired by our Pastor, delivered the evening message. Very appropriate for the day, his sermon was on the stones laid up as a memorial. Precious sermon! We all love Brother John! He and his family have such a sweet and tender spirit.


There were several that could not make it yesterday that wanted to be there. Two families, especially I wanted to mention, because they are members of our church and I KNOW how much they love our Pastor and truly hated missing this day:

Brother Randy and Kellie Ross, Director of Teens-4-Christ Ministries
Brother Lewis and Kim Howell, Missionaries to New Zealand

We missed you guys!!

After the alter call, Pastor asked the decons to come forward and publicly thanked them for never once in twenty years, gossiping or going behind his back and for always being his friend and allowing him to pastor the church without interference. How many Pastors can say that?


We made our way from the church to the gymnasium where we would have an Anniversary Fellowship! I LOVE fellowships, don't you?

Along they way there were bulletin boards with loads of pictures from the last twenty years.





The food was delicious too!!



And there was a lovely tea fountain.


Great food...great fellowship...great Pastor and Pastor's wife. What more can you ask for?