14 April 2008

Sanctuary

About 2 weeks ago, our Friday "Ladies Thrive" group moved to the sanctuary portion of the old Winbourne Baptist Church.
Since last fall, we had been meeting in the back "social hall" for our weekly meetings, but our men's outreach has been growing steadily, too, so they needed more room. Our ladies' group just keeps getting bigger, thus the decision was made to move to the front of the building. The men's group took our old spot in the social hall.
Here are some pics from our first day in the "new" sanctuary:




Winbourne Baptist Church / The (new)
Baton Rouge Dream Center
of
Healing Place Church

This place is ENORMOUS!!!
Looking down the side of the buildings toward the back...

Inside the Sanctuary

Here comes our first bus load of ladies!

The first, smiling face they see is of our sweet Mrs. Jeannie at the registration table...

Waiting for the service to start.

Some of our precious, faithful attendees.

Two ladies from my (usual) group: Ms. Gail & Kenya

It occurred to me that day that it was appropriate for us to be moving to the sanctuary of our new building because, for so many of these ladies, the Dream Center is just that:
A SANCTUARY
It's a place they can come each week to escape (temporarily) the pressures of the outside world, to get refreshed and fed -- both physically & spiritually.
So many of them live lives that are full of pain and frustration; I cannot even comprehend the DAILY stress of making sure my children have enough food to eat or how I'm going to pay my heating bill.
But faithfully, each week, these ladies take 2 hours out of their workday to come here and hear the Word.
I have to admit, I get as much out of these Fridays as they do... I love these ladies and I miss them when I can't be there. I was out of town this past weekend, but I'm looking forward to this FRIDAY for another day in
sanctuary.