My Baptism Experience
Stephen asks me, ”Hey Jose, you ready?” Anxiously, I answer, “Uh.. yeah”
So many thoughts are racing in my head. I constantly ask myself “Am I going to do this? Am I ready?” My heart’s racing. It feels like my heart is beating over 1000 beats per minute. Stephen tells me ”Hey Jose c’mon.”
It’s my turn to get baptized. I’m walking towards the pool and I’m getting emotional because God has changed my life drastically. From being a lost Punk rock kid to a child of God. I make my way towards the pool, climbing over the small and shaky ladder and out of nowhere I eat it. I slip into water and I hear Justin laughing as well as the crowd. I’m embarrassed but I told the audience and Justin, “That doesn’t count!” I’m soaking wet, but that did not stop me to get baptized. Justin leads me to the middle of the pool and I kneel. Justin is asking me questions, as I hear his questions, my eyes are closed and I’m having a bit of a flashback of my life. Seeing how far I, Jose Pacheco have come spiritually.
Repeately, I quietly tell myself, “R.I.P Jose Pacheco, Adios amigo, R.I.P Jose Pacheco. I’m leaving this old life. This is for you God, and I’m ready.” Justin baptizes me and I’m up and out of the water, again I lose my balance and I hear the crowd laugh again. I’m getting out of the pool and I feel energized and happy that God did this. It was euphoric.
Jose posted this on his Facebook page the next day:
A new day
A new man
A new Jose
A new creation
To God be the Glory!
:)
We open our new series looking at the book of Ruth by comparing & contrasting Elimelech and Naomi in Ruth 1:1-7. We also reflect on Jesus Christ as the perfect sojourner.
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
This verse is how we should all live our lives.
I have been reading an amazing book called Lady in Waiting by Jackie Kendall & Debby Jones “Becoming God’s best while waiting for Mr. Right “
But who is Mr. Right??
Will we ever find Mr. Right? I strongly believe that a lot of us look for Mr. Right-Now!
I have been attending Co+op at Sandals Church, let me just say The Lord has finally opened my eyes thru the EXPOSÉ series and reading this book!
These words have impacted my life like never before:
Choice, Waiting, Trust
Choice: In all reality we have the free will of choosing who we want to love and who we will end up with.
With all that said I go back to the verse in Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. My personal desire has always been to be someone’s wife and someone’s mother. I think our western society has made women believe that they have to marry and have children. This verse tells me differently, because if we are delighting ourselves in the Lord then the desires of our hearts change. God can place in my heart to go help children in Africa, or preach to women in the Middle East. He will give me the desires of my heart as long as I am delighting myself in Him. Mind you I’m not saying God will change the desire of our hearts but he can. I know he knows that I want to be a wifey and a mommy and he will give me that desire.
Waiting: What am I personally waiting for?
Mr. Right who are you? Do you even exist? Well I think he does and I think most of us know him. While reading this book, Lady in Waiting, I figured out who I am waiting for, who I am training for. It’s not the beautiful man from the grocery store or the guy you have always had a crush on from the Bank. It’s the Man who laid his life on the cross for us as John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” We are His bride, his church and we are waiting for his return. I’ve never felt such peace saying that. I used to fear death not because of the fact of dying but for not having met my Mr. Right when he lived in me all along and I had met him when I was a little girl!
Trust: Do I trust the Lord with my life, my future, and my most important decisions?
These questions seem so easy to answer. But do we honestly trust the Lord 100% with our lives?? I know you want to say yes but don’t lie, you know you don’t! I know I haven’t with many decisions. I will make this very simple and sum this all up: I honestly CHOOSE to TRUST the Lord with ALL my HEART while WAITING for the desire of my heart to be given to me!
Christian or not, if you are reading this please go out and buy this book! It will honestly change your view on things so much!!! I hope you enjoyed this little commentary this is the first time I’ve done this so I’ve been grilling myself about it. Thank you so much for your time. God Bless!!
-Priscilla Chaves <3
We are super excited for tonight! We have invited our pastors and their wives to come answer all your crazy anonymous questions on sex, dating, relationships and God! You can text in your questions anonymously and see what they have to say! Here are the wonderful Pastors and their wives who will be here:
Pastor Matt & Tammy Brown, Pastor Dan & Christina Crowley, and Pastor Andrew & Rebecca Boganwright.
We hope to see you here as we move into the sanctuary this week and hope you guys have lots of questions ready to ask!
Thank You notes
You Make It Happen
In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve had a runway and completely different room set up for our Exposé series. I wanted to give you a taste of what it looks like, and let you know how much we need your help. We were running short on hands (and especially muscles) this week. And it was a very last minute pulling everything together. We would love it if you can show up between 3 and 4 o’clock before Co+op this Wednesday (tomorrow February 29). Leave us a note on Facebook or here that you are coming and we will gladly use your willing hands (and muscles). We need everything from help moving chairs to carrying heavy stage pieces, to creative decorators, and willing hearts to serve.
Without you, this doesn’t work. You are the WE in We Are Co+op.
We use chair spacers to make sure all the rows are straight and everyone has just enough room. (There are over 300 chairs every week)
We add about 100 chairs to the existing chairs in the room, that’s a lot of work!
Our production team fine tuning some of the important logistical elements of the evening.
The runway takes lots of muscle.
Sound check takes place after all of the major setup elements are finished. This is why we start setting up so early.
Sound Check
Lights, Graphics, Video, and Sound
Our Emcees waiting for their entrance while Tori Dawn sings a sweet pop medley.
Camera man
She is really strong!
Adjusting the lights
Hard to see, but he’s carrying one of the stage pieces. And making it look easy.
Teamwork makes it go fast.
Relaxing after all the hard work is done and tear down is finished.
Are you ready to serve? Let us know how you would like to serve, here: http://wearecoop.org/getinvolved and show up really early to help with setup! We love you guys, thanks for all your help!
We continued our series on sex, dating, and relationships by exploring the role of modern masculinity in connection to God’s original design for men.
Unconfessed
now confessed
Healing can begin
Can close that door
can walk away
No more fear today
Before confessed
Unconfessed
was a heavy load to carry
Unconfessed
now confessed
Is no longer heavy
Free at last, the words she sang
finally feeling whole
Unconfessed
was confessed
but only to the Lord
While that was good
more was required:
to confess to another soul
Wasn’t easy to confess
to say those words out loud
that I had kept secret long
only hurting my soul
This restless soul
has now confessed
Confessed to another soul
This soul can rest
because confessed
healing can begin
This soul confessed
feels it can soar
may take awhile
but hurt no more
This heart has been restored
This soul’s confessed
will lead to rest
and growth of heart and soul
- Lori Joanne Quick © 2005
Justin shared a special message for our young women in our second week discussing God, sex, and relationships. Using John chapter 4 and with every young woman holding onto a cup of water, he explored how our dreams and identity have been corrupted but showed us how it’s possible to truly have a satisfied heart.
I have to admit, I underestimate you guys. ALOT.
Last night as Justin stood before you and apologized sincerely and acknowledged that it wasn’t entirely your fault, I was humbled.
We are all broken and most of us have dysfunctional families of some sort, because our parents are human. I have failed to acknowledge the fatherless generation and the way that influenced your life and your perception or reality of what it means to be(come) a man. So, here is my apology, as a sister. Please forgive me. It was beautiful and encouraging to see as each of you stood up, stepped up and took the pen to write your confession and receive communion. What a beautiful sound it was to hear just the voices of the men of Co+op singing in true worship, in unity, and in Spirit and in truth and authenticity.
fight the good fight. your sisters are fighting right alongside you.
thank you for choosing to fight for us, and more importantly for fighting for our King.
<3 lorijo
