Teaching from Pastor Tony

Pastor Tony Spoke on Judges 3:1-10 -
The Israelites would have known war if they obeyed God but He left them in the land to know war...why? Who wants war? Here was a generation that did not know God.

"To know war is to know God":
God needed the Israelites to engage in war so that they would know that "He is Sovereign, to know the seriousness of the enemy and sin, and to know the saving power and grace of our Lord and Savior." We can learn these things either the easy way, in obedience to God, or the hard way, in disobedience to God.

All of us are at war! "We need to lay down our weapons of self-righteousness, of pride, etc. God wants us to know Himself."

"Trusting Christ is not Fighting Christ" - this is the battle we face everyday

For Covenant student readers, Pastor Tony (Anthony Carter) came and spoke at Covenant a couple of years ago and spoke on "Being Black and Reformed" as well as "Remember, Lest We Forget"

Highlight of my First Week

So Christy and I went over to the Carters on Saturday around 1 and ended up staying till 12am! Originally, Christy and I were just planning on taking some family photos but one thing led to another and then Christy ended up cooking us fajitas for dinner. A couple more EPC members came over as well and we all had a great time—playing the wii, cooking dinner, eating dinner, playing the game Phase 10, and to top it off making root beer floats.

The Beginnings of my Research

It has been slow getting started, as some of you probably know, but I have to start somewhere. For those who don’t know I am finishing a resource manual of East Point, which Christy has already started. This resource manual is to help the members of EPC as well as anyone else in the community who would like to be more aware of ministries, organizations, and businesses in the city of East Point. My research so far consists of going to the library to read the local newspapers, driving and walking around East Point to get familiar with its businesses, ministries, churches, etc, going to visit City Hall as well as the Police and Fire Departments, as well as going online to find ministries as well as local news and schedules for different association meetings. I have realized that there are several good and up-to-date websites regarding upcoming events in such in East Point. Christy and I attended one of these events that we found online which was the 2nd Annual Town Hall Expo, where local representatives from each city department were there to answer questions and inform East Point residents of services provided by the government. I am sorry if this is boring anyone…I am not sure what you would like to hear so please feel free to comment :)

First Week in East Point

Where to begin. I've been living with Melissa and Nate Ledbetter and their beautiful 3 children - Levi (9 months), Shiloh (2), and Selah (3). Nate and Melissa both work for FCS (Focused Community Strategies), which is made up of several ministries working together for the inner-city Atlanta, GA. It has already been such a blessing getting to know them and learning more about their work with FCS. They live in a beautiful yellow house in a multi-ethnic neighborhood in Historic South Atlanta, which is about 5 minutes from East Point.

Last Sunday was my first church service at East Point Church (EPC). It was fun to see again some of the members, especially Pastor Tony (Anthony Carter) and his family, who I previously met a month ago when I came to visit East Point. The church is small, consisting of 25 members maybe (not quite sure) It is really nice to go to a church where everyone knows each other and where everyone is considered family, which the members themselves will tell you that J They have all been extremely welcoming to me and it has been a joy getting to know them. Several of the elders have mentioned numerous times to me that EPC is really here to serve me. They know that I will be helping them but they see my internship in a way of serving me first. I already feel very loved by EPC and I am extremely grateful for them.

It has also been a blessing working with Christy Norwood, who is a 2003 community development Covenant grad. She is a member of EPC and lives in my neighborhood in South Atlanta. She also works with FCS as a community organizer. We’ve been able to hang out a lot which has been very enjoyable. She has also been very encouraging to me and is teaching me about the history of Atlanta and East Point as well as other things. On Wednesday we took the public bus and train transit (MARTA), and went to an outdoor concert at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. We later met up with Adriane (Pastor Tony’s wife) and their 5 kids – Ana, CeCe, Sarah, Rachel, and Tony Jr. Since the concert was extremely crowded (partly because we were 30 minutes late) we ended up sitting next to a water fountain, which turned out to be a water show –controlled jets of water synchronized with music playing from speakers surrounding the fountain. Some of the songs included: Circle of Life (Lion King), Chariots of Fire, and Twist and Shout (Beatles)…kinda random, I know. This is where I also learned how to play a new dice game called Farkle (one of my new favorites)