BPC 'tale of the tape" recontinued

I sensed we needed to start the small group somewhere in the Allegheny Valley region, specifically between Harmerville & Natrona Heights. I shared this vision with my buddy Jim Biernesser to which he replied, "Hey Reverend, I have a house in Tarentum that I remodeled and am selling. We could have the small group there until it's sold". Jim, his wife Lisa and Francie & I began to put our resources together (extra furniture we had, coffee pot, microwave,etc..) and prepared the house for our first meeting. Remember it was just remodeled so inside it looked brand new! The perfect place to begin our new journey. P. Jeff of APC & P. Russ of SFWC gave us names of people who had visited their churches who were from the Allegheny Valley region so we could let them know about the group we were starting.

On Tuesday 2/7/06 Jim & Lisa, "JohnBob" & his wife Donna DeKleva from APC and Francie I held the first meeting. Up through 8/07, that house was our base of ministry. In June of '06 we had a neighborhood "Block Party" attracting 20 neighbors from the surrounding streets. In July of '06 Pastor Cal came to do 2 nights of Sidewalk Sunday School attracting 25 kids the first night & 35 the following week. 3 families became a part of our group because of those 2 outreaches! We had a small Fall Festival scheduled in Oct. of '06 @ the Riverview park in Tarentum but it was canceled due to bad weather. (I remember hail, rain and even some snow flurries that day.) Our group grew from 6 adults to 25 adults & 10 kids. God was on the move and we were all excited to be in His flow!

But the winds of change were about to blow. In 7/07 we scheduled "potluck" dinners for our group @ different people's houses during August. A week into August Jim said he had an interested buyer for the house but wasn't ready to tell me until he was sure it was a solid offer.
We committed it to the Lord & the deal went through, the house sold! But now where were we going to meet? Not to worry, about six months earlier Jim had, by "chance" met a Tarentum boxing gym owner by the name of...Jim. A devoted brother in Christ who heard about us & offered his building if we ever needed it. The James 5: 16 center is located @ 307 W. 7th Ave. in Tarentum. A christian organization that shares the message of Christ to kids, youth & young adults through physical fitness, weight training and ...boxing.

James 5:16 says..."Therefore confess your sins to each other and prayer for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."