Wasn't that beautiful?
I want to thank our choir and Brother Greg for working hard on that, as well as our musicians here.
Y'all, we were blessed to have Dr. David Hartage last fall come and speak to us, and we are going to be blessed with that again today.
Dr. Hartage is a very good friend to me.
He's been a mentor to me over the last several years and was instrumental.
And he's actually the one who sent this church my resume, so if you've got a problem, take it up with him.
Dr. Hartage served as the executive director of Texas Baptists, our Baptist General Convention of Texas, that our church has been a member of for decades.
He served as our executive director from 2012 to 2023, served at Truett Seminary in Waco prior to that, and also led the Waco Regional Baptist Association, and has pastored several churches across Texas, as well as Oklahoma.
Don't hold it against him.
He did pass their first Baptist holiday for a time.
That was a long time ago.
Let's let bygones be bygones, all right?
He tried to reach those folks with the gospel, and they need it.
Dr. Hartage earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor, a master's of divinity degree from Southwestern, and a doctorate for Midwestern Baptist Seminary up in Kansas City.
And just last year, he received the highest honor that Baylor University can give to one of their alumni, the Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service, for his contributions to Christian ministry.
So we have a truly distinguished guest with us this morning, but someone that God has used mightily across our state and around the world.
And so y'all make him feel welcome, and let's welcome Dr. Hartage to our church this morning.
Well, good morning.
I am honored to be here.
Thank you so very much.
I always feel like I'm kind of coming back to my roots when I come to this part of the state.
I live in Dallas now, and I don't like that, but that's where I have to live.
I used to have to live there because of my work and my ministry.
I have to live there now because of my granddaughters.
So some of you will understand that completely.
But my whole family, our family roots in my family foundation is in Vernon.
My uncle still lives on and works our old family farm just outside of Vernon on the Pease River.
And then I pastored First Baptist Holiday.
So if you want to know when that was, it was back in the days when Ted Traylor was the pastor here in this church.
And Ted's a longtime friend of mine.
And I'm one of those few people who will probably come and ever speak and preach to you who never complains about the rain.
I grew up in La Mesa, Texas, out south of Lubbock.
And so I always welcome rain.
And praise the Lord for the blessings we've had these past few weeks.
All of that to say, I feel like I'm coming home when I'm in this part of the state.
And I love your pastor.
And I'm so grateful for the friendship that we have.
And I appreciate him and his ministry.
And I think you're just blessed to have him here at this church.
When I retired from my position at the Baptist General Convention of Texas,
I really didn't know what I was going to do next.
All I knew was my wife wanted me to do something next.
And so the folks out at Texas Baptist Men, now going by TBM,
really more now going by Texans on Missions,
called and asked if I could come help them connect even more with our churches and with our pastors.
And I've always believed in the ministry.
And so I said, yeah, I think that's something I'd like to do for a while.
And so that's what I'm doing now.
And I'm enjoying that.
And it's a blessing.
Now, I'm here today to talk to you about who they are and what they do.
But I'm going to begin with a little what year was it kind of a thing.
One of the radio stations I listen to in Dallas every morning plays a little game with their audience.
And the little game is what year was it?
And they give some clues and then ask people to call in and guess what year it was.
And so I'm going to give you just two or three little clues.
So what year was it?
It was a year that some of you who like music would know that the Beatles released their Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
So some of you don't know who they are or what that was.
But nonetheless, that happened in this year.
It was the year that Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
It was the year when the United States population still was under 200 million.
And it was the year, this will probably give it away to those of you who are history buffs anyway.
It was the year of the Six-Day War.
1967.
That's when Texans on Missions started.
Back in 1967, the summer of, there was a hurricane that hit the Texas Gulf Coast, particularly the Rio Grande Valley.
And there was one man in Dallas, his name was Bob Dixon.
And he seen, like many others, the devastation that the hurricane had caused to the Texas Gulf Coast, particularly the Rio Grande Valley.
And so in his pickup truck, with one cooking pot and one little Bunsen burner, he drove down to Harlingen, Texas.
And out of the back of his pickup truck began to serve stew to the people who were trying to help in the recovery process.
He came back and four other guys got together with him over in Fort Worth.
And they said, you know, this maybe ought to be a ministry that God's people do in times of disaster.
And for the past 57 years, Texans on Missions, Texas Baptist Men is how many of you would know it, TBM, now TXM, Texans on Missions.
That's how they started, and that's what they've been doing for 57 years.
They have responded to every single disaster that has hit the state of Texas since 1967.
They've grown from five people to a volunteer army of almost 5,000 scattered all over the state of Texas.
And they do all of that based upon some simple biblical principles.
I'm going to share those with you first, and then I'm going to ask you to remain seated because I've got some information to share.
I'll explain.
What's the biblical principle for this kind of work?
Would it not be what Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 verse 12 when he said,
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Now that's the golden rule.
Many of us grew up knowing that and learning that, memorizing it just like that.
But have you ever noticed the difference between what Jesus said and what other religions have to say along those same principles?
Every other religion will take that same idea but approach it from a negative standpoint.
Meaning, for example, the Chinese philosopher Confucius.
He had the same kind of a principle, but it was from a negative perspective.
Meaning, do not do to other people what you do not want done to you.
But Jesus turned it all the way around.
Completely different than anything anyone else had ever said or has ever said since.
He took a positive and active approach.
Actively go and do for other people what you would want done for you if you were in their position in that situation.
So that is kind of a biblical principle for what TBM does, TXM does when it comes to disaster relief.
If you were in their position, if a tornado hit your house, what would you want done for you?
You would want somebody to show up and help you work through that.
That's what they do.
Jesus set the example for it.
Matthew chapter 20.
Remember when Jesus said, the Son of Man has come not to be served but to serve?
So it's a service principle based upon an active positive approach that lays the biblical foundation for everything that Texans on Missions does.
So, with that in mind, stay seated.
I don't know today if I have two points or seven points.
All I really know is, you hope I have two points.
So, with that in mind, I want to talk about what they do and what they need.
So, before I talk about what they do, let me explain why their name has changed some over the years.
They started back in 1967 with five men.
Well, today, 43% of their volunteers are women.
So, I have been at a number of churches where ladies in the church have come up to me and have said,
Well, I sure wish I could help, but you know it's Texas Baptist men.
Ladies, that's not an excuse.
You can be very much involved.
And now, so many churches don't have Baptist in their name.
Now, I am Baptist to the core.
I will be Baptist.
There's never a Baptist to be.
But Texans on Missions kind of represents who we are.
Men and women of the theological, doctrinal, sound basis on God's Word,
out there serving others for the purpose of sharing the gospel.
So, it kind of comes down to we serve so we can share.
We serve others so we can share the name of Jesus with them.
All that being said, what do they do?
Four things.
All under one point.
You see what I did there?
So, here we go.
They do disaster relief.
Now, in disaster relief, a number of things.
I'm going to start with probably what they're most known for.
That would be the feeding of people who are hungry.
So, when a disaster hits an area, lots of times people cannot provide meals for themselves.
TBM shows up within hours cooking food for those who can't provide food for themselves.
Now, on any given day, they can provide food for 100 people.
And if they put every bit of their equipment together that they have scattered all over the state,
they can provide 100,000 meals a day.
Now, if that's you and you're in that situation, you're going to be grateful for someone showing up with a hot meal.
That's what they do.
And they serve all of those meals so that, in the process, they'll have opportunities to share the gospel.
If you ever want to get involved with a cooking team, you can do so.
Right here, First Baptist Henrietta, you could form your own cooking team.
But it's not just the cooking of meals that they do.
They do chainsaw relief.
Right now, they have teams in Oklahoma, Sulphur, Oklahoma, Holdenville, Oklahoma, and Mariette, Oklahoma,
doing chainsaw relief for people who had their homes damaged because of the storms of last weekend.
Last Sunday afternoon, I was driving back from Norman, Oklahoma.
My parents live in Norman, Oklahoma, and my dad turns 91, so I went up to, you know, tell him happy birthday.
All that to say, driving back and came through Mariette, Oklahoma.
You know, just up on I-35, you're not far from really where we are.
The damage was enormous in Marietta, Oklahoma.
Trees everywhere, limbs down, power lines down.
You'd just be happy to know that you, First Baptist Henrietta, you're in Marietta, Oklahoma today through TBM,
right there, helping those people in a time of need.
Every one of our volunteers is on standby today because of the flooding that's happening in southeast Texas right now.
When all of that begins to reside, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of volunteers will descend to southeast Texas to help those people begin to recover.
It's all a part of disaster relief, chainsaw, flood relief.
Do you remember the fires in the panhandle?
TBM.
You, First Baptist Henrietta, through TBM, you helped a hundred different families with TBM volunteers going through, taking, it's called ash out.
They take just little simple man-made, homemade sifters, and they go through with families, and they take up, they just scoop up ashes, put it in this, shake it all out,
and take the valuables that they can find and give them back to the families.
You talk about, and hugging them all along the way.
All that to say, this is just disaster relief.
They also show up with shower units.
They've got shower units on wheels.
They've got a laundromat on wheels.
They can show up.
Do all of this kind of work.
You remember the explosion that happened in West Texas about 10 years, about 11 years ago?
Y'all remember that?
The pastor, First Baptist West, and some people from his church came up to visit me last weekend just to look around the TBM facilities.
This is exactly what the pastor told me.
He said, for 10 days, our entire community depended on TBM for showers and laundry.
10 days after that explosion.
You were doing that kind of work.
But let me tell you one other thing they do.
I didn't know they even did this kind of ministry.
And by the way, your pastor came up a while back and took a tour of the whole thing.
So I think that's why I'm here because he came away going, our people need to know about this work.
So have you ever heard of the box ministry?
I'll tell you what that is.
After a storm hits a community, the very first thing that people need are boxes to put in, put the things they can salvage, boxes to put those in.
The very next day after a storm, TBM rolls through their community, rolls through their neighborhoods with a box trailer.
It's filled with flat boxes.
It's filled with packing paper.
And it's filled with packing tape.
And they just hand those out free.
I went out last week to Stonebridge Community Church in Frisco.
And their senior adults had gotten together.
And they had bought a whole stack and stack and stack of packing paper.
And they wrote Bible verses on each one of them.
And they said when people wrap up their family heirlooms after a storm, y'all take this out.
And we want them to wrap it up with packing paper that has God's Word written on it.
That is the first sign of help and hope and healing, which, by the way, is the motto of Texas Unmentioned.
Help, hope, and healing.
So, all that to say.
You want to hear a good story?
You're going to hear one.
You might as well say, yeah, well, you know, I'd love to hear a good story.
So here it is.
Seven years ago, out of the blue, the phone rang in the offices of Texas Unmission.
Who was on the other end?
The Israeli Defense Force.
And this is what they said.
They said, look, we've done our research.
And we think you people know how to feed large numbers of people better than anybody else.
And over here in Israel, we expect one of two things to happen.
We expect there to be an earthquake.
And if so, we don't know how to feed our people in large numbers.
Or we expect there to be a war.
And if that happens, we don't know how to feed our people.
Can you come help us?
TBM designed kitchens for the Israeli Defense Force.
The Israeli Defense Force built those kitchens inside an Israeli military base in Jerusalem.
They built a compound for Texans on missions inside their military base.
They built dormitories for volunteers to sleep in.
They built a compound for them to relax in.
Now, for the past two years, Texans on missions has been sending volunteers to Israel to learn how to use those kitchens
and to be taught how to do all of that cooking in kosher.
Because that's complicated.
All of that to say, no one knew what was going to happen or when it was going to happen.
But when that war started on October the 7th, on October the 9th,
20 Texans on missions were inside an Israeli military base cooking food for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people
whose families have lost loved ones in that attack for Israeli first responders
and even for some Palestinians who were hungry.
All of that to say, you helped make that happen.
And Pastor, if you and Holly ever want to go and learn how to cook,
I'll ask your church to send you because we still need more volunteers to go.
And then you can have your own cooking team developed out of First Baptist Church Henrietta
to serve the people of Israel.
We're told in God's Word to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
I hope you're doing that.
I do it every day.
All of that to say, what does TBM do?
Disaster relief.
What do they do?
They do building.
They do three kinds of building.
Cabinet building.
They build cabinets for churches.
You ever need cabinets built?
Just call us, provide the materials.
TBM will build it for free.
They do camp building.
Like up here at Camp Chaparral, every bunk bed up there has been built by TBM volunteers.
There are 27 camps, Baptist encampments in Texas.
Between September and May, the camp builders, they go to all of those camps
and repair whatever the teenagers had broken that summer.
And they build new, what those camps need to be built, build new.
And then they do church building.
Now, they're not going to build a building like this.
But they'll take smaller church buildings, new church plants.
They'll build the first unit for that new church plant.
My first church was First Baptist Church, Blum, Texas.
You don't know where that is, but it is on a map.
Somebody does.
Thank you.
You're my best.
You're the favorite.
Oh, look at that.
My favorite member of this church right there.
All that to say, they built our fellowship hall years ago.
Church builders, camp builders, cabinet builders.
You ready for another good story?
Thank you.
About 18 months ago, back when I was still the executive director
of the Baptist General Convention of Texas,
my phone rings one day, and it's a lady on the other end,
and she says, Dr. Hardidge, I have called so many other state conventions,
and nobody's been able to help us.
Can you help us?
I said, well, who are you and where are you from?
She said, show me your name.
She said, I live in Panguitch, Utah.
We're a resort community in southern Utah.
It's very expensive to live here.
We have a small Baptist church, and we cannot afford to pay a pastor to live here.
Is there any way you can help us?
I said, I don't know, but I'll call you back.
I hung up the phone.
I called the executive director of Texans on Mission,
a friend of mine who I've been working with for years.
I said, Mickey, I told him that story.
Is there any way we can help?
A year ago this past May, 28 volunteers, some of the church builders, some of the camp builders,
and some of the cabinet builders, they went to Panguitch, Utah, and spent three months,
and they built a house for that church, a parsonage for that pastor.
That church is now called a pastor, and it's a game changer for the whole community.
You helped make that happen.
The gospel is now being shared in a Mormon-dominated town because of people like you and churches like this
and the work of Texans on Mission.
That's what they do.
Disaster relief.
They do building.
They do water impact ministry.
What does that mean?
Well, they provide water for people who don't have it.
If you don't have access to water, they'll help you find it.
If you have access to water but it's not pure, they'll help you find ways to make it clean.
They're focusing right now on two countries, Uganda and Peru in South America.
What does that mean?
Well, that means, for example, this year in 2024, Texans on Mission will drill 105 water wells in Uganda.
By the way, do you know they have 27 semi-employees in Uganda who are making sure all this work is happening just right?
Six months before they drill a well, they'll go into a village and begin a Bible study.
After that Bible study is underway for six months, they'll start some micro-businesses with people in the village,
each committing just as little amount of money as they can, maybe as much as a nickel,
and they'll start micro-businesses out of that.
And then they'll drill a well, and they'll always drill a well based upon that Bible study and those businesses,
and about 20% of those Bible studies that they start become full-time churches after, say, 12 to 18 months.
This year, 105 wells in Uganda, more wells than Peru.
All that, when you're drilling water wells, it simply lays the foundation for you to talk about the living water that is Jesus Christ.
And if any of you ever want to go and be a part of one of those well drilling trips,
you just let me know.
You can get my information from the pastor.
I'll put you on the list of volunteers, and you can go to Uganda, you can go to Peru, and you can help make a difference.
They are making a difference.
The last thing I'll tell you that they do is a discipleship ministry.
They have the most ingenious discipleship guys that I have met in a long, long time, two of them,
and they just do youth discipleship.
As a matter of fact, one of them spoke in 12 straight Disciple Nows this spring.
You know, back when as a pastor, one Disciple Now would just about do me in.
He did 12 in a row.
Go figure.
All that to say, you've heard of those select baseball and softball teams and leagues that they have all over the state of Texas in the summer?
You know what TBM did?
They designed and built a video game trailer.
And they take this video game trailer all summer long to these select softball and baseball tournaments all over the state.
And they've got chaplains that go along with it.
Now, in order for the students, the kids who are playing ball between games,
in order for them to be able to play those video games,
they have to watch a 90-second video of a gospel presentation in order to get the password to play the game.
All that to say, last summer, hundreds of kids came to faith in Christ.
Thank you for making all of that happen.
You're making a difference.
So what do they do?
Disaster relief.
They do building.
They do water impact ministry.
And they do discipleship.
You help make all of that possible.
So that's my first point.
Or my first four.
I'll let you decide.
Now, I have another point, or maybe three.
What do they need?
In order for all of that to happen, what do they need?
Three things.
They need your time.
First, if you can just take a few minutes out of every day to pray for this work, be grateful for that.
Out here in the little foyer is a table.
I've left all kinds of materials out there.
I'm not going to take that back with me.
I want you to grab a brochure, grab a sheet of paper, grab a magazine, grab whatever you can, and just take that with you.
Leave it somewhere where you can see it.
And let that, you can read it and find out more information.
But let that be a reminder to you to take a minute or two every day just to pray for this work.
They need your time.
Your time, first of all, to pray for the work that God would open doors for them to serve, and God would open doors for them to share.
Would you take some time every day just to pray and take some of that with you just as a reminder?
Then secondly, if you ever have time to go and serve, I'm just here to ask you prayerfully consider doing so.
Now, if you want to do the chainsaw ministry, you need to go to some official training for that.
Now, when I go participate in the chainsaw ministry, they refer to me as a branch manager.
That means they give me a pair of gloves, and I just haul branches that have been cut down out to the sidewalk.
That's the level of my ability.
All that to say, any of those things that I've mentioned, you can find all of this online, all of this on the website.
If you can take some time to pray, please do that.
Take one of those reminders.
But if you want to serve in any other kind of way, and God's kind of tugging at your heart for that,
then I'm simply here to say, look at what you can do.
Can you fold clothes?
Then you can be a part of the laundry ministry.
Can you wipe down a shower when someone's finishing?
You can be part of the shower ministry.
Can you haul branches out to the sidewalk?
You can be part of that.
Can you serve as a chaplain?
Maybe that's what God's calling you to do.
You know, after that shooting in Uvalde, after that school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde,
the next morning, TBM had five volunteers, chaplain volunteers, serving the police and the firefighters and the others in the community,
just praying with them, hugging them, walking alongside them.
You can do any of those kind of things.
Maybe you want to be a part of one of the feeding units.
You can get trained up online to do those kinds of things.
You can go online.
If you can just be a day volunteer, say something happens right here in the Wichita Archer Clay Association.
Say something happens just right here.
You can't give a week, but you can give a day.
It will take a day.
And you can be trained up online.
Just go online.
There's a small fee for the background check.
We like to keep the number of axe murderers on our volunteer list down to a minimum.
So if you can just get trained up online to be a day volunteer, we'd be grateful.
What do they need?
They need your time.
They need your time to pray for it every day and then to serve if you can.
What do they need?
They need your talent.
If you have some abilities, come and provide that to the work of TBM Texans on Missions.
They just need your ability.
People like me don't have a whole lot of ability when it comes to technical kinds of things,
but I'm a pretty good manual laborer, and I can scoot mud out of the house if I need to.
And I can help somebody sift through the ashes after a fire.
They've done that in the panhandle.
They did that in Hawaii last summer.
I can do that.
I can hand out boxes.
All of us can do something.
I'm just encouraging you to prayerfully consider what talent do you have,
and is God calling you, tugging at you to go and use that in some kind of way.
They need your time.
They need your talent.
And they need your treasure.
So, can I talk about that just for a second?
I'm going to.
If you are able to give a little bit to this work, I would ask you to do so.
Now, when you give your regular offerings to the church,
because of this church's participation in the Baptist General Convention of Texas,
a small portion of that will end up in the work of, in the ministry of, through the resources of TBM.
That happens automatically.
So, you're already participating.
You're already making that happen.
But the amount of money that the Baptist General Convention of Texas provides to Texans on Missions is only $350,000 a year.
Their budget is $10,350,000 a year.
So, if you can give a little extra sometimes when you see something happening and you want to participate,
I would ask you to do so.
But only after you've given to your church.
Always, we believe strongly that your first gift, your tithe belongs to your local church.
But to give an offering beyond that, if you're ever called to do so, feel led to do so,
we'd be grateful for any of it.
And all of it is well accounted for.
I promise you that.
And it goes to the work of the ministry.
They only have a staff of 30 people.
They have 5,000 volunteers.
That's where the work really happens.
So, what do they need?
They need your time.
They need your talent.
They need your treasure.
What do they do?
Disaster relief.
Building.
Water impact ministry.
And discipleship.
What's the result of all of that?
The Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
People are loved.
Disciples are made.
That seems like a good ministry to be a part of.
Seems like a good ministry to support.
Now, I don't know today if I had two points or seven points.
Some of you are wondering if I had a point at all.
But I'm grateful to be here.
Thank you for your participation and your involvement.
You're making a difference.
You're going to make a difference tomorrow in Oklahoma.
You're going to make a difference tomorrow in Southeast Texas.
You're still making a difference in the panhandle.
Do you know that TBM hauled 3,000 bales of hay from East Texas and Louisiana to the farmers and ranchers in the panhandle after that fire?
3,000 bales of hay for free.
They didn't have none of the farmers and other ranchers had to pay a single penny for any of it.
Just a part of what we do.
You help provide that.
Thank you for it.
You're making a difference and we're grateful.
Let's pray together.
Father, I thank you for the day.
I thank you for the blessings of the day.
I thank you for the opportunity to be here.
Thank you for this church and thank you for the ministry of Texans on Missions.
Help us together.
Right here in Henrietta.
Right here in Clay County.
Right here in the state of Texas.
Help us where we are and where we're needed.
Help us to serve and help us to share.
I pray for this time right now, Father, that you just touch our hearts.
Kind of pull at our hearts and use us in ways you'd have us to be used.
We just make ourselves available to you.
We do that in Jesus' name.
Amen.
God bless you.
Thank you.
Pastor.
Y'all, that's one of the most godly men that I've encountered.
The most humble serving men I've encountered.
And those are the kind of people that are leading Texans on Mission.
And that's why I'm proud to be a Texas Baptist.
I'm proud to pastor a Texas Baptist church and a church that supports this mission.
And I think we can do more.
I think there's a lot of people in our church that are equipped to serve in a lot of different ways.
I think it's appropriate how he closed his time that what this is accomplishing is the great commandment and the great commission.
You know, it's often been said people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
And that is very true.
That's how Jesus approached us when he came here.
He met needs.
And then he revealed the truth about himself to people and they came to Christ.
But that is often how we need to approach it is how can we serve you?
And then as we serve you, how can we share Christ with you?
And what is our church motto?
Loving God.
Seeking truth.
Serving people.
And that's what we're about.
I believe that's what our church is about.
And that's why I think it's an outstanding fit.
Let's close with this video from Texans on Mission that kind of summarizes what he said and sends us a challenge about how can we be a part in this.
The foundation for what TBM does is a biblical scriptural foundation.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
I was thirsty.
You gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you took me in.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came to see me.
Jesus doesn't refer to they did this.
He says you did this.
If you're a believer in and if you're a follower of Jesus, then the natural response to the needs of others around you is to help.
Notice when Jesus was saying this, you did this and you did this and you did this.
Immediately, the response is not should we go.
The response is when do we go.
The response is how do we get there.
The response is what ways can we help.
It's just the natural questions.
It's the natural response for those of us who are engaged in and active with TBM.
So ministry, so mission for those who believe in and those who follow after Jesus Christ, it is something we do personally.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, within three days, TBM was there in person meeting the needs of those who were coming out of Ukraine, the refugees.
When an earthquake hits Turkey, just within days, TBM is there helping to provide fresh water.
When refugees in Syria are cold and need blankets, TBM is there.
Texans on Missions is there to respond because it's naturally who we are and it's a natural part of what we do.
A foundation laid for us by Jesus himself.
All right now, we're going through a series on Sundays about a new beginning, a new life, a fresh beginning with Jesus.
I believe this is a this time, this season is the turning point for our church.
What has God done with us in the past?
What is God going to do with us right now and in the years to come?
Texans on Mission is going through a season of new as they kind of rebrand to be more true to who they are with this 40 something percent that are women volunteers.
And we're not just Texas Baptist men anymore.
Now we're Texans collectively on mission for Christ.
So what a special thing and what a special time.
And I hope that this presentation was a blessing to you all.
And Brother Greg is going to come and lead us in just a brief song of invitation.
And so, ladies, if you go ahead and start playing.
And I'm going to take this mic, if I can, and just come down and kind of talk to you during this time of invitation.
So can we to a time of prayer and ask God to open our hearts?
How do we need to respond to what we today?
You can keep your teats. We don't need to stand.
But Brother Greg, if you don't mind, go ahead and start us in that song.