Made To Crave Study Staring Soon!

April 10th at 5:30pm we will be starting a new small group! Come join us in the Fellowship Hall as we go through Lysa Terkeurst's newest book, Made to Crave.

We will be learning about the spiritual side of weight loss and how filling our made-to-crave desire with God, will resolve our eating-to-comfort-ourselves lifestyle. This is an interactive study and requires the Made to Crave Workbook. There is also a reading book which will enhance and supplement our group time together. If you would like to get both books, Christianbooks.com has both for 40%! You could purchase both for about the same price of one in the bookstores...

Please come and join us April 10th for a study that will change the way you think of diets!

Top 10 for 2011

Our beloved Janice Loggins sent me this forwarded email this morning and I thought it appropriate to share with you. In light of the New Year, new resolutions, and yet somehow finding ourselves in the same situation as last month, this is some excellent food for thought:


"ENCOURAGING PREDICTIONS FOR 2011

With all the problems the World is facing, it can be unsettling to the mind.

Top 10 Predictions for 2011

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still be the most powerful thing on Earth.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still honor the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross ..
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost when they come to Him.

Isn't It Great To Remember WHO Is Really In Control , and that; "the Word of the Lord endures forever."
( 1 Peter 1:25 ) "

Exercise With Us!

Are you looking for something to do during the week? Would you like to try a unique way to fellowship with other Christians? Are you looking to get healthy and fit? Then come join us Thursday nights for fitness, fellowship and fun. We meet in the Gathering Room at 7pm and would love for you to join us.

We start off with a 1 or 2 mile walk, then move into other exercises and finish with prayer. The whole time we are laughing and praising God. Bring your fitness ball and mat but don't let it stop you if you don't have one, we will share ours. Lots of information is available from healthy recipe's to fitness tips. Whether your beginner or advanced, our evening is built for everyone. This is not about weight loss, its about being healthy and fit and doing it in a manner pleasing to God. For more information call Kathy MacLeod at 336-671-6615 or Deb Dunbar at 336-817-6350. We look forward to having you join

From The Heart Of Our Speaker

We asked Kim Fowler, our speaker at the women's retreat, to share some thoughts about her experience this past weekend.

"It never ceases to amaze me how God works in and through His children. This past weekend's retreat proved God's love for us once again. Several women shared with me how much my story meant to them. They, too, have their own stories, but knowing that someone else has and is going down the same path somehow gives comfort and courage for the journey. I did not realize until I began work on the series of sessions for the Women's Retreat that God would lead me to share my life's journey. Having never done this it was a learning process for me. One comment that blessed my heart came from Jade Queen, a young college student who co-led worship with her mom. She said that she had never heard a preacher speak of going through "hard times". She said it was all so real. I give thanks to the Lord for this young woman's comments.

A very precious moment came in the Saturday evening service when some of the women laid hands on me for a special prayer time. How great God is when given the opportunity to minister, the ministering comes back to you!

Oh, may God continue to meet the spiritual needs of these precious women. My love and prayers to all of you! "

~Kim Fowler

Kim with Ronda Sheets and Wanda King

Annual Women's Retreat Part 3

Sunday morning brought with it a mix of threatening thunder storms and lightening and a slightly hidden sunrise. In lieu of an outside sunrise communion service, we had our regular meeting time with communion afterwards. It was perfectly planned. We had been studying out of Ephesians 1: 3-10, learning about God choosing us and what that choice means for us. Kim shared about the generosity of God's choice, the purpose of God's choice, God choosing us through adoption and the gifts that come with that adoption. After her teaching we were presented with the elements of the Lord's supper and took communion together as a group. We closed in prayer, hugged new and old friends and went home.

There was such a sweet presence of the Lord there. People commented on it all weekend. The Lord blessed our time and we are so thankful.

This post will be brief so that in the upcoming days, those that attended can share their hearts and pictures with us about their personal experience of the weekend and how God met them in a special way. If you would like to send us a picture, testimony or both, please email them to shadygroveww@gmail.com We can't wait to hear your story!

A special thank you to the retreat team: Susan Gravely, Amber Gravely, Holly Little, Heather Carroll, Lynn Moody, Kathy MacLeod, Cassie Geary, Tammy Sechrest, and Amy Comer. The did a phenomenal job preparing, setting up and executing the behind-the-scenes details that made this such a smooth-running retreat weekend.
Another special thank you to Angie and Jade Queen on leading us in worship that brought us directly into the heart of God.
Blessings and much thanks to Kim Fowler for sharing her weekend, her life, her heart with us. We were touched beyond measure and so grateful for her willingness to be used so freely of God.
Beyond all this, thank you Lord Jesus for making Yourself real to the women in a very special way this weekend. If You hadn't shown up, this might have been fun, but would have missed the point. Thank You for making sure, we didn't miss the point. And that point, is always, YOU.

Annual Women's Retreat Part 2

Saturday broke a beautiful sunrise, morning stars still in the early dawn sky sparkling in the light. God was present, and we were aware...oh to be aware of the presence of God.


After another time of worship, we spent some time alone to have a quiet devotion.


We reconvened and Kim shared more of her story with us. Her story of how her life didn't turn out like she expected, but God had a greater plan. She shared how to save her life, she must lose it, abandon it to the control of God.

As we broke for free time, she challenged us to meet with God and ask Him what He would have us do, how He would have us proceed, with the knowledge that His best may not look like what we think it should.

Our evening session of worship and teaching ended too soon, and Kim was raw in her honesty and vulnerability. People can question the Bible, point fingers at churches or leadership or programming...but when you share your own testimony and there is evidence in your life of the movement of God - no one can question that.

Through Kim's strength in being real, we saw such evidence and it left us powerfully aware of God's hand on her life, and also on each of our own. We ended the night in prayer, praising Jesus and praying for His glory. No better way to close.

Annual Women's Retreat Part 1

There's something about bringing a group of like-minded people together, in a new locale that sparks a specialness between them. Make that a group of believers, and its even more special. Have those believers be women of all ages and you have one amazing experience!

That amazing experience is what happens every year at the women's retreat. A group of ladies - who may or may not know everyone there - come together for the sole purpose of being refreshed and meeting God. Always faithful, He shows up every time, blessing and loving on His daughters.

Our Friday night session began with a great worship package by Angie Queen.
How wonderful to be brought into the presence of God by worship through music. And then our beloved Kim Fowler, shared from her heart.

Through stories and testimony she shared about the power of laughter and how it physically can improve our bodies. She spoke of how having a cheerful heart was not only Biblical, but critical for enduring the hardships that come our way.

Some of us got the point right away. We laughed.


And laughed some more...



Even Kim got tickled.



After Kim's sharing, we had a time of prayer, praying for specific prayer requests, for ourselves, our neighbors, our friends.

It was a most precious time. The presence of God was apparent and a quiet sense of awe filled the room. How amazing it is every time God shows up. His presence is always awe-some.What starts as a single individual praying...

turns into a community of prayers, ...

which turns into a bond that cannot be easily separated...

And this is just the first night! Come back tomorrow to see what God has in store for the ladies here in Myrtle Beach!