I'm going to share a little bit of my heart with you and "why Vegas."
I can remember...we received the letter stating that Vince was going to be leaving Forefront and going to start a church on the strip. I thought "man that stinks, I liked them...but that's cool for them to go do that." For a second Tommy joked "maybe we could go with him". "Yeah right...God would never call us to do that" I thought. A few days later I read this...
(Below is an excerpt from our pastor, Vince Antonucci's blog for July 25th 2008)...
"...the Strip might be the most difficult place to start a church. Period. But it also may be the place with the greatest need. About 25 casinos dominate the four mile stretch of road called the Strip. About 300,000 people work on the Strip. Many of them are not only sinners, but their entire lives, even their livelihoods, are wrapped up in sin. Everywhere you go on the Strip there are offers for “Girls in your room in 20 minutes.” There are 10,000 strippers who call Vegas home. The area has the highest crime and suicide rates in the country. One author called the Strip, “a modern amalgamation of Sodom, Gomorrrah and Hell.” Later an area pastor (who knows me and believes me) said he couldn’t imagine how you could build a church over 15 people there. Another told me that starting a church there was a “suicide mission.” So why go against those odds? Well, two reasons. One, as the guy said on the phone, “Someone’s got to try it.” And, second, I recently preached on David vs. Goliath. And we talked about how while the other Israelite soldiers saw how big Goliath was, David could only see how big his God was. And while the other Israelite soldiers thought, “He’s so big, how could I win?” David thought, “He’s so big, how can I miss?” And how facing Goliath forces you to rely on God and see His power at work in your life. Yeah, that’s the second reason."
God stirred my heart and this brought me to tears...tears for the broken and hurting people and tears of acknowleding that God was going to use us to help. The sin, the hurt, the brokeness, the lost, on and on. Someone had to go. So..the next day or so we are driving to our small group and Tommy says "will you pray about going to Vegas" (he has no idea that I had even had the slightest thought or reaction to Vegas). I told him I had been praying about it(which of course surprised him...but I also knew God was telling us to go). So on the way to group that night we discussed why Vince or anyone would go to Vegas....it came down to, because that's where Jesus would go..today. So we got to group and our discussion was same conversation that we had in the car....Tommy and I looked at each other ...and just knew that it was God. So that night we asked Vince and our group to pray for us about going to Vegas. I was hoping I could talk God out of it, honestly..or that He would change His mind. So, anyway, over and over He has confirmed it to us....GO..people there need you. We know they don't need us...they need HIM. We are honored and priviledged that God might be able to use someone like us...that we can be a small part of making the difference in someones eternity.
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