WFC + Macedonia Partnership
Dan Chaverin:
Well, our friendship with Macedonia started I think with the friendship between Randy and John Brooks. They connected and thought, "Hey, why don't we connect our teams together?" So we began to have lunches. We began to break bread and have meals and get to know each other, and we just enjoyed each other. So that's really how it started. Just we began to get together as sister churches. It's really all about relationship. It really is all about doing life together, doing ministry together, and we really did intentionally want to reach across racial lines and break down some of the division that has happened in our city and in our world. And so I think there was some intentionality to just get to know each other and understand our differences and our similarities.
Dan Chaverin:
We really have fallen in love with each other. They're just great people. And so we just have a lot of fun when we get together, and then we get to do things together. We have done Financial Peace University together. Our congregations have done it. We've done Fit To Fight to support marriages. We've done worship nights together. It's just been absolutely wonderful. And then we had a big giant party at the Royals Stadium, where we got together and we had a big meal. It was just a wonderful night together. Just a lot of fun.
Dan Chaverin:
One of the things that come with relationship are you have fun, you celebrate, you hang out, you learn about each other, you build friendships. But the other piece is you begin to love one another. You begin to really care about each other. And when hard times come, then you share those things. And we're able to carry each other's burdens as believers. And we love the folks over there, and we've grown to love them because they're very lovable. And when hard times come, then we walk through these difficult things together.
Dan Chaverin:
When we learned about Grizzy's illness and how serious it was, it was just laid on my heart, my wife's heart, our staff's heart to pray, so we did. And on a regular basis, we'd get updates and then we'd share them with our staff and with our team and our prayer teams. Our intercessors were praying. We had a lot of people praying for that family. Grizzy was a spark. I mean, he was a hoot. He was very charismatic, and whenever Grizzy was around, there was laughter. And boy, did he have a heart for the kids, too, and he was out there with the teens all over the world, actually, and traveled. But he was a magnet and he was a blessing.
Pastor Grizzy:
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good night. This is Pastor Grizzy saying what's up to you. In my life he resonates. Go on and accept Christ on board before it's too late.
Dan Chaverin:
At our June Worship and Pray night, we were connecting and praying and worshiping with Macedonia folks and we learned right after that that Grizzy had passed, probably while we were praising God and praying for him.
Speaker 3:
We're going to focus right now as brothers and sisters in Christ on one family. Just one. Is that okay? And it's Grizzy and his wife, Venus, and their children. And we want to close in prayer for them. Heavenly Father, we come to you now. We know you're the great healer. You're the great physician. And Father, we have been laying out our prayers for Grizzy for some time now. He has been struggling, and we lift him up to you today and we pray for his healing. And we know your goodness, Father, will work this all out in your time and in your will and we trust you. We trust you with all of our heart. We thank you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Dan Chaverin:
He had us together for a reason, and it was to His glory, and he took Grizzy home.