By Mike Conaway on
9/13/2008
Who says football fans can’t come to Saturday Worship?
Camille Raymond (GA. Tech) & Charlotte Heavin (Georgia) photo furnished by Donna Mitchell, proud grandmother of Charlotte.
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By Mike Conaway on
9/13/2008
The second Saturday of every month Feb. - Nov. our Men's Ministry hosts a Men's breakfast. We have had an incredible line up of speakers this year from a local elementary school Principal to the COO of Chick-Fil-A to a former CEO of several major airlines.
Today we launched our first "Commubity Breakfast" and we invited men & women to come hear Cindy Horneman. Cindy has a great testimony and is truly a real life miracle.
We were blessed to have several ladies join us today and one of them wrote the following. Saying it better than I can, here is what a Mary Jane Holt wrote about our breakfast today.
“Yo ...
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By Mike Conaway on
9/4/2008
The entire team of 9 men reached the Uhuru Peak at 7:10 AM on September 2, 2008 after starting the final stage of the climb around midnight. Completing a 7-hour extremely dangerous climb, far more dangerous then any of the team anticipated it being, and the most difficult, physically and mentally challenging thing any of them had ever done.
The final climb was brutal on them, disoriented from lack of oxygen and physically exhausted, the reached the peak, took one picture, then started their dissent back down to 12,000 feet.
Greg has much more to the story that he looks forward to sharing with us all, but said that if it were not for the group he was with he does not feel he would have made it to the peak.
The call came in as they had just gotten back down the mountain and were at the state park. They were all looking forward to their first shower in 6 days. ...
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By Mike Conaway on
9/1/2008
Today Greg’s call came from 15,520 feet from Kibo camp, the final camp before summit. The call came in at 3:30 Tanzania time and they were set to start their final climb to summit at 5:30 PM our time.
The entire team is doing very well. Today Greg was suffering from a bad headache, but the other team members picked him up, some by helping carrying his load, others by providing great medical advice. The experience of others coming to his assistance was both powerful and humbling.
The Heritage team of Eric, Ed, Chris and Greg have done well to this point. They are excited at the thought of reaching the summit at approximately 3:00 AM Eastern Time Tuesday, September 2.
As before, the transmission with the call was broken, but what a wonderful picture that Greg has painted with his calls. I feel that we have been with the team each step of the way.&l ...
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By Mike Conaway on
9/1/2008
Greg’s call from Day Three came through. We were not able to get a Day Two update, so Day Three was combination of the two days.
They anticipate peeking approximately 33 hours from the time this message was called in. That should be approximately 12:00 AM Tuesday, Tanzania time.
He was calling from their camp at 12,000 feet high. The first night they camped at 9,000 feet.
He was happy to report that all is well! They had hiked to 14,000 feet to see Zebra rock and then back to 12,000 for the night. A team member has been battling sickness, but happy to report that team member is doing better.
It has been a great team effort to this point particularly with their team of Porters. A sad moment was during their hike from camp 1 to camp 2 they past by three memorials to Porters who had died. These Porters had been carrying loa ...
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By Mike Conaway on
8/28/2008
Greg’s first call came through today at 5:30 PM. It was 12:30 AM on August 29 in Tanzania.
He called from the lodge they are staying and reported that the group of 9 hikers arrived safely from various places, including Dubai, Amsterdam, and South Africa. There was a time of sweet fellowship to reacquaint with old friends, meet new friends and think about the goal ahead… to reach the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The climb will start approximately 9:30 AM on the 29th with their English-speaking guide named Fred.
From a small group perspective, Greg spoke of the excitement of getting ready to work toward the common goal with people you just met and how excited he was to tackle the mountain.
I can’t help but think about our own small groups that will soon be starting and wonder how many people, and maybe ev ...
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By Mike Conaway on
8/22/2008
Last night we held our first small group ministry night of prayer of the semester and what a powerful night it was!
Those in attendance we honored and humbled by our Elders who prayed over each of our leaders, prayed for each group and for those looking for community through small groups.
I feel so blessed to serve as small groups minister at a church where the leadership believes so strongly in small groups that they took time out of their meeting to pray with our group leaders.
Thanks to our eldership, our church leadership and to our group leadership who took time out of hectic schedules to be part of such a powerful time of prayer.
For those that could not make it, we will meet again, be watching our small group calendar of events for details.
For now, I ask you plan to attend our leader breakfast Sun ...
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By Mike Conaway on
8/7/2008
The July session of leader training is in the books. It was a fantastic month as we averaged almost 20 people per week! Overall 79 people attended the 4-week session and here is what Walle Waters had to say about the sessions “We have just finished a 4-wk Small Group Leadership Program, and I feel this was a very beneficial training program. I truly believe in continual improvement, especially when it comes to teaching, mentoring, and counseling in small groups. This program should be taught as a refresher course at least twice a year along with the main Leadership Conference at Heritage. Thanks for a very intelligent and rewarding 4 week session.” Another attendee said “I enjoyed the last four weeks of training and found it very effective in not only helping me to understand the objectives of the small groups, but also to prepare for things that will most li ...
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By Mike Conaway on
7/20/2008
Wow, it has been a busy summer around the office. This is my summer since going on staff full time and it has been packed full of many new and exciting things.
Phil Fincher has left to begin his new ministry at Savannah, it is a lot quieter in the modular these days, I miss Phil, I haven’t really heard a good, side-splitting, funny story since his departure… maybe I’ll email him.
Dave Damron is busy not only with the Step into Africa exhibit that is coming, but also preparing for Matehaula mission trip.
We have Battle of the Praise Bands coming in August as well. You can learn more about both of these events by reading the weekly bulletin, e-newsletter or by visiting the small group web site www.lifegroups.com
The small group ministry has also been slammed. We are so excited about what God is doing wi ...
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By Mike Conaway on
7/12/2008
This morning was our monthly Men’s Breakfast. I was excited as always to see the guys, some of which I only see at this event, and spend time with old friends, meet some new ones, and hear a quality speaker.
We have had a great year this year with our list of speakers. We have stayed on the leadership track this year and today was no different.
Hollis Harris was our guest today. If you do not recognize the name, Hollis retired in 2004 after 50 years of Airline Management, serving as President, COO, and Board Member of Delta Airlines, Chairman, President & CEO of Continental Airlines, Air Canada, World Airways and Calljet.
He shared stories of 50 years of directing some of the largest corporations in our history. Hollis explained that his success is because of his priorities. He always kept God first, family second, and career third. Admitt ...
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