What an awesome weekend at HPC! Saturday night we had the opportunity to be joined by and honor our law enforcement officials from the Baton Rouge area, as well as ministering to those that serve in protecting our nation and their families. Dozens of police officers and sheriffs joined us as we worshiped and got to hear from Baton Rouge Police Chief Jeff Leduff as he spoke to us about commitment and serving. Strong stuff!

After service we headed out to the back of the property to hang around the Healing Place Athletic Complex for the end of the year celebration for our Upward Baseball season. Upward is one of the key ministries that we are able to reach kids and their parents in our community through and it is awesome to see the lives that are being changed through it.

Once it got dark enough, we cut the lights and ended the night with an incredible fireworks show! I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen many fireworks displays like that one.

All in all we had an amazing weekend celebrating the the people that have served and are serving our city and country! I’ve added some more pictures on the photo’s page if you missed it.

I want to invite you all out the HPC this weekend as we celebrate Memorial Day. We’ll be giving great honor to the men and women who serve our community and nation. We have such a deep appreciation for those who sacrifice to give us the freedoms that we experience in this nation.

I also want to send out a special invitation to all law enforcement officials and public servants to join with our military veterans to be honored at our service on Saturday, May 24th at 5:00 PM. We will finish the night at our HPAC for a Memorial Day Celebration for a fantastic firework show, food, and fun for the whole family. We will also celebrate the end of a terrific Upward Baseball season. It’s going to be a great weekend at HPC, come bring the whole family!

Heads up, something awesome is coming down the pipe this weekend! Outreach at HPC is always in the forefront of what we do, and this weekend is no different.

This Saturday May 17th, Epic Student Ministries is going to be joining forces to reach out to downtown Baton Rouge! Whether you are in junior-high, high school, or college/20 somethings, you don’t want to miss this! We’re going to Adopt-A-Block. We’ve targeted an area where we will go in and mow, clean the neighborhood, and just sharing the love of Jesus. So bring your yard gloves and come out to join us!

Meet at 10am at the Baton Rouge Dream Center- Roselawn site with your red SERVE shirt on! (Click here for map/directions)

If you are looking to keep up with the pulse of outreach at HPC, make sure to check out the SERVEblog. JP Brumfield and his crew are hitting the streets every week, so if you want to get involved, this is the place to be!

Also check out this post on the SERVEblog, they let me make a guest appearance and share a little about what serving means to me.

I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the awesome people in our celebrated HPC youth culture and share about the incredible learning environments that are building the next generation.

First is a picture of Jordan Gautreau preaching at our Refuge high-school ministry. Jordan is one of our HPSM interns and is on fire for what God is doing in the next generation.

Next is a picture of Gayla Ware stepping up and speaking at the Hub. Gayla and her husband Steve are involved in many aspects of our student ministries at HPC.

Another really awesome thing in store for this summer is our summer internship programs, Navigate (j-high) and Saturate (high-school). Summer isn’t quite here and we’ve already got nearly 100 students signed up to spend their summer learning valuable leadership skills that they can use in their everyday lives!  Isn’t that amazing! We are seeing a young army being mobilized to reach the world.

If you are looking for a way to take your relationship with God to the next level, or just aren’t sure what the next step is in your life, I highly encourage you to check out the Healing Place School of Ministry. With the many different branches including Full-time, Full-time for Marrieds, and Evening School, there is a fit for everyone looking to become more grounded in their faith and be equipped to carry out the will of God through the local church.

I’m so excited to see the impact we will have as a church passionate about empowering the next generation!

Just wanted to share a quick picture I just received. The little girl in the picture is 7 year old Lily Jarreau. Lily is the daughter of Kevin and Jennifer Jarreau, two of our HPSM Evening School Interns who have served at the Annex this year and have recently commited to serving at the Winbourne Campus on Sundays.

I just thought this was great! It is so awesome to see the next generation catching the “Second Mile Spirit!”

Proverbs 22 says

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

Many of you know what a high value we place on our student ministries, and for me it is such a blessing to be able to impact people of of all ages with the resource of “The Second Mile” that God has given us!