Pastor Donald and First Lady Gridiron of Faith Center Ministries Celebrated
Reedited By Naomi Bonman
IVN Staff Writer
Seal Beach, CA- Pastor Donald and Lady Gloria Gridiron and Faith Center Ministries’ congregation recently celebrated their 25th anniversary in the ministry. This black-tie gala was held at the picturesque Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach, California.
This momentous event drew some notable figures in the Church of God in Christ Denominations, which included, Bishop Joe L. Ealy, Jurisdictional Prelate of Southern California First Jurisdiction, Church of God in Christ (COGIC); Bishop Roy Dixon, Jurisdictional Prelate of Southern California Fourth Jurisdiction, COGIC; Bishop Ron Gibson, Jurisdictional Prelate of the Dominican Republic Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, COGIC; Dr. Barbara McCoo-Lewis, Jurisdictional Supervisor of Southern California First Jurisdiction, COGIC; and Dr. Frances E. Harris, Jurisdictional Supervisor of Montana Jurisdiction, COGIC.
“The evening was fantastic, from the fellowship to the entertainment. We had a glorious time,” First Lady Gloria Gridiron said.
The guests were entertained by the poetic voice of Dr. Delores Lakey-Stewart and they were wowed by the comedian and master of ceremony, Mr. Rene’ Smith. The children and adults were also entertained by magician, Mr. Michael Stellman. Faith Center Ministries’ band and singers provided great music and singing. Special music was presented by Mrs. Marva Elaine Burr, of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The highlight of the night was the extraordinary journey that the Dance Ministry took the audience through, with their “Time to Clean-Up” routine, a montage of dances that had been performed over the past 25 years at Faith Center Ministries. The dancers’ exuded energy and excitement that was contagious.
The purpose of the praise dance ministry is to provide a visual representation of God’s Word. “While hearing the Word plants the seed of faith in the mind of the hearer, doing the Word (dancing the Word) causes fruition. We can visualize the nature and character of God, and we can understand and worship him better,” First Lady Gridiron said.
Other ministries and programs of Faith Center are Children’s Ministry, Choir, Drama Ministry, Married Couples Fellowship, Men’s Ministry, Prayer Ministry, Scholarship Program, Sign Language Ministry, Singles Ministry, Sports Ministry, Transportation Ministry, Women’s Ministry, Young Adults Ministry and Youth Ministry.
“We take this opportunity to salute Pastor Donald and Lady Gloria Gridiron and Faith Center Ministries for 25 years of ministry and service to the community,” Adrienne C. Henderson, 25th Anniversary Committee member, said.
Sunday services at Faith Center Ministries are held at 8:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The church is located at 20470-A Yellow Brick Road Walnut, CA 91789. For more information on Faith Center Ministries please visit www.faithcenterministries.org.
June 13, 2012 - 8:28 am
Dear Pastor Donald
Greetings to you in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am so glad to write this loving letter to you. We are so glad to see your good works on the website. I also thank Lord for giving us a great communication to share one another. Before introducing myself, we are assuring our continued prayers for your ministry and for your dear family in all our prayers and you please do pray for us and for our ministry in India. My name is Pastor Joseph Raju, the Founder & President of Church of the Living God Ministries in India. We have been preaching the gospel and also planting churches and doing our best as much as we can from 20 years and we are heartily inviting you and your team to India for a National Crusade and for a Pastors Conference, which will really equip us and also win thousands of souls into the Kingdom of Heaven through your powerful and spiritually filled messages.
India is a pagan country bounded by 330 million pagan Gods and there are 880,000 villages in India where people still do not know Jesus. Our goal is to plant churches in such areas and we as a team go over there preach the gospel and stay over there and see that a church is planted over there and leave a new Pastor over the work. We support the Pastor for a period of 2 years until he becomes self sufficient with the growing church. We have planted more than 80 churches in our area and we thank Lord for His provisions. Please do pray for us and encourage us to plant more churches and win more souls into His Kingdom. Now we are also busing and trucking people from unreached areas to a national l Crusade with an attendance of 50,000 people for 3 nights and through this national Crusade more than 15 churches would be planted and we will make up a follow up after the three nights giving them salvation cards. We are really excited to invite you to India for a national Crusade and we are praying to Lord that Lord will give you provisions to conduct a national Crusade in India which will really plant more churches through your powerful messages. We can also conduct small crusades in village junctions and as you respond to us in whatever manner Lord leads you in His timing we would abide by your honor’s instructions. We are praying with faith that Lord will bring you to India for a Pastors Conference in the days and for a national Crusade in the nights. Please ask us for more details once you see our letter.
Apart from the Church planting, we do have an Orphanage with 50 Orphaned and abondoned children. We save these children to win them for christ. We are accommodating them in a rented building and we are praying for our own ministry campus. Please do encourage us and do help this children if you are led by the Lord. The name of our orphanage is so and so that we can fix the name for that project . If you need more information regarding this project, we shall send to your honor.
Once we plant the churches in villages the people who respond to gospel are not allowed to collect water near the wells and they face lot of perscution and as water is essential element in our daily life, we do dig borewells near the church and show our love and compassion to all people. We also give the village people the physical wells of salvation. Praise the Lord. We are in need of drilling more wells in more village churches. Please do encourage us in these areas if you can save a village with wells of salvation. If you need more details, please do ask us.
We do also support the village poorer communities with micro financing projects as giving them loans for sewing machines, basket making funds, setting up small business stores and as they grow and pay the loans more poorer communities would be blessed. We thank the Lord for His provisions and we are showing our love of Christ abiding by His principles. Amen. If you are interested in helping us with these smaller projects, we shall send you more information.
We do also support the widows in the church with a small monthly support and there are so many widows who desperately need help. (James 1:27). Please do pray for the needs of our ministry and also we are requesting you to please visit India so that you will know that we are a genuine ministry. If you need any references if you cannot come, we can give you and you can contact them.
But our heartful invitation is for you to visit us as a team or your family, we would be really excited in meeting you and hearing your powerful messages. Please let us know of your schedule and we would inform our ministry activties in whatever way we can, please help us, or encourage our churches,.please convey this email to your friends, relatives, crusade speakers who are interested in helping with the work of Lord in India.
Our letter is not to solicit you for funding all of our activities, but we are only telling you of our activities and if you are only led by the Lord, we ask you to encourage us and guide us and support us and visit us and give your valuable suggestions and also pray for us as God answers our prayers and fulfil our needs.
We also request you to please send us your messages which will be in form of dvds, books and other tapes magzines , we will really be thankful for your support and products.
We close our letter with love and greetings and hugs to you. If you need more information please do email us or you can ring us through telephone.
Love to hear from you a good news.
Your Loving Brother,
Pastor Joseph raju
Founder & President
Church of the living God Ministries
P.Box # 3
Gannavaram-521101
Krishna District
Andhra Pradesh
S India.
Phone: 00-91-924 701 5699
Mobile: 00-91-934 623 2486
September 7, 2012 - 4:49 am
Pastor
It is very happy and good to hear you and your ministry.
God use His people wonderfully as you are one of those. I am
so appreciated you and love for God in terms of serving Him
in His way.
I am so encouraged much through your.
Pastor Do you have ministry in Myanmar, Asia?
I strongly believe that you will be greatly used for
His people here if God’s will to you.
So we pray that God will door for you to come us.
Hoping to see you soon.
God blessings.
Ps.CheKo
City Community Missions and Association
Yangon, Myanmar
HP.09425022340