Churches Blessed by General Council Offering

ORLANDO, Florida — For the second consecutive evening, the General Council evening service being held in the Orange County Convention Center, included an “Our Church, Our Family” experience when two church families were blessed with a special gift.

On Friday night, Rod Loy, lead pastor of North Little Rock Assembly and Gulf Area executive presbyter, shared the stories of two churches that have experienced disaster.

Loy shared the story of pastor Terry Goff and his wife, Cherie, who pastor First Assembly of God in Nashville, Arkansas. In January 2018, a fire destroyed the church building. Since then they’ve been meeting miles away at the Missionary Baptist multipurpose building.

“Due to numerous financial and code enforcement challenges, the church still has not been able to move into its new facility,” Loy said. “Pastor Terry and the church need our help.”

Then Loy spoke about Faith Way Assembly in La Follette, Tennessee, pastored by Steve and Rhonda Bruce. In June, a flash flood filled the church 8 to 10 feet deep in just two hours. As the church was not in a flood plain, they didn’t have flood insurance, and federal and state aid did not materialize.

“Pastor Steve told me, ‘We lost everything and there’s no way to recoup our losses. But we’re not like Job, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. We’re saying the Lord giveth and the Lord giveth again.’”

Loy and Gail Clay, the wife of General Superintendent Doug Clay, then presented gifts to the two couples. To the Goffs she presented gift certificates to the Hyatt for two nights and Seaworld, and the Bruces gift certificates for the Hilton and Universal Studios.

Loy then shared that each church was given $10,000, with the promise that every dollar given in the night’s offering will go toward blessing these two churches and churches like them.