In celebration of the Thanksgiving season, the leadership team at Laurel, Miss., Church, decided to dedicate a week toward focusing the church’s communications and outreach around gratitude. As a result, church members received positive feedback from their friends, family, and community members, and experienced the spiritual impact of their decision to maintain an attitude of gratitude.
Stacey Loper, a member of the church’s leadership team, described the campaign as a combination of devotional and testimonial videos, as well as a series of social media posts and text messages. She shared that “I can truly say that there have been so many people who have been touched by the personal testimonies that have been shared, and the devotionals that have come out every day. I’ve even received personal messages from people about how the Lord has touched them from some of the stories that have been shared.”
The church community capped off the week of gratitude with a Fall Festival on November 12, 2024. Lucas Caina, Laurel’s pastor, shared the importance of the event, saying, “Today we are celebrating the end of this week of gratitude we had here at Laurel Church. It was great because we had the opportunity to focus our hearts and minds on this very important subject about how to be grateful. Now, we are celebrating the great things our Lord is doing among us, and we are so thankful because our God is good. He loves us. He wants us.”
Among those most impacted by the week was church member Warren Blackwell, whose testimony was featured in one of the videos posted on the church’s social media page. As a result, he said, “I had several people reach out to me. I have a friend of mine — met him years back — and he reached out and said, ‘Your testimony was awesome to hear. I had no idea you had that kind of testimony.’ His mom has been sick and has been going to hospice. The friend asked, ‘If it’s not too much, would you and your wife pray for us?’
“It kind of opened the door to have that discussion. I’ve never had that discussion with him before. We’re praying for him. That was a pretty neat experience to have that door open.”
Gulf States | January 2024
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