WE'RE BACK!!

It's been a while! It's been almost a year since our last post. The band has continued to play at church every Wednesday and Sunday, but we haven't gone outside the church to do any ministry in quite some time. God has been working in our lives in a powerful way. He has been shaping us, giving and taking away, in order to make us better ministers. As God has used this time to show us his power and strengthen us, Satan has used this time to try and destroy everything that God has put together. The enemy has relentlessly shown his commitment to tempting not only every member of the praise team, but also the spouses of the members of the praise team. We have all had to recognize Satan and his schemes. Instead of falling apart during this time of testing, FaceFirst has learned how to unite and crush Satan's head together. (Genesis 3:15) The scripture rings true when it says that, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28). What Satan came to kill, steal, and destroy, God has protected, healed, and transformed. Now, more than ever, FaceFirst is ready to minister. We have been through the night and now it's time for the morning! We have a few new members on board...

First, there is Terry Newill. Terry is our sound guy. I don't know what the technical term for that is, but he's awesome and we are super glad he is a part of our team. Second, there is a new little baby boo to join Cadence and Raegan. Zoe Smith arrived March 1st and we are so glad to have her be a part of our baby posse!!

So this past Saturday night, August, 20th, we played a youth rally at Providence Baptist Church. It was incredible. People were worshipping with all of their heart. Our goal any time we play is for people to have a real worship experience, to really meet with Jesus. We despise wasting time going through the motions. We spend significant time in prayer, asking that God will use us as vessels to usher in the Holy Spirit. It is our prayer that people leave worship changed forever! Uniting with a body of believers and worshipping God is one of the most powerful experiences a person can ever have. We are blessed to be chosen by God to help people have those experiences.

REACH OUT 2010

We have a new event coming up this Saturday, September 25 in Downtown West Point, GA! The event is from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST and is FREE for everyone. The Reach Out Group is closing down a block in downtown West Point and setting up two stages for different bands to play. We will be playing various times through out the day. Please come and join us for an awesome day of worship! Please pray as we prepare that God will show us exactly what to prepare so that we can glorify His kingdom. Thank you all so much for your continued support! We will have Face First T-Shirts and other merchandise available Saturday.

FREE TO PRAISE: APRIL 16TH

Awesome news! FaceFirst is doing a prayer and worship service on Friday, April 16th at 7 Eastern/6 Central. We have no agenda for the service. The only plans we have include getting together with the body of Christ in order to glorify Him! Anyone and everyone is invited. Any denomination! Bring your church! Bring your youth group! Come with a friend! Our goal is to spend time in the presence of God. We hope to see you there!

The service will be held at our home church, Rocky Mount, on Hwy. 158. It takes about 25 minutes to get there from the Auburn/Opelika area. Here are directions:

Coming from I-85.
Take exit 62. Turn right at the top of the ramp.
Go about 3 miles. Turn left onto county road 158.
Go about 2 1/2 miles until the first stop sign. Go left.
At the fork in the road directly ahead, go right.
Go about 7 miles after the fork, Rocky Mount is on the left.
The service will be in the building on the left.

The address is:
9117 Lee Rd. 158, Salem, AL 36874

Lee-Scott Academy

We played at Lee-Scott Academy on March 23 and it was awesome. We had the honor of being asked by Principal Bobby Samford to come and play for the junior and senior high students during one of their assemblies. We had about 40 minutes to play for a student body that had never had a praise band of this size come to their school, so needless to say at the beginning we got a lot of blank stares. Eron is the main praise leader and he always does a good job of getting the students to feel comfortable enough to clap and even raise their hands. We played through our first couple of songs, Blessed Be Your Name and Open the Eyes of My Heart. The students seemed to be enjoying it, but it wasn't until our next song, I Will Rise, that they really seemed to respond. I had the students sit at the beginning of the song and I explained a little bit about what the song meant. I closed my eyes and we began to sing together. By the time we got to the bridge, almost to the end, every single student was standing. They had risen to their feet on their own, by their own decision. When I opened my eyes and saw that they were all standing. I fought tears big time. I know that some of them did it just because other people were, but hey, if they were driven to stand in the presence of God because of someone else standing first, then Hallelujah!! We finished with Revelation Song and at the very end, we sang through the chorus with just the voices of the student body. Their voices filled the gym. It gives me chills just to think about it. Hearing just voices without instruments is so powerful. I know FaceFirst was deeply blessed by the opportunity to play for Lee-Scott. I hope they were blessed by being apart of an amazing worship service!

Hopewell

Hopewell United Methodist is a church in Beulah that invited us to come play for their "Student Showcase 2010". This was the second year for the event. It consisted of free food and drinks and different groups of performers. Two other bands played and they also had a musical drama team there. Students from any church could attend so it was basically like one big youth rally.

When I first walked in I was blown away by how many students came! There were probably about 200 there (adults and students combined). The room where the bands played wasn't very big and it was very loud because of all the hard surfaces for the sound to bounce off of. It was very challenging sound wise. After we got all of our equipment set up, we went to the sanctuary to pray. Well, it actually turned into a worship service all on it's own!!! It was one of the most incredible prayer times we have ever had. Ben is always a powerful prayer, but man did the Holy Spirit fall on him that night. We were all agreeing out loud with him and praising God. There are few things more exciting than a prayer time like that. Anyway, we also all laid hands on Eron at the end and that was incredible, too. I could go on and on...but I'll get to the worship time.

When we started out playing our opening tune, the kids were loud. They were running in and out of the room, talking, yelling, goofing around, etc. It was great that they were having fun, but we knew it was time to worship God. We got through the first couple of songs and they hadn't really calmed down until Eron shared what was on his heart. It was amazing to watch him speak with the authority of Christ. He asked the kids to calm down and to realize that we were there to worship God together. He acknowledged the purpose of the night, which was to WORSHIP and experience the presence of Christ. He boldly said that we hadn't achieved that yet! The students responded and almost immediately a calm fell over the room and you could tell that God was about to do some amazing things. As we made our way into the worship time, the kids started experiencing Christ. So many of them were truly worshiping, and several of them fell to their knees. A host of people immediately went to the ones who were breaking before the Lord in order to lay hands on them and pray. I know that God planted seeds that night as we all worshiped together and FaceFirst cannot wait for another opportunity to worship with more youth.



































(PICTURES TAKEN BY HEATHER ROBERTS)

Logos

As we start to build Face First Ministries we will have different logos that we will use. Here is one that Shane Tapley did that is really awesome! So we decided to give him the name "Off the Chain Shane"!

Get down. So you can get UP.

God promises eternal life to those who surrender their lives to Him. Our praise team, Face First, is a group of sinners who have surrendered. Our lives are completely His. He has called us to lead His people in praise and worship, and we are striving to answer His call. God chose Rocky Mount Baptist Church in Salem, Alabama (in the country some would say) to bring us together and it is there where we lead praise and worship every Sunday morning. However, God has called us to more than music. He has placed in each one of our hearts a burning passion to minister to the lost, along with the saved. To talk with them and pray with them. To claim healing and victory over them. To encourage and love them. We are empty vessels desperate for the Holy Spirit and we believe that as long as we are on our face first, before Christ, astonishing things will take place. Things that we never could have dreamed of. So get on your face before Christ and allow His will to take flight in your life. Get down. So you can get UP.