Thought I would share about God's goodness.  Two students in our youth ministry experienced a life altering loss.  Abby and Logan were on vacation with the rest of their family a year ago when tragedy struck.  Abby and another young girl were having fun in the ocean when a rip tide current began sweeping them out to sea.  Abby's father Mike jumped into save her, and did, but was overwhelmed and lost his life while saving his little girl.  The grief of a lost husband and father ran deep, very deep.

So, even though I had given their family the Hope When Life Hurts Most DVD 8 months earlier for whatever reason they never got around to watching it.  They saw it for the first time at our Youth Ministry.  It took off in Abby's heart.
 
Then a couple weeks ago our student ministry attended Student Life Camp in Gatlinburg (Louie was speaker), over father's day weekend - the first for Logan and Abby without their father.
 
I invited their Mom Beverly to come spend the weekend with us.  Beverly knew about the story of Ashley from Abby and Logan, but had not seen the DVD yet.  Beverly has been in deep pain for a year as you can imagine, not without hope, but in long term grief.  Mike really was what was said about him in the story.
 
At camp Louie gave the Fruitcake and Ice Cream talk.  I could see her being visibly moved.  Later on we shared testimony at our hotel.  She spoke up and shared with the kids about the Glory of God, and His goodness in times of great sorrow.  It was moving.  Her kids Abby and Logan are the most joy filled kids you will ever meet, despite this chapter of their life last summer.
 
The Sunday we returned from Camp, Beverly spoke to the church as a whole for the first time.  She spoke of how good God was, and how our lives are to give Him glory. It was amazing, a powerful testimony from a woman who understood about the Hope that is in the Cross.
 
So, the ministry of Ashley's story and Louie's talk goes on.  I just bought another copy and gave it to a family in our church who has just buried their 9 year old son and grandson who died from a brain tumor.  May God use it in their lives as well.

Brad

I've watched Fruitcake and Ice Cream last Tuesday for the first time and have watched it again since...I must be honest and say that I have never heard of you before - I do now and think that I have caught up quite a bit, on what's available on the net - luckily it's all good stuff LOL. 

As a Christian, but not a very active-Christian (hope that makes sense), my life has been flipped over - Ashley's story is relevant to many people - and it's never too late to open the door for Jesus...For the first time I'm building a relationship with God because I want to and not because society expects me to...It's true that some churches, with all the respect in the world and I'm biting my lip, don't offer a clear understanding of how WOW it is.

Eugene

What a great DVD message "fruitcake" was. It renewed my faith and just to hear the message of grace again ....how simple and how powerful. Louie's delivery was Spirit-given, as always. Just a great piece.

Rich

Hi all! We'll today was like any other Tuesday, the team got up, got dressed and we started the day with our daily bible study in the morning. We then started to load our sound equipment into the car to make the trip to Monument Park High School in Kraaifontein in the Western Cape, where we do the CSA (Christian Student Association) period every Tuesday.

But today turned out not to be like any Tuesday before it, you could feel that God was about to to something WAY different!

We set up the sound, made sure everything was working, then we started to pray and worship for the short time we had before the period started, but I can tell you that it was AWESOME, we were praying for probably about 15-20min, but you could feel the atmosphere of the school shift, if that makes any sense, like an athlete taking in his place just before the starter gives the signal. So the bell went and the kids started to pile into the hall, about 1200 of them. We started like always, opened in prayer and then showed our latest episode of Miffbusters, just to get their attention, then we showed Louie Giglio's DVD Fruitcake and Ice Cream, where he reads from Ashley's journal. It wasn't long before there wasn't a dry eye in the house, seriously if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it! As the dvd finished, Gerhard (our team leader) went on stage and talked about God's amazing grace, and how even if you feel God cannot love you, He still does. Gerhard then asked that everyone close their eyes, and he proceeded to make an altar call, asking anyone who wants to get to know Christ and needs His grace and salvation to just put up their hands, probably about 200 kids put up their hands, which I think was kinda impressive. But then he asked them to be bold, and challenged those who put up their hands, those who want to accept Christ into their lives to stand up, now I have to admit at this point I was thinking, "no way, no way they are going to get up, this is a public high school!", oh and I have to add that the ENTIRE school was in the hall. Gerhard said he was going to count to 3, and then wanted them to stand up and make that statement. He started to count, 1, 2, 3. . . when he reached 3 a handful stood up, then, 1second later, 90% of the school stood up! That's about 1000 students standing up to acknowledge and receive Christ! I mean if that doesn't blow your mind nothing will! We were so overwhelmed the entire team started to cry, myself included. Gerhard then continued to lead them in prayer to receive Christ. Afterward so many of them came to us, just asking us to pray with them, most of them with tears running down their cheeks, it was AMAZING to see what God did in that school today!

So I hope this story has touched you as it did us today, and to the students at Monument Park High School, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY GUYS!

Stephen