We Know How to Party!

The block party for the 6th Ward neighborhood in Oneonta NY was a success!

A big thank you goes out to everyone who volunteered their time to help set up and those who donated money, supplies, and food. We also want to thank the two rock bands, Atlas Arrows and Lightning Killed My Parents, for breakin' in the old storefront with some quality rock-n-roll. And let us not forget Laura Carpenter who made her musical debut as a solo artist.

All-in-all, there were over 70 people in attendance, and everybody seemed to really enjoy themselves. People in the community now know more about our little church and what we are about, whereas previously we might have only been known as, "I think somebody  is turning that old building into a church."  It was also nice to see neighbors coming together and building friendships, in this way the block party truly is a classic picture of community.

Prayer also played a big part with the success of the party. The power of prayer was most obviously seen with the weather. It was forecasted  to rain all day, and it did. It was also raining the previous day as well--when we went door-to-door to pass out invitations. And sure enough, 2 hours before the party was scheduled to start the storm passed and the weather cleared, just in time to set up a dry bounce house, and it remained
dry and even sunny throughout the entire party.

The party is also encouraging for us in that it forced us to work hard on certain projects needed to be done in order to host such an event, i.e., install a sink and toilet, lights, outlets, and a bathroom door. We are by no means done with our building project, but we are excited to finally be at a point were we can host more events like this for the community. With that said I encourage you to keep checking the blog for more updates on what we have planned next for The Redemption Movement, and please feel free to contact us if you want to be a part of our next event!