Well, finding time to keep up with the blog has definitely not proven to be easy with all that has transpired since my last post. God has richly blessed us all. Ray and I have both recently received promotions at work and have richly been blessed by God's faithfulness! We made a major life decision and have welcomed our new son into our family. Dillon Reese Ethridge was born at 645pm on Tuesday, May 27th. Dillon weighed 5lbs, 15 ounces and was 19 inches long. He is truly precious! We have been experiencing the ups and downs of parenthood as Dillon has endured colic. He is just to precious for words!

Dillon, Ray and I will also begin construction on our new home in the next month or so. As I mentioned, we have truly been blessed!

I have also followed God's direction in resigning as senior pastor of New Hope after 10 years in service to God's works. On Sunday, August 24th, we will have a very special service. We will hold Dillon's Christening service, I will officially celebrate 10 years as the senior pastor of New Hope and the date will also mark my last day behind the pulpit as senior pastor.
For those of you who do not know, I am not stepping away from God's calling on my life, but I am following His devine guidance and working towards the possible beginnings of a work in Tifton.

New Hope has a bright future as they continue the works that God has laid out before them!

I pray that you all have a very happy 4th of July and that God will continue to richly bless you all!

Love in Christ,

Rev. Jerry Ethridge

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year! I can remember as a small child always thinking how long it took for Christmas to come, now that I'm older, it seems like it arrives a ot faster. During this wonderful, yet hectic time, we have to continue to reach out to our brothers and sisters in Christ that are less fortunate. As we rejoice and reflect on the birth of our Savior so many years ago, we have to remember the mission that He has set before us! We've accepted that mission and must move forward and constantly spread the good news of His wonderous love for us!

I pray that you each have a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year!!

Love in Christ,

Rev. Jerry Ethridge

I cannot begin to tell you the wonderful joy of serving the Lord with such a wonderful and loving group of folks! This week has been amazing! Monday, I came home to balloons and a banner stating "New Hope Loves Our Pastor"! Then on Tuesday, I recieved phone calls from about 6 different members expressing their appreciation and love for me and for Ray. It didn't stop there, on Wednesday, I received a beautiful flower arrangement at work wishing me a "Happy Pastor Appreciation Week". Later that evening Ray and I were presented with a gift certificate to Applebee's. Thursday, revealed a mailbox full of cards expressing appreciation and love! I cannot begin to express my appreciation for all that each of you do! Nothing that happens at the church would be possible if it were not for each of you! You each lend strength and character to everything that we do! Thank you for the love and appreciation that you always show to us and most of all thank you for you selfless devotion to God's works!

Love in Christ,

Rev. Jerry Ethridge

God is so amazing! He has placed such amazing people in my life! We have been working diligently on formalizing our goals for the coming year. As many of you know, we have developed a 20/20 vision that outlines where we plan on being in the next 20 years. We are well on our way to accomplishing the goals we've set forth for the first year! Praise God for His marvelous blessings!! We are very excited about the future of New Hope! We're looking forward to the fundraising event at the Sweet Potato Festival in Ocilla on October, 27th! We've decided to subscribe to a phone tree service that allows me to make one phone call and update everyone who's number is on the list about events, prayer requests, or just a scripture of the week! God is moving in Valdosta and we are so glad to be a part of it!

Please join us in the near future and become a part of what God has planned for South Georgia!!

Love in Christ,

Rev. Jerry Ethridge

Well, if you missed services last night, you missed a great one! We had a wonderful service, great food, and a great time of fellowship! It was karaoke night and just about everyone there got up and sang at least one song! Even our 4 visitors participated in the singing! I know that the fellowship committee will be repeating karaoke night!

I pray that you all have a wonderful week!

Love in Christ,

Rev. Jerry Ethridge

We certainly have a lot going on over the next month. The fundraising committee is now full throttle! We are gearing up for the Sweet Potatoe Festival in Ocilla. New Hope will have a booth at the festival and we will be selling baked goods and raffling a $200 gift card from Wal-Mart. The festival has a usual attendance of around 25,000 people! This is a tremendous opportunity for us to raise money for Convocation and for the building fund and Rev. Rick Myers Benevolence Fund! It will also help to build our operating account to work towards funding different areas of our ministry that we have envisioned!

I am very excited about a trial offer of OneCallNow! This system allows for me to enter a list of phone numbers and record a message each week and the message is sent to each number on the list! This is a wonderful way for me to keep you up-to-date on all of what is happening at New Hope!

This weekend is family fellowship. We will have a short service followed by karaoke and a covered dish dinner. So be sure to bring your friends, you appetite, and your favorite covered dish or side dish!

I hope to see you soon!

Love in Christ,

Rev. Jerry Ethridge

Our 10 Year Anniversary, WOW! First of all it is difficult to believe that we've been ministering in Valdosta for 10 years! Our Anniversary Celebration last night was terrific! It was a wonderful spirit-filled service and was terrific to see some faces that we've not seen in years and even more terrific to see faces we've never seen before. We had a group of 8 from New Covenant Church of Atlanta join us--including Pastors Randy Morgan and Johnny Layton. Sam Sampson did a marvelous job performing and delivering spiritual nuggets and, as to be expected, Rev. Jay Neely delivered a wonderful sermon! The past 10 years have definitely been a blessing to me and to so many others! I can hardly wait for the next 10 years!! May God continue to bless each of you!