A Great Man's Great Life

Brother Randy Dale Kendrick 

Sunrise: December 12, 1946                                                            Sunset: November 29, 2011

A great man, a prankster, a man of God, a man of love, a noble friend to many. These qualities barely scratch the tip of the iceberg in describing what Brother Kendrick has meant to so many people. A testimony to how great this man really was, is that over one-hundred preachers showed up to his funeral from all around the world.

There was over 100 preachers that filled GBFPC's platform Friday morning for the funeral. 

He was a great man, and might I add a successful man, because he finished the race on fire for God. The story behind Brother Randy being a successful man is based on Brother I. H. Terry's response to this simple question: "Reverend this man seems to be a successful preacher, isn't he?". And Brother Terry gave some words of wisdom saying, "There are no successful preachers until they have died, living their whole life to the Lord". This was one of the stories shared by Brother Vaughn Morton, and we are all witnesses to the successful finish of this great man of God.

Elder Vaughn Morton had many things to highlight of Brother Kendrick's Life.

There were twelve speakers and one main speaker, that said a little something about what Brother Randy Kendrick meant to them, and I'm sure the other 87 preachers wanted to as well. 

Here's a few of the speakers:

Brother Kenny Kendrick. His brother.
"Randy didn't like to lose. I could
never beat him!"

Pastor Stephen Miraflor. Son in Law.
"He loved to pull pranks. If something
 didn't seem right look for Randy."

  

Pastor Larry Booker. Friend.
"He shot the moon!!! And he won!" 
You see. Brother Randy was losing so bad in some popular card game and Brother Booker was stoked that he 
was going to beat him for once, until Randy shot the moon. This meant that if Randy got dealt a hand kind of like a 
full house in the game of Yahtzee, then he would steal ALL the points from everyone and likely win the game. And 
he did just that. 

Pastor Ronnie Lawrence. Friend.
"Nope. He didn't like to lose and it
seems that he was first here too."

Pastor David Webb. Brother in Law.
"He was quite the prankster. But
being part of the family gives you an
in on a lot of things"

Elder Vaughn Morton

"This was one successful man!"

Pastor Tim Copeland. Friend
"Death does not mean the end of
this man. We'll see him again
someday."

Pastor Noe Trevino. Close friend
"He counted me as part of the family.
When we stayed in a hotel, he had
our names posted on the door. My
name was Noe Kendrick. Haha."

Brother Jonathan Kendrick. His Son.
"My dad did love to pull pranks.  Once he spent hours constructing an invisible fish line from the side wall, onto the ceiling and attached to the curtain. Then when my mother came in, he pulled the string and said. Honey there's an evil spirit in here! 'Oh, Randy stop it', was her response."

Brother Randy is a man that will surely be missed by many, many people. He was a man that was in love with truth, the One God message, and embraced his family and friends in his own special way. And it seems fitting to end with his favorite Bible passage of all, Psalm 51.

Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

We will miss you Brother Randy.

The YPOWT Bonfire

S'mores, Hot Cocoa and a Little bit of Singing

What a dazzling display of sweltering flames that cloaked the susceptible marsh-mellows! Thanks to my new app/game on the iPad called W.E.L.D.E.R. (Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment), I am able to create such a diverse sentence. Wow. In a more straight forward form, the marsh-mellows that we all roasted over the fire, most of them at least, caught fire and made excellent s'mores. Some people, like myself roasted over medium to light heat in order to get that gooey center and no burn marks. Others stuck their marsh-mellows in the direct flames and had a nice well done black blob. I personally cannot bear the thought of consuming such a thing. However, we all had a blast making these one of a kind creations.

The Fire Pit! Isn't it Great?

Thanks to our fearless leaders, Brother Jeremy Brock and Sister Kelly, we were able to construct this unique fire pit right in the middle of the church park. The youth gathered around the fire with lawn chairs and blankets, and we just had a great time. 

Let the Music Begin!

The Conga. Not a Congo, it's a Conga. 

Thanks to Trent Johnston, we were able to jam to a beat from the Congas. In the picture the guys, several musicians and some aspiring, are going freestyle. Some could play faster than a bolt of lightning, while others used their talent to create some pretty cool beats. And I think we may be seeing the rise of a new guitarist. Give it up for Skyyyyyler Grrrrogan! Now this is a pretty cool move on Skyler's part, he's playing a C-Chord without even touching the strings, you have to look closely to see what I'm saying. Pretty cool move Skyler! But we'd have to give it up for our guitarist behind the scenes, Kevin Forsythe! He did a great job playing his plethora of songs that just kept on coming. 

Skyler showing his tremendous talent. 

And Last but Not Least the Singing...

Now this was not intended, but the pictures that were taken, two in total, showed the C-Squared group gathered in one photo and the High School/Junior High in the other. We sang Making Melodies in my Heart, and I'll leave it up to you to decide who sang their their hearts out in this one. 

Here is the Junior High/High School

Can you guess what part of the song we're on? Here is the C-Squared along with newlyweds 

Chad and Melissa Bradley:

Whew, that took some energy! What a great night we had hanging out with great friends and awesome youth leaders. We really connected with one another and learned many different things such as how to make a medium rare s'more sandwich. Yummy. If you missed this bonfire hangout, be sure to make the next one, because its only once in a great while that you can have the greatest fire-roasted dessert on planet Earth, the S'more.

A great big thanks to Brother Jeremy Brock and Sister Kelly for the great Hot Chocolate and Bonfire. There would be no fire without you both. Literally. We love and appreciate each of you.

Keep a look-out for the next Bonfire extravaganza!

Bethel Days 2011

Let's take a peek into a special day that happens only once a year: 

BETHEL DAY

The great Tug of War was a great event to end the day at Bethel Days 2011. The men faced their rivals, the ladies, and were put to the test. I'm sure the men were thinking, "We got this", going into the challenge, but the ladies pulled through with an astounding win. As you can see in the background Agent Catherine Ross working in the K-9 unit distracts the men by targeting them with silly string. Now let's rewind a bit..

The kids had a blast participating in the booths that were set up by numerous Bethel Day Volunteers. The work that went into each of these booths must have been time-consuming because each one looked amazing!

Heroes in Action! Yes, heroes they are indeed. The object of this game was to target the bandit and hit him in the face with a large sponge. Pictured here is your Heroes in Action hostess Breanna Frost and Todd Hall as your bandit. Krissa scores one big here when she smacks Todd right in the nose. Nice one!

This was a pretty cool idea for a Bethel Day Booth. Sis Denise came up with the theme Bubble War Heroes through her fantastic research. Apparently, in World War II there was a soldier that blew a bubble gum bubble the size of one and a half large pizzas! Now, I could only blow a 5-inch bubble and once I did so, it popped and stuck to my face not wanting to come off, however Todd Hall and David deserve credit for the largest bubbles of the day at a whopping 9 inches in diameter for each. 

We can assure you that the kids took a step back in time to the days of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln. Jesse Suits is pictured here, Honest Abe himself, giving the kids a taste of what the days were like when Lincoln lived in a log cabin and read stories around the campfire.

 And of course, the K-9 demonstration was a popular hit with the whole family. The officer on the left is pictured wearing the K-9's favorite toy, the arm glove. Now this dog wasn't messing around, he really wanted that toy, and when he was let loose he nearly tore the officers arm off. "Good boy, good boy", was the officers response. 

Now this is only half of the revered Bethel Day, the real fun happens at the park where the Bethel Boys and the Oats duke it out in an annual football game. Let's see how they did shall we...

Here, Referee Rick Young is pictured at the bottom left, ready to throw his yellow flag down whenever he sees a violation. Center for the Oats is Darin, here he is getting ready to hike to Chad Condren the infamous Oats quarterback. The Oats are pictured in the red jersey's, and the Bethel Boys are wearing their custom made black football jersey's. Also, at the top right of the picture is one of the mic stands on the announcing table. This game was thoroughly entertaining with your BETHEL announcers: Chad Bradley and Laren Kaufman. The sound effects were spot on, every time the Oats would huddle, jeopardy music would come on, and Chad and Laren would say,"Is that your final answer?" 

Bethel Day 2011 ending on a solemn note with some and an extremely happy note with others. Notably, the Oats were ecstatic that they won the game against the Bethel Boys of 2011 for the second year in a row with a score of 21 to 42. The boys did a great job in the game regardless of who won or lost.  This just goes to show that the Oats still have some steam left in the tank in their post-Bethel Boys adventure. A big thanks from all the football players goes to Bro Gary Newton and those who helped him lay dirt on the field to prep it for the game and to Bro Jeremy Brock for using his GPS techniques to accurately line the field. Great job guys!

This event is very special to all of us, in that it brings us all together for some great family fun. To all the volunteers: booth volunteers, cooks, Snack Shack, clean-up crew, the excellent corn-n-the-cob cooks, the field work and lining put down for the football field, and all the behind the scenes work that was put into this event, a great big Thank You to all that helped out in any way possible. This event would not be possible without you. And if you missed out this year, be sure to make BETHEL DAY 2012, its going to be awesome!

Marriage Enrichment Seminar

We are very excited to have Bro. and Sis. Carr as our speakers for an evening and afternoon of focus on strengthening marriage. Don't miss it!

Come Join Us Sept. 25th for "Church Faire"

September 25th we will be having morning worship with friends, and an evening of Praise & Worship.  The morning service is geared toward introducing ourselves to our guests.  Each ministry of the church will create a display communicating what is offered in their field of labor.  This will be a great opportunity to meet and greet, ask questions, create contacts, and in general, find out "who's in charge of?...."

The night service will be another opportunity to find out about church information, and the service will be an evening of Praise & Worship.  The adult and youth choirs will be singing, along with the Praise & Worship teams, and we will be highlighting the project "Roots of 65."

This will be a great day and we invite you to attend both services.  Blessings.

Mother's Day Luncheon

The GBFPC ladies were honored Mother's Day weekend at a luncheon and the "fellas" were so kind to prepare and serve the meal.  The speaker this year was Sis. Penny Watkins and the ladies all had a wonderful time.  Can't do it without Mom!

GBFPC Men Showing Support

Here are some additional pictures that were not featured in the newspaper article.