Our 55^th Spring Meeting, held at First Baptist Church Harbor Oaks, was a wonderful time of celebration and fellowship. Sixteen churches were represented with 50 people in attendance. The celebration included a message of encouragement from Rev. Martin Beal, and ended with a powerful solo by Bro. Wilbur Williams, the minister of music for Tubman King Community Church. Our thanks to Rev. Dean Glover, and the terrific people at FBC Harbor Oaks for making us feel welcome with such open hearted hospitality.

As an association we voted to provide start-up funds in the amount of $5,000 to begin a new work in the Ponce Inlet area. This area of our community has long been on our hearts and we want to continue to pray for Charlie West as he tries to reach out to the great folks on the south end of the peninsula.

Our nominating committee worked hard to fill the holes in our roster, but as they reported at the Spring Meeting, there are many areas of leadership that are vacant. Two critical areas where we have a need are at the position of Treasurer and Vice-Moderator. Let me encourage you to search your hearts, and search your churches for the right people to fill these roles!

Larry Christenson in his book, The Christian Family, says John Knox prayed with such power that all Scotland was awakened. He goes so far as to attribute the whole reformation of Scotland to Knox's prayers. He writes, "'Lord, Give me Scotland or I'll die!' [Knox] cried. And he prayed with such intensity that the Lord answered."

There is power in prayer! Prayer is something we say that we believe in, and we talk about solving our problems with prayer, but often we sit in the darkness because we never turn on the power!

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit. (James 5:17-18)

Now that is some might powerful prayer! James is teaching us that we too have that power. Notice what he said in verse 17. He said Elijah was an ordinary man. He had a nature just like ours.  The lesson for us today is that the same power that Elijah called down from heaven above is available to us as well.

We have the power! We just need to turn it on!