PRAY ’11 is coming on December 31!

December 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment

December 27, 2010

Forest Lake Church’s fifth annual power of prayer weekend entitled Pray 11 is scheduled to take place December 31, 2010 thru January 1, 2011. The annual event will be held in the church’s main sanctuary and is opened to the surrounding community as well as Forest Lake Church members.

“Our annual New Year’s prayer weekend is a time when individuals can renew their spiritual life through the power of prayer,”

says Dr. Sabine Vatel, Forest Lake Church discipleship pastor. ” We want the power of prayer to touch as many lives as possible.”

Featured at this year’s event is Pastor Ron Halvorsen, Sr., a popular speaker and author in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Halvorsen’s career includes ministering in several pastorates, as well as being an evangelist for the Faith for Today television organization and the Carolina Conference. He’s held thirty-one field schools of evangelism and taught college homiletics. As a retiree, he continues to hold meetings and prayer seminars.

Halvorsen has also written two books, From Gangs to God and Prayer Warriors. In From Gangs to God, Halvorsen tells his life story from being a fighting gang member on the streets of Brooklyn in New York City to becoming a well-known evangelist who has brought thousands to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In Prayer Warriors, he chronicles the power of prayer in his life and others and how passionate prayer can change lives for the better.

Forest Lake’s Pray 11 will begin Friday evening, December 31 at 7:00 p.m. as Halvorsen talks about being a prayer warrior with We’re At War. The weekend continues January 1 at the church’s three main worship services (8:45 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.) as Halvorsen preaches on Revival and Renewal. The weekend will end with a special seminar that afternoon as Halvorsen leads out in a special seminar entitled Taking the City for God.

-Terry Hall,

article from The Communicator, the official Forest Lake Church’s newsletter.

Filed Under: carolina conference, Dr. Sabine Vatel, Faith for Today, gangs to God, prayer warriors, ron halvorsen, seventh-day adventist church, terry hall

A Great Place to Start…Again!

November 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

October 7, 2009

There is such an atmosphere of anticipation and celebration on this day!…Today is special because we will be joined by people of prayer from all over the world. It’s HoPE Global! It’s not quite 7pm yet. For now, people trickle inside the sanctuary, and by 8pm, it will be full of people who have come to experience God in a new way. God did not disappoint. See more at:
http://www.forestlakechurch.org/CatDetail.asp?CatID=261

Among the worship leaders that evening is Terry Hall. Terry is the business owner of a marketing company and serves as the church’s Director for Communications. He keeps a busy schedule, yet there he is preparing to help lead the worship with singing.

He has been with the House of Prayer Experience when it started out with a group of six, ten to fifteen people who gathered in a church classrooms a couple of years ago. Terry remembers Pastor Derek Morris and his wife Bodil teaching everyone Scripture Songs. The atmosphere of friendship within the small group was another aspect of the meeting that kept him coming back almost every week… until today.


How did you become involved with H.o.P.E?
Terry: When I began coming to prayer meeting, I had not been coming to church for the past four years because of health reasons. Music had been part of my life since I was 4 years old. I have been part of this church since I was ten. Music is part of who I am. I didn’t think I would ever do music or sing again.
Pastor Derek suggested that prayer meeting would be a great place to start again. I helped lead out in singing the Scripture Songs. The prayer meeting was the most comfortable place I could be. It felt like a family. Even though we are larger now, it still feels like a family. There is an intimate atmosphere at H.o.P.E.

What does it mean to you to be able to use your gifts of music and singing at H.o.P.E?
Terry: Music and prayer brings us closer to God. When God gives you a talent, whatever it may be, it is in order to honor Him!

Tell us more about what makes this midweek service important to you?
Terry: When you have prayer in your life…it makes you more aware of the power of prayer in your life, and I have found physical, mental and spiritual healing and strength here.


What impacts you the most about these Wednesday night meetings?
Terry: I have seen answers to prayer in people’s lives, and it continues to go on. I have seen miracles. I am amazed and humbled every time I see them, and all this shows what a mighty God we serve. There is an …energy in the air. I guess it is the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit charges the air and connects all of us to Him, one another in a special way.

What do you want people to know about the ministry of prayer at H.o.P.E?
Terry: There is nothing like intercessory prayer to change your life. People here are genuinely concerned about your concerns. I’m so thankful that no matter how often we stumble–we can always reconnect to our Heavenly Father in music and prayer.  That’s what the House of Prayer experience is all about.  He never stops loving us!!! Praise God!!!

Filed Under: music ministry, terry hall