We want to hear your story of how God has used you to “do the stuff” at Lighthouse! Click here to add yours! Testimonies from other people can be read below.
We want to hear your story of how God has used you to “do the stuff” at Lighthouse! Click here to add yours! Testimonies from other people can be read below.
I am thankful for Lighthouse. I am 10 years old and I hear Pastor Ron and Pastor Leslyn often say, that I don’t have a junior Holy Spirit. They say I have the same Holy Spirit as the adults, and am learning to hear and follow Him just like everyone else.
The Holy Spirit often speaks to me at night. One night a few years ago He put on my heart the desire to do something for the homeless. I talked to my mom about it the next day. I proposed that we go out and buy: back packs, blankets, toothbrushes, water bottles, food, hats, gloves, hair brushes, and hand sterilizer. I wanted to put everything into the back packs and hand them out to the homeless. I didn’t think about the cost of the supplies I desired. We came up with a plan; I made home made cookies and trail mix and went door to door selling the goodies with my siblings and a couple friends. We made a sample bag to show the people what we wanted to do with the money they spent on the goodies. We had a great response; some people even donated extra money. With the money we earned we were able to make over 20 bags to hand out. It was great fun to drive around, see a group of homeless people and offer them each a bag. When I shared this idea with my church family they also got excited and everyone brought stuff to church and we all made bags to give away.
I never understood and appreciated more the preparation, prayer support, and equipping we receive from Lighthouse Regional Church than when our family embarked on what was a major endeavor for us, a short term mission trip to Uganda in the summer of 2008. It was only through the mentoring and support of Lighthouse Regional Church that we were able and prepared to follow God on what was a significant “faith event”, i.e. stepping out and trusting his word in following his leadings to respond to this mission call. The mission was focused in geographic locales that are extremely impoverished, heavily impacted by previous totalitarian governments, war, famine, and disease such as malaria and AIDS.
The seeds of preparation for heading this mission call grew and became a reality at Lighthouse. I believe this to be no coincidence. Prior to our arrival in Uganda our hearts were prepared with great compassion, our words felt as if they were those that God placed within us to pass on to the expectant villagers, and we were mentally and physically prepared for the challenges in ministering to thousands. We prayed for healing and saw them happen. We facilitated hosting a medical and eye glass clinic and saw the great need for this and the folk’s appreciation. We prayed for salvation and saw hundreds at last count come to Christ. God used our family as vessels to reinforce and make tangible to the villagers his great love, mercy, and grace. It was an honor to serve in this way and the blessings and protection we experienced were truly heaven sent.
Being of Armenian descent, I was born into Christianity and attended Sunday school regularly. I grew up knowing without a doubt that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. What I didn’t understand was what other Christians referred to as a “personal relationship” with Him. What did this mean? How was this possible? I didn’t understand.
Then came Ron, Leslyn, and Lighthouse. What an incredible blessing they have been. They have an amazing gift of teaching God’s word, and lead by example. They serve our Lord with all their hearts, souls, minds, and bodies. They are our pastors, mentors, role models, and very dear friends. Thanks to their teachings and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, I now not only understand, but have that very close and personal relationship with our living God. WOW…He lives within us and works through us, He’s not just ‘up there’ looking down! Lighthouse is so much more than just our church. Everyone there is family, and always available to help, comfort, and support each other through anything.
I can’t imagine our lives without them!
Just prior to becoming part of Lighthouse, the Lord began freeing me and started showing me truths I needed to face. Since coming to Lighthouse, through the love, guidance and direction of our wonderful leadership, the Lord has continued to free me and has shown how the false beliefs that I had formed were literally strangling me. They were also keeping me from becoming who He created me to be and were blocking my ability to receive His deep, deep love for me.
I have experienced such a freedom in the areas of performance and people pleasing. The Lord has also shown me the imperative importance of relying on the leading of His Spirit for direction and the equally imperative importance of entering into His rest to survive the trying times ahead, by spending time with Him and by daily submission to His leading. Thank you Lighthouse for your teachings and the freedom and love you extend. Most of all, thank you for all your prayers and for being an umbrella of protection that I am humbled and yet honored to be under. Miss you, Leslyn.
I grew up in the Bay Area, and attended Catholic churches with my family sporadically. Though I always had questions on how to live a righteous life, I never got the answers and continued being confused throughout my young adult life.
It wasn’t until I met Ron, Leslyn, and our entire Lighthouse family that I started to understand and know God on a personal level. I’ve always known there was a God, but now I know who He is and how to live in His word. Their understanding and teaching of God’s word and who He is truly amazes and inspires me. It is such a huge blessing to me and my family to be members of Lighthouse Regional Church. Everyone there is family, and I can’t imagine our lives without them.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” At Lighthouse Regional Church, the people are equipped to do the stuff through the presence, power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. After attending Lighthouse a few times, someone asked me what I thought of the church. I said, “When I step into the warehouse, I feel like I step under a canopy of Heaven.” It is a place to be changed in His presence.
When I began attending Lighthouse, I had a vibrant, but dysfunctional relationship with Jesus. I loved Him and spent hours in prayer, worship and in the Word, each day. I had given Jesus my heart and fully surrendered my life to Him and His purposes. The problem was the Lord had my heart, but I didn’t have His. I was in the middle of a painful waiting process. I was waiting for the Lord to fix me; so I could “fit in”, be liked by Him and gain His affection. I was bound up in a spirit of rejection. Freedom from this spirit is one of many miracles that have occurred in my life, in the years I’ve been a part of the Lighthouse body. I am grateful for being lead to a body of believers where: unconditional love is always available, the Holy Spirit’s presence is tangible, prayer and God’s Word is foundational, and healing is natural. I believe the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; my experiences these past years at Lighthouse have given me many testimonies confirming this truth.
I have been attending Lighthouse Regional Church for four and a half years, and in this time I have not only grown spiritually, but I have also grow inwardly, and have been able to find myself. When I first started attending Lighthouse I didn’t know who I was, and I had no idea that I could have my own personal relationship with God, but Lighthouse showed me that I could.
After a significant loss in friendships, I found myself incredibly discouraged, and I began to question who I really was. Every day was a struggle for me, and this lasted for months. But on a recent Sunday I was approached by a member of Lighthouse, and they told me that God had a plan set for me, and that he had seen every tear I had cried, and that He had caught every one of them. This brought me the exact comfort I needed, and this was only one of the things that was spoken to me. Throughout these four and a half years, I’ve become comfortable with myself. As my relationship with Christ has grown, I’ve begun to see myself through His eyes, and no one else’s.
God is good. That’s the first thing I think of when I reflect on what I have learned since coming to Lighthouse. The message that He loves me unconditionally and wholeheartedly is amazing to me. I have learned more about God and His undying love for me in the past few years than I have learned in a lifetime.
I am so thankful to be part of a body of believers who truly “walk the walk and talk the talk.” One of the things I love about Lighthouse is that “the people do the stuff.” I was asked a couple of years ago at Easter time to share what God was doing in my life. As terrifying as that was for me, with God’s strength, I was actually able to get up in front and share about God’s grace in my life and how He has helped me grow in the area of forgiveness. Through the seminar “Free Indeed”, and with the power of the Holy Spirit, I was able to take a lot of bitterness and break the bonds that I allowed Satan to have over me and turn that into forgiveness. That is truly a miracle. Our God is a God of miracles! I know I have a long way to go in my walk with the Lord, but I know the power of the Holy Spirit is alive and well in my life.