Transcript:

Lisa: We started at Grace in 2004. And we didn’t know it but we had been being prayed for five years previous to that. We had close family friends that we used to actually go to Karate classes with. I taught their son 4th grade at Gardentown school. And they had been inviting us to go to Grace. And they were the family that had been praying for us through their Bible studies and had our names on their refrigerators. Unbeknownst to us. We didn’t know anything about Grace Community Church.

Larry: Or hadn’t met Jesus as our Savior and Lord yet either. Imagine there’s a whole bunch of families at this church called Grace Community Church that are praying for our family. And like, our name is on the refrigerator for five years and they are praying for our family and we didn’t even know it. We were the “yets.” We didn’t know Jesus yet.

Lisa: So that was really pretty cool. So we were invited by friends so we went to this church in Washingtonville that was only about 400ish people at the time. Probably less than it was at Newburgh [our Newburgh location] now. So we went there and, and we basically never turned back.

Larry: That was a defining moment. Of recognizing that all of those families were praying for our family. Uh, it changed the heart of the dad.

Lisa: We had strangers coming up to us saying, “oh you are the Dauer’s, we’ve been praying for you. You were on our refrigerator.” At first, I was thinking, “I’m on your refrigerator, why?” But it was just, people were praying for us to come to know Jesus as a family. So that was just, that was huge; huge for us.

Larry: And then probably the next moment that sticks out for me is the day we were all baptized together as a family. I will never forget that day. The whole of us right after one another baptized together and from that moment on we’ve been all-in as a family. Grace has pretty much defined what we do, how we do it, all because of Jesus for His glory. It has been awesome and uh, it really changed our whole family. The trajectory of our lives uh, and eternity. I think the turning point for us was recognizing that everything is His. And He provides everything for us. The [breathes in] that breath that we have even. And once we started to realize who we were in Him, uh, I think that that, when we say we were all in, we were all-in in every area of our lives. We were ready to be transformed. From finances and where our money was supposed to go, which wasn’t our money anyway, was pretty easy once we realized who we are. It was, it was the identity piece that we are His and we get to be on mission with Him. That really changed our, our lives. From a giving standpoint. We started to give and God did all the rest. In our life.

Lisa: I’m just excited to see what’s going to happen next. Because we keep saying, “ok, this is it, this is, this is you know, we’re here we are in Newburgh, we are in Port Jervis.” And we think, in our finite minds “this is it.” But this is so not it. God has so much more in store. I’m just so excited and um, can’t wait to see what, what He does next.

Larry: And it’s gonna all be about relationships and you know really if you think about it, those five years of praying, they were praying but there was a couple who was in relationship with us. And now we as, I mean we get to be, you know we say this church, but it’s really a bunch of brothers and sisters and husband and wives and families in relationship with one another who only through the act of the Lord Jesus get to be together. And then we as a movement all get to go forward. Just imagine, just imagine there’s gonna be thousands and thousands of us in relationship. And we’re just practicing for all of eternity.