Victory Community Church in Reedsville, WV...

A couple of years ago, I felt led to help another brother who felt called into full time ministry as pastor, but though he had served in the past as an associate pastor, his contacts from those days were gone and he had nobody to help him as far as building a new, start-up church. That has been my calling and occupation since 1982 so I offered to set up his charter, articles & by-laws, etc., and showed him how to file the necessary papers. I provided his sound equipment initially and led his church in praise/worship...

I am not writing this to draw attention to anything I did. I gladly did it and did not charge anything, knowing that God repays and I figured the day would soon come when I would be getting a church started here and anything I gave this brother would be a seed planted in the work God was preparing for me. That is simply how God works, and I discussed it many times with the pastor of that new little church. Some of the conversations we had were helpful to him but many were not. Sometimes men have their own ideas how things should work and choose to learn the hard way that they just don't work that way.

Without going into detail as to why---this brother's choices to do things his way led to the failure of his church. In the last few months of his church, and during the time it was going 'out of business', I had reluctantly given up on the idea of being able to help, so we thought the time was right to go ahead and start the new church we had been [not too] patiently waiting to start.

We had already tried once in Morgantown, but decided the timing was wrong; and part of me (the part I should have been listening to) was trying to tell me again... 'It's still not right'---not only the timing, but the place. The most revealing sign that we were still missing it, concerning God's timing, was just about to come to light...

It was but a couple of weeks after we had purchased a new sound system (to replace the one I had given away) and had begun holding worship services; I decided to pay a visit to the V.A. Hospital/Clinic in Clarksburg and was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. That was in the beginning of August, 2007. I had a tumor as large as a grapefruit which was later determined to be inoperable. The rest of that is history, recorded in various health 'updates' throughout the recent 'blogs' dating back as far as November.

Our church had not had time to do any growing so I knew I could not afford to devote time, energy, finances etc., to anything other than this new challenge and my family's well being. We thus, began our quest once again for a church in which we could not only sit and be fed ourselves, but fill a vital role in helping the pastor and the church to grow. After visiting many churches (some of them, many times) the Lord has finally led us to one, I believe we can be a part of...
Victory Community Church, in Reedsville, WV.

James Sabin is cut out of the same preacher mold I was. To some, that may not be a good thing, but I cannot say it any other way. He is a Word Man---A God-taught man. That does not mean he has not submitted to others in his life for learning and spiritual growth/development. But it does mean that he does not allow his doctrinal viewpoints to change with 'whatever is popular'---he is not moved by 'every wind of doctrine'. He changes only as God reveals the meaning of His Word in deeper stages. His desires---his vision for the church becoming more of a Spirit-led, than a purpose-driven church are the same as mine.

A few days ago, he came by the house to visit by appointment, just to 'go over some things about the church and answer any questions we may have'. We initially set the appointment for 7PM but moved it up to 6PM as he needed to be home early, in order to pack for an upcoming trip to a conference. He showed up right on schedule. And as we began to get acquainted, we got into one of those extremely enjoyable (in my opinion) conversations about everything in God's global church, not to mention just about every Chapter of the Bible.

As 12 Midnight approached, he was about ready to go, so we enjoyed 15 or 20 minutes of prayer, most of which was 'in the spirit' and reluctantly we let our 'meeting' come to an end. Wow! There are only about 2 or 3 others, with whom we enjoy fellowship like that.

I know that I know that I know---God has good things in store for Victory Community Church and for our relationship there.
If you happen to be local and looking for a church... Get yourself out there! They meet Sundays at 10:00 AM at the Vol. Fire Hall, on Route 7 in Reedsville. Can't miss it... Well, you can---but you shouldn't.