Sunrise Community Church Joins Our Region

Sunrise Community Church just recently joined our region. We are thrilled to hear a little bit of what's happening in Allenstown, NH!

Sharon and I believe God has started us at the grass roots level building this body of believers. He seems to be giving new hope, where hope may have dwindled. We see a difference in the expressions on people’s faces. There is an expectancy of what God may be planning. We anticipate God to move in unexpected ways. We are already seeing lives changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. People who haven’t attended church in years are attending regularly. Others are being challenged by God to use their talents for His Glory. We see families being blessed and hear an excitement in people’s voices.

We feel the love of these folks, the warmth of the Holy Spirit and the call of the Lord upon our lives. Truly we are living the dream. This dream is inspired and placed in our hearts by God. Everything that has happened and is happening is God’s plan. I am 66 years old and at the stage in life where some would say it is time to start winding down, to take it easy and to let someone else do it. Yet, I feel more energetic, more enthusiastic than I have ever felt in my life. I feel as though right now, at this time in history, is the reason I was born. I feel as if there is no expiration date on me.
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We were voted in and took over duties as Pastors of Sunrise Baptist on January 1, 2019. February 6th, I went for a routine doctor’s appointment and was not allowed to leave and ended up having open heart surgery. (Triple Bypass). I cannot even start to tell you how “exciting” that turned out to be. After surgery, while I was healing in the hospital, I had a nurse say to me, you are doing much better than we could have expected. I had many opportunities to speak of God’s part in my healing process. It is because of this I can honestly say God was there in the middle of everything. I believe God used that time to start melding people’s hearts together. I was amazed by all the people who came to visit. They came at all hours and this is especially telling as I was at Dartmouth in Lebanon, NH, a good distance from Allenstown. I even had visitors who came after a full day of work, arriving as late as 8pm and staying for about an hour.

As I mentioned above, I believe God has called us for this time, at this place. There are people coming to help who I would have never expected. I believe God is calling these people to come alongside. I believe this is how God works. We are expecting and praying God will give us opportunities and wisdom in reaching our community. We want to be a true church of the community, reaching out to those in need and sharing the hope of Jesus Christ. We want Sunrise Community Church to be a lighthouse to this community. We are all about Grace, Forgiveness and Acceptance. We want this church to be a place where people can feel safe. Where they can feel the love of Christ lived out through real people. People with problems of their own, not perfect people, but people who have been forgiven and are honestly trying every day to live more like Jesus. I believe we are at the beginning of a long adventurous journey, led by God and we are excited to be an instrument He is using to draw others into His Kingdom.  

Our hearts are full.
Robert Bowden