January 24th - Update in Dallas

On January 14th, the Dallas/ Ft. Worth Area (DFW) had a "Meet and Greet" with Clarke Cayton of Responder Life. This was the first chance for the leaders of Responder Life's DFW team to be in the same place at the same time as well as meet Clarke. They met at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX and spent the entire morning sharing testimonies with each other and praying for each other. It was very gripping to be in the room and seeing and hearing what Christ has done in each one of our lives. There were also two members from Waken Ministries (A close Partner and advocate of Forge Dallas, a ministry founded by Alan Hirsch) that we will begin to partner and work with in 2012 to better equip our ability to reach others to the Gospel here in the DFW Area. After, we took a tour of American Euro-copter in South Grand Prairie compliments of Area Director John Cogburn (John is the Sr. Director of Legal Services for American Euro-copter). 

One of the those present was Mick Moffitt. Mick is currently the CEO of Training Division, an online fire training academy. Students take most of their course work online then attend the academy in person for a 2 week boot camp. During the boot camp, students are there 24/7 and are given a final "crash course" in their training. Mick teaches a "Character is in Fire Service" class and talks about his "7 Pillars of the Fire Service" concept during the boot camp in order to bring up a generation of Firefighters with good moral character. Training Division has students coming from all over the country and Canada and puts through at least 2-3 times the amount of students than a normal fire academy. Mick has invited us to speak about Responder Life during the boot camps, potentially spreading Responder Life across the country and the world through this partnership alone. Of course, the movement has already begun throughout much of North America, but this should speed things up and get the word out more. Thanks Mick for giving us this opportunity and for your devotion to bringing up a generation of firefighters with good morals!

Lastly, DFW Responder Life have been invited to become part of the Annual Men's Conference for Gateway Church in Southlake, the Alpha Summit. Gateway has a congregation of over 18,000 members (no... that's not a typo) so we could have the potential to reach hundreds of First Responders in this one event. This year they will have speakers Bill Hybels, Perry Noble, Tim Ross, Jim Munroe and Todd McIntyre. You may visit the site of the conference at http://thealphasummit.com/. Gateway has given us a booth in what they call the outreach room. The purpose of the outreach room is to get the men of Gateway involved and serving in ministries. The invitations are only given to Gateway's trusted partners in ministry, so this is a tremendous opportunity for RL DFW! Thank you Chris Green, John Cogburn, and Ron Butler, for building and developing this relationship with Gateway!

The movement of Responder Life is definitely alive and well in DFW! May God continue to bless us as we reach out to the hearts and minds of First Responders and their families. I know this will not only transform our First Responder culture, but will pour out into our communities as well!

Be safe and God bless!

In Him,

Scott Spaulding, Regional Director of Texas