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nights giving this Bible study,” he said. “We did that for a year and God really grew it. We had about 30 people that were attending.” Eventually, Drew left the Monroe Police Department to serve in ministry full-time, and just a few years later, he accepted the pastorate of Faith Baptist Church, Lakev - iew, Florida. As the Florida/Ohio partnership grew, SCBO Southwest Region Catalyst Reagan Wagoner contacted Bill and asked if he was interested in having someone from Flor - ida preach one Sunday at Life Church. “I like preachers to come in and preach,” Bill said “I’ll preach three and give one to someone else to share.” Wagoner told Bill his guest preacher would be a former Monroe police officer. Bill says he got “Those Holy Ghost goosebumps. You start to get what’s going on.” According to Bill, he jokingly warned his church before Drew came to speak. “My wife is a police dispatcher, and I’m an ex-drug deal- er, so it’s a weird combination,” he said. “I told our peo- ple the Sunday before, if you have a warrant, maybe stay home next Sunday – a cop is coming to share.” However, Bill felt an instant connection to Drew as they shared a meal during their visit. “My buddy, Drew, was sitting next to us,” Bill said. “There were no other churches in the room, and they didn’t even put us together at first.”
Since their first meeting, Bill and Drew have stayed in contact through Facebook, developing their partnership. Their churches have a shared Facebook page enabling church members to get to know each other before they meet in person during a pair of reciprocal mission trips this August. God’s plan to bring them and their churches together has been overwhelming to both Drew and Bill. “God’s sovereignty is a gift that involves Drew and me coming together,” Bill said. “If I think about when I was in Trenton or Franklin, God was already orchestrating what he was going to in Monroe, Ohio, with me, who thought we were planting somewhere else. He just said, no, no, no, no, no, no, you need to be here. I have you here.” Drew agrees with Bill. “Here I am getting to partner our church in Florida with him, but also being able, it was just such an honor, to preach and help a church replant-revitalization work that my ministry started in just years ago. It was only God. Only God could have written that story.” For more information about the Florida-Ohio Partnership and how the Lord is using this cooperative effort, please visit http://go.scbo.org/FloridaPartnership to view our latest partnership video.”
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