Step Out Program - Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative from the Department of Labor

I wanted to add a shot of my team that works the Step Out Program with me. Curtis, Donna, and Michelle work with released prisoners to help them get stable employment, healthy home environments, and plugged into a strong church community. They do such an amazing job and work tirelessly to ensure the success of their clients and their clients' families. (Not pictured is Colleen, the number one administrative assistant in the history of the Step Out Program in Baton Rouge - ever! I will get a pic of her up soon.)

Our focus for this Department of Labor Federal Grant is to help be a "safety net" for our clients who are often released with the clothes they came in on and nothing else. Our success will impact the lives of our clients and their families, the communities to which they return, and our workforce in the state of Louisiana. We are excited about working with our clients for the upcoming year. Please keep my team and our clients in our prayers as we hope to impact over 200 families from now until March 2007.

Women of Destiny March Blowout

The Women of Destiny Ministry at DCC held their March 2006 Blowout last night in D'ville and the turnout was amazing. They refused to let the men top them. 103 women showed up to hear an inspired teaching by Pastor Mark about waiting for a true man of God to come into their lives. After the teaching the women enjoyed a "pot luck" dinner. Along with the 51 kids and 10 staff, we had over 160 people for a Life Group meeting at the Dream Center!

My wife, Elizabeth, and her team, Alicia Bennett and Mary Nicholas, have done an amazing job raising up, encouraging, and developing women leaders in Donaldsonville and the surrounding areas. The Women of Destiny Ministry has met weekly for the past year and a half and always averages over 60 women per meeting. Her team works hard with volunteers from the area to put on amazing services that have the women of D'ville buzzing with the excitement and expectancy of the move that God is doing in their city. Elizabeth has anywhere from 5-15 ladies who come and volunteer their time and talents throughout the day to make sure that everything at the Dream Center is run with excellence and as unto the Lord. That is really cool that so many people just come to volunteer their services on a daily basis.

The women were also excited last night to know that the Mighty Men of God had a strong turnout the previous night. They have been praying for the men of the city to rise up and lead God's Dream Center Church into the next level of what God want to do.

Elizabeth thanks everyone that has helped and prayed for her team and her and asks that you continue to pray for them as they press on to a deeper level of ministry and relationship in this hurting area of Louisiana. She also invites anyone to come and visit our weekend services - Saturday nights at 6 p.m. and Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. We will also begin Life University on Wednesday nights starting next week at 6:30 p.m. The experience will bless you and your family and you will not forget when you see all that God is doing at the Dream Center.

DCC Mighty Men of God - 2006 Father & Son Blowout

The Dream Center Campus had an amazing celebration last night for the Mighty Men of God ministry. We had 85 men and young men attend a night of worship, games, teaching and fellowship. This night was organized by campus pastor Bryan Melancon and his team of leaders who worked many hours to make this event huge. The theme of the night was "Fishers of Men." Scripture passages with references to being "disciples" and being "fishers of men" were posted throughout the church. We also asked the men to bring their sons with them. The night was a great success.

We had many first time visitors and gave away fishing poles, tackle boxes and even a fishing trip with Pastor Mark Stermer. Wayne Wemberly led the worship team to start out the night and set the tone for what would be a great night for our men. I did the announcements and encouraged the men to get involved in a few key areas:

- The Building on the Rock Ministry led by Kevin Lalonde. This ministry goes throughout the community of Donaldsonville every Saturday morning and performs home repair and maintenance for those in need. We really need 10-15 guys from anywhere to commit one weekend per month to helping the needy of our church community.
- Life University starts at DCC starting next Wednesday. This will be a tremendous opportunity to go deeper with God. We will have worship and then in depth teaching about growing in the Word of God.
- Free guitar and drum lessons at 3 p.m. every Saturday at DCC.

Pastor Mark taught about now being the time for the men of DCC to step up to take the church to the next level. The men were excited and encouraged by the message. After the message from Pastor Mark, the men enjoyed baked chicken and beans and some great fellowship.

The men's ministry of DCC will be having blowout meetings on the final Thursday of every month this year. The theme of the next event will be rolled out to our leaders the first week of April.

What a week...so far!

We celebrated the wake of Marcus Johnson last night and the funeral today(I added a picture for you to see how cute he was). In all over the last 4 days we estimate to have had over 1,000 people come through the doors of our church...and we are not done yet. We have Refuge Youth Ministry tonight where we have been averaging between 70-80 young adults who want to go deeper with God. Tomorrow night we will have a huge Mighty Men's ministry blowout. The theme for tomorrow night is "Fishers of Men" and men are encouraged to bring their sons along with them. Then on Thursday, the Women of Destiny are having their monthly blowout celebration. Those 2 nights will have anywhere from 150-200 more people visiting the Dream Center.

We might have over 1,200 visitors come into the doors of the Dream Center for events and services. Can you say Jesus Revolution?

We are excited and the staff talked today about our willingness to labor if God wants to have a revival here - we want to make sure that we count the cost because God just might answer our prayers. And we all know that his answers are much greater and larger than our wildest dreams.

Keep us in your prayers. I hope to have pictures of the next 3 nights.

The Shed

Posted by Elizabeth Demarest



This story has captured my heart and the reason why we do what we do in Donaldsonville as part of Healing Place Church:

I heard a rumor going around in the community about a girl who got beat up by her "boyfriend." Now, it's sad to say this, but physical abuse is very common and thus we usually do not visit people who are abused as spouses. There are too many cases for us to go around the community so we help the ones that come to us. For some reason the staff and I felt compelled to go after this particular young lady. We've never met her but we knew we needed to find her. After a few phone calls and asking around we found out where she was living.

I did not know what to expect when we arrived. I have been working in D'ville for 4 and 1/2 years and it seems like there is always something new happening. I drove up knowing that I just needed to totally rely on God. I was really afraid of her rejecting our help.

We walked into the house where the girl was staying and she was lying on the couch, tall and slim and 5 months pregnant. She had yet to be to the doctor to check on her baby. Her lips were swollen, her head was cut with some scratches, and her cheek bone was fractured from her "boyfriend" beating her the night before. Her shirt still had the blood on the front as a reminder of the previous night. She was so determined to escape the night before that she did not have time to grab clothes. She also had her 2 year old daughther with her in diapers and with a lung infection so bad that the baby was breathing heavily.

I asked her if we could go to her house where she had been brutally abused to change and get some clothes and she told me that we could because her "boyfriend" was in jail.

As we arrived at the place I was in total disbelief. I saw what appreared to be a poorly built, small shed in the back of the house. I followed her as she walked toward the tiny little box and could not believe that she was going to show me that this was her home. The door was made out of plywood with a wooden latch. I could not believe what I was seeing. I have been in this community for many years and thought I had seen it all but nothing prepared me for this.

She was living in the shed with no running water, no bathroom, and little electricity run from the house in front. There was a small bed, a small TV and some pieces of furniture crowding up the remaining space. She went in and grabbed about five pieces of clothes for her and her baby. That was it. And the shoes that she grabbed did not even come close to fitting her feet - maybe 3 sizes too small.


I was in awe of the poverty and was moved for this victim of such abuse and such a degrading life.

We got her to her mom's house for the night. However, as if the situation could not get worse, the mom's boyfriend came home that night and put this young lady and her baby back in the streets. The next morning we all prayed that somehow we would find her and God answered our prayers.

We have started the process of helping this young lady get cleaned up and on her feet. It will take time to get her restored and healed both physically and emotionally. We are looking at getting better housing for her and her family right now. We have gotten her daugther to the doctor and are working on getting them both healthy.

This story describes to me what Jesus meant when he said,"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be release, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come." Luke 4:18-19.

Thank God for Healing Place Church in Donaldsonville, La. We love the fact that he has trusted us to be a healing place for a hurting community.

Intro to a new level of life and ministry

I am believing that this blog is another means of communicating the work my wife and I steward for the Kingdom of God here in Baton Rouge. We are both members of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge and are the campus pastors of the Donaldsonville Dream Center Campus.

(I am blown away at how much I want to post in order to get everyone caught up with what we actually do on a daily basis but that might take a while and I do not know if I will remember enough to make it worth reading.)


My wife is actually the ordained pastor and works everyday for the church in one of the poorest communities in our country. Donaldsonville is a small town with an average household income of $7 K per year. 2 grammar schools were shut down last year for "lack of students." This town is very poor. My wife has been working there for the last 5 1/2 years. I do not know anyone who deals with what my wife and her 3 staff members deal with on a daily basis. For example, we are actually beginning preparations for a funeral this weekend for a 2 1/2 year old boy who was killed yesterday by a drunk driver. We know that he is in heaven and that the mom had commited her life to Christ just 2 weeks ago. There is always something going on at the Dream Center.

I am working right now for the non-profit arm of our church for an organization called Church United for Community Development. I am program coordinator of the Prisoner Re-entry Initiative for the Department of Labor called "Step Out." My team consists of 3 case managers, one office assistant and me. We will work with over 200 families of released offenders over the next 12-15 months to help them get jobs, assist in housing options, reunite families, and encourage them to get into a strong bible based church. The program is in the beginning phases but is starting to pick up now.

I will fill more in later once this blog is up and running. Until then, pray for us.