We all have a past. Mine, like many of yours, is not that flattering. For many years I buried my pain and insecurity in alcohol. I partied hard, man. And it got me nowhere.

Recently a picture surfaced of me during this dark period of my life. Someone put this picture up on Facebook (and I’m not upset about it). I was about eighteen at the time, and though I look happy enough, there was so much darkness inside. It was during this period of my life that I almost committed suicide.

But God pursued me. And one day in 1998, He overcame me with His love and purpose and truth.

I’d like to post the link to the Facebook page and all the comments that were made about that picture. Some are just chit-chat, but others are meaningful. Read it if you have the time, and pay special attention to how, through this picture, I was able to share what Christ has done and encourage others to seek Him out.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=656286&id=1075820723&comments&fbid=1274018805333

If you can’t see the link (I’m no FB guru), here’s what I wrote about my life:

I just wanted to let you guys know that I lived the party scene for a long time and, in the end, it led me nowhere. My whole life was one big hangover.

When I finally hit bottom, I did something I used to laugh at others for doing. I opened the Bible. There I learned that there was a better way.

Since that day, over twelve years ago, my life has been radically transformed. I don’t need alcohol or parties anymore. Christ has given me a real purpose and shown me that he loves me freely and without condition. Don’t you want that in your life?

You may be at the bottom now too, just like I was. If you are, open the Bible to the gospel of John and start reading. I know it sounds strange, but there is truly something special about that book.

You can read about my story and listen to an interview where I talk about my life at this link: http://www.evidenceamerica.org/pages/about/our_founder.php.

Don’t settle guys. There’s a better way.

Wes

Hi everybody,

As many of you may already know, Kyle, Jay, and I just spent two weekends in Atlanta at Johnny Hunt’s Men’s Conference. We had one of about twenty vendor booths there. Our goal was to get our name out there and get some of our materials into the hands of the church.

Well God did more than we could ever have hoped!

We received over 100 new contacts and sold 100+ of my new book, Forcefully Advancing (you can check it out at the site: www.forcefullyadvancingthebook.com).

We did a lot better the second weekend. I think it was the improvement in weather (the first weekend was the big snow storm) and some changes we made to the layout of our booth.

People were so excited about us. We went down there with a few things against us. One, we aren’t a well known ministry (yet) and, two, I’m not a well known author. People have to trust you to invest in you and a big part of trust is just knowing someone for a period of time.

Even so, there were times when there were ten or twelve people in our booth looking at our resources. We were running around like chickens trying to get to everybody. (Kyle put up some pictures on our Facebook page. Check it out here.)

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Hey friends,

As you may know, at the end of the month we’ll be at the Johnny Hunt’s Men’s Conference near Atlanta. If you’ve going, please find our booth.

Wanted to show you some of the smokin’ images our new graphic artist, Chris Vestal, developed for various aspects of our booth.

Here’s a picture of the large 4′ W x 8′ L banner we’ll have hanging over our booth. Johnny Hunt, the President of the Southern Baptist Convention and organizer of the conference, has endorsed the book.

Here’s a vertical version that will sit on the floor (actually, we’ll have two of these).

And here’s the image for our large 8′ x 8′ booth display. This will sit at the back of our booth.

Thanks to all of you who helped make this possible financially and through your prayers.

Wes

As promised, here’s the TOC for my new book. Available through www.evidenceamerica.org on January 30, 2010. Check out the book website at www.forcefullyadvancingthebook.com for not only the TOC, but also excerpts, endorsements, and the first chapter.

Forcefully Advancing is due out on January 31, the end of next month, and you may be wondering what it’s all about. So, here’s the teaser that will appear on the back cover:

Forcefully Advancing Teaser–

Do you want to save America? Somewhere inside of you, deep down in the secret places, you know we’re getting dangerously close to our last chance, the last chance before the gavel of God’s judgment falls on our increasingly godless and perverse culture.

But you want to do something about it.

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