Dedication of First Service

Tonight we want to dedicate this service to two special people, Riley & Barbara Brice. They were part of the founders of Builders for Christ and have been on every trip since 1981.  We met Riley the weekend before Katrina as part of the advanced team that came to establish a partnership with Jacob’s Well Church.  Riley returned to Eau Claire to help us plan our logistics for our first building.  Riley next returned to head the process that was used to build our current campus.  There are people who live here in the Chippewa valley here tonight who are going to heaven in part because of the work that Riley Brice did in planning, organizing, and laying out our building. Even now in heaven they are meeting people whose lives were touched because of the work Riley did. We will meet them someday, and we can tell them how their gift and service have touched us.

This week Riley and his wife Barbara went to be with the Lord passing away within 4 hours of each other. They had been married for over 50 years. Their passion for Christ and His church was evident in their life in service to Builders for Christ and their own local church, Brookwood Baptist Church.  Riley and Barbara are precious to the people who have worked on our building this week and so, for the last few days, they have served with heavy hearts; but they have honored the spirit of Riley and Barbara through building what we are standing in tonight. So while each Builders for Christ project is built with love, this building may have a little extra love as we remember these special people. It is all together beautiful and appropriate that these saints passed during the week of a Builders for Christ project. Riley’s heart is here with us celebrating the changed lives this new facility will mean.

So, tonight we dedicate this first worship service to the Glory of God and to the memory of Riley and Barbara Brice who lived their lives to the Glory of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our church Jacob’s Well is named after a story about a woman at a well in John 4. This woman came with a past, was alone, and was spiritually thirsty. She met Jesus at a place called Jacob’s Well and her whole life changed. That is the story for so many people. At the end of this passage Jesus tells his followers:

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
John 4:34-38