I was just five years old when I stepped foot in Restoration Church for the very first time. I’ll never forget standing at the picture window of my parent's dining room, waiting and waiting for the church van to pick me up.  I was so excited to be old enough to attend the Wednesday night kids' group.  That yellow Chevy van eventually arrived, I hopped on, and I’ve been coming ever since.  I don’t know if you’ll believe this or not, but I’m just as excited today to come to Restoration Church today as I was thirty-six years ago.  I love worshipping with our band.  I love talking to teenagers and to grandparents.  I love seeing Jesus transform lives.  I love serving Him together.  I love every person that makes this Christ’s church.  I love this church.   It is so fun to give you our 2022 Annual Report.  God has been faithful, His Son has been saving, and His Spirit has been moving!  Please don’t ever forget this is a book of testimonies.  Everything in here is because of Jesus and it is for Jesus.  He gets all the glory.

Restoration Church, We love you.  Let’s reach Just One More.

Pastor Nate and Michelle

Lisa McFarland

I grew up in the church, but wasn’t taught or told I could talk to God directly nor that I could have a personal relationship with Jesus. The Holy Spirit was just part of the 3-in-1 God. I had no idea what it meant to be “saved”, “born again” or “anointed”. Although I believed in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, He was un-attainable, un-relatable and to be feared.  My relationship with God, as a father, was the same as a relationship with my earthly father/dad: dictatorship, feared, distant, and casual. I would pray to God, but through the saints, etal, and not speaking/praying directly to the Father. Not having a relationship with Christ made my life path was definitely a winding one; taking too many of the worlds’ side trails. I was caught up in the immorality of the world, looking for happiness in all the places that couldn’t give me true peace. I allowed fear and worry to be the signs on my path of life. I didn’t know who I was nor the wonderful, perfect path of destiny that God had planned for me.

I asked Jesus to be my Savior while attending an outreach, traveling ministry visiting the same church I grew up in San Antonio, Tx. in 1988. A member of the Celebrant Singers connected to me and after several conversations she led me to praying the prayer of salvation. BUT I still did not fully understand what it meant to be saved/born again. I still had my old ways of understanding what a relationship with God was in my life, to what extent a true relationship with Jesus was to be had.

I struggled with my identity, only looking at myself through the lens of the world: ugly, worthless, dirty, a failure. How could I be loved by God for the horrible things I have done. I went through years of depression. I studied the Bible, but still didn’t grasp the enormity of the words I was reading. It wasn’t until a few years ago, through the year of shutdowns, that I searched for and found other teachers, pastors and prophets of the Word, telling me that God wanted a relationship with me, that I learned that I could have a true, loving, spirit filled relationship with God. I now know what it means to have a relationship with God the Father, Jesus my Savior and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. My walk is not perfect but I know I am a redeemed, righteous daughter of God. Through the shed blood of Jesus, I no longer let immorality, fear and worry  control my spirit. I have seen the mighty works of God in my life through repaired relationships and finances, release from depression and worry and receiving the anointing of tongues, visions and hearing God. I look forward to daily spending time in the Word and talking with God. My spirit is now filled with God as He has given me His peace, His faith, His hope, His joy. For such a time as this God has freed me from the grips of the condemnation of my past. My walk may not be perfect, but I daily pray for God to lead me on the path of my destiny He planned for me. I know who God says I am – I am His loved daughter.

Jocelyn Soucy

I grew up attending church but never fully felt at home in a church. I grew up in Catholic and Episcopal churches. When you grow up attending those churches you are taught a “routine” not how to open your heart to Jesus. You never open a Bible or learn to even read a Bible. I never fully felt like I knew Jesus.

After having kids I went through the “routine” of having them baptized in the Episcopal church but we weren’t attending consistently. When we finally bought our own home in Gilford we started attending a Community church. They were of Baptist denomination. This is where I felt I started creating a closer connection with Jesus. My kids were active in church and were growing in their walk with God.

When Covid hit we sold our home in Gilford and moved in with family. Our son Easton had a traumatic birth experience which was scary. At this time I didn’t feel connected with God at all.

A year later I had just put Easton down for a nap and decided to put a movie on in the background while eating lunch. Fully unaware that the movie was a children’s Christian based movie. I stopped everything I was doing and watched this movie intently. It lit a fire in me and my entire family. My kids loved it, my husband loved it. This silly little movie brought us back to faith.

About a month later we closed on our dream house in a tiny little town we had never heard of. We started looking for a church in town but didn’t feel like they were right, so we waited. We got connected into our community and everything started falling into place.In January 2022 I started a deep dive into local churches and tried to find something that would work for us as a family.I found Restoration Church! I set a visit online and when we came that Sunday we were greeted by so many with smiles and welcoming arms. It felt like home almost immediately. Coming to Restoration has truly been amazing. I truly believe God has put us on this path and brought us to find great friends and an awesome church family.

Amanda Knowles

I started attending church when I was about 12, that church actually ended up being a cult. For as long as I can remember I've been a believer and I knew OF Christ but I didn't really KNOW him until these past few years. I treated him like the spare tire of the 88 New Yorker I used to drive. I knew it was there and if I got a flat I knew how to change a tire. But I recently learned that I shouldn't and honestly I couldn't live that way any longer. When I got a flat tire on a delivery for work on a busy highway I couldn't even get the tire out of the trunk. It had just about rusted to the car. There I was thinking I knew what to do in an emergency and now I couldn't even get to the tire. I was panicked!! Then someone pulled over to help me and they let me use their phone to call my job to say that I would be delayed. While they were helping me the owner of the house I was next to came out with a real car jack (like a NASCAR jack). So there were two people helping me and then a police officer pulled over to help keep the two men safe while they helped me get my tire changed. The tire got changed and I was so thankful and happy to go on my way, but.... I didn't release my emergency brake so the exit was a bit bumpy. It took me a long time to realize that I shouldn't just turn to God when my life goes flat. I need to go to him for everything and I also learned that (like my emergency brake) I need to beware AND be aware of things that want to keep me on the side of the road.