June 12, 2010 – Johnston – Winnsboro, TX

Well, we’ve reached the mid-way point in year 10. To me, it is just as exciting and rewarding as it was the first time we served at the Havins Unit so many years ago. I guess you could say we serendipitously (the word of the week) found ourselves in a place where He needs us to serve. The rest is history and all glory goes to Him.
The overall general population…

May 22, 2010 – Coffield – Tennessee Colony, TX

It was a beautiful weekend to be on the road. Our journey, as always, was interesting and full of surprises ranging from an unlocked trailer door, to a battery scare, to a speeding ticket. You just never know what is in store with this group. Sometimes I wonder what might happen next! It is always interesting. It is big fun serving with From The Dust.

A total of 570 attended services…

May 1-2, 2010 – Hamilton – College Station, TX

It’s my turn to come up with the new word(s) of the week…Hirundo Rustica. Sounds like a delicious Italian dish on the menu at your favorite Italian restaurant…or maybe not. This is the name for 1 of 636 recognized (Texas Ornithological Society) bird species found in Texas.Our beautiful state is full of exquisite feathered creatures with names like Yellow-billed Loon, Blue Footed Booby, Wandering Tattler, and Bobolink. The Hirundo Rustica,…

Apr 10-11, 2010 – Boyd – Teague, TX

A special “Thanks” goes out to all at the Boyd Unit for a great visit. The staff and CO’s were extremely kind and helpful. Approximately 265 attended services on Saturday and another 175 on Sunday. We witnessed 18 responses to the Lord’s message.

Our lesson this weekend focused on and emphasized the Word and its ability to change us when verbalized and lived out. As Mitchell explained, there is something about…

About

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
We began our journey in October 2000. It was around this time that the Lord began to put a desire in our hearts to step outside our comfort zone of ministering in local churches and reach out to the lost. Through some special circumstances, Pat, Kevin, and Yvette found themselves in a recording studio to lay down three songs as a demo. It was through this recording process that they knew they were onto something special and …from the dust was created.

As the band started coming together, we just knew that we would soon be playing at local churches, for youth festivals, etc…but God had something else in mind. In that first year, through a relative of Pat’s, we were invited to go and play at a prison. At first we were very apprehensive, but after spending time in prayer, we decided that this was a door that the Lord had opened. It was out of obedience that we needed to walk through that door and what an incredible experience it turned out to be! Little did we know that this was the road that the Lord had in mind for us to travel.

Through that first performance at the prison word began to spread through the prison system about the band. As surely as God was gently blocking the path to performances in churches, He was opening the doors of the prisons around the North Texas area so that today, the prison system is pretty much the only place we play. Kevin states, “Yea, it took a while for us to figure out what God had in mind, but He finally got it through our hearts and our heads that the prison system is where He wanted us. Believe it or not, we feel at home there and wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.”

WHERE WE CAME FROM

…from the dust is of a group of people whom the Lord brought together to help them realize that those that move away from their faith or decide to simply turn their backs on God are in serious trouble. Each member of the band spent years playing the club and bar scene and living the lifestyle that goes along with it. We searched for years trying to find the answer in life that would fill that emptiness in our souls. “You have to understand, the lifestyles we were living with the club scene weren’t necessarily our ’sins’, but were symptoms of what was going on in our hearts. We were desperately looking for something real, something to satisfy that hunger in our hearts that the world failed to give us,” states Kevin. It was only when we encountered the love of Jesus Christ and totally surrendered to His will, did we find the answer that we had been searching for all those years.

WHERE WE ARE GOING

Today …from the dust continues to minister to those in need in the North Texas prison system. Our mission is very simple. We want to:

· Be effective to bring forth God’s power of change?· Be used to help others look in the mirror and ask if they see more of themselves or more of Jesus?· Bring God’s message to dying hearts so that they will be renewed, revived, and transformed into what God wants them to be

Pat summarizes the ministry this way – “It is by God’s grace that we are here at all. Scripture tells us that God’s plan is not our own and He makes use of our mistakes. We stand amazed at the freedom of His truth and how He shows us the way to eternal life with God. As we seek to live for God, His truth frees us to be what God meant us to be.”

So here we are with our crosses before us, knowing that Jesus is the only way to God the Father. Many say the road is too narrow. We believe it is sure and wide enough for the entire world. God’s love is total. It is deep enough, wide enough, long enough and high enough for everyone. This is what we believe. This is who we are. Our prayer is that our music will send God’s message to dying hearts so that they too will be renewed, revived and transformed into what God wants them to be.
…from the dust is Kevin (bass guitar, background vocals), Pat (drums, percussion), Yvette (lead vocals, keyboard), Mitchell (lead guitar, speaker), John (sound), and Chris (sound).