Click for Pictures of Setting Manual apart as an Evangelist!

May 4, 2008 – Bar-B-Q Picnic – 110 Year Homecoming & Going Away Party for: Staff Sergeant Manuel Santiago who was presented to the Church for special prayer before his deployment to Iraq.

Sunday May 11 2008: Staff Sergeant Manuel Santiago is set apart as an Evangelist by the Main Street Church of Christ with a mission field of the U. S. Army in Iraq. (The following is a transcript):

“Come forward Manuel and stand right here. . . We are going to ask the church to please rise. If you approve setting Manuel apart as an evangelist of the Main Street Church of Christ, please be seated. Let the record reflect there was 100% approval. These men here in front approve or they wouldn’t be up here to set him apart. So we thank the Lord for that . . . Manuel has baptized three in the last month and two yesterday.  I’m an idiot for not setting him apart a year ago. Isn’t that amazing! He’s got that spirit of soul winning and I’m just all for him . . . So now while we,  all of us collectively pray for him, I ask that the audience also pray for Manuel that the Lord will set him apart unto this duty that he now has, not only as a minister of the Main Street Church of Christ, but as to his responsibilities as a Staff Sergeant in the Army.   He has been called up to active duty and will be going to Iraq soon. I know that you all promised last week to pray for him every day that he is gone and we know that you will do that . . . Let every head be bowed and every eye closed.  Let us focus our minds to God in behalf of Manuel.  Lord, we come to Thee in behalf this morning of Thy child Manuel Santiago who has served here for a couple of years now, Father, as a student evangelist. Lord, you know how he has worked with his own hands as a Dart Bus Driver, paying his own way and even giving and supporting this congregation. You have seen him feed the poor, drive the van and take the poor and widows home. Lord, you’ve seen his study of Your Scriptures and you know that he has completed many college courses and that he is really studying and applying himself . . .

Holy Father, we have a problem down here . . . Manuel was a soldier before he became a Christian and we have been praying and asking you to deliver him from this obligation that he has for over a month now and asking for You to make him a Chaplain in the Army. Father, you know in the National Guard, he was a cook but now in the U. S. Army they want to make a “Fire Team Leader” out of him and a Squad Leader. If  you have other plans for him, Father . . . it’s now up to You . . . You must deliver him from this responsibility as a fighting soldier to another assignment . . . if that is your will in his life. If it is your will that he go forward as a Squad Leader and be in combat, then we pray that you protect him and surround him with a hedge of thorns and return him whole to us. Father, please give him courage and a clear head to lead his men and to stop the killing. Yea, Holy Father, we pray for our enemies that all of them with murder and madness in their hearts that they might hear of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and come to know Thee, God.  Bless Manuel as he goes forward now as a minister of Christ, to tell all that he meets of Jesus Christ. Help him to bear much fruit to the praise and glory of Thy Son. It’s in Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Be seated, please . . .”

The Minister then preached a sermon on: “The Peaceful Nature of the Kingdom of God and the Church of Christ as is taught in Isaiah 2 & 11.”  A page on our website with pictures of the above has been dedicated to S. Sgt. Manuel Santiago. The audio recordings of all the above will be broadcast @1630 AM Radio 5-18-08 @ 11 AM & 9 PM & they will be posted on the web by 5-21-08 @ www.mainstreet-churchofchrist.com