Today we’d like to introduce you to Raymond Keasler.
Hi Raymond, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Bumper sticker version, through a lifestyle of drugs, alcohol and just downright nastiness until I turned 40 years old when I was healed by the Lord and saved; June 11th, 2000!
After suffering from lung disease and extreme addiction, the New Me started following the Lord and His Word; the Bible. 14 years ago, spring of 2011, we were traveling evangelist and sitting on my back porch with plans to visit all the churches in our district to be an encourager to the pastors of those churches the Lord spoke to me, not orally but internally in my Spirit and told me to stay home. After some arguments on my side – how many knows you don’t win an argument with the Lord?
After a phone call from a dear friend of mine who knew me in my BC days called me and told me the Lord impressed him to call me and tell me two words, “Stay home'”
I took my Bible and sat down at my dinning room table and said, “Ok, Lord, what do you want me to do?”
He answered, “Pastor a church here in Granite Shoals.”
long story short, it only took a few days to convince my wife, Cricket and myself to follow the leading and say, “Yes.”
After studying the text of the Book of Acts chapters 1-4 for 6 months and receiving revelation from those chapters, I realized the design for the church in the Book of Acts was:
1st The church its a family
2nd They break bread together
3rd The fellowship together
4th The break Spiritual Bread together – the ministering of he Word of God
The Lord told me that was His design for our church and to step out.
October 11th, 20011 at our house we had our first Sunday morning service – there were only two of us, Cricket and myself.
The following week we doubled, the following week we doubled again and this continued for most of a year.
In December of 2012 the Lord said one word, “Building.”
The weekend after Easter 2013 we moved into the building we’re in now – we did this on faith because it had to be God to provide the provision for the vision.
IN the spring of 2015 we bought the property and then with a seed offering of $1,000 I named the seed for a financial blessing to the church.
2 weeks later I received a phone call from the lien holder who told me the the Lord had been dealing with his heart to release the lean, so, he did – we’ve been a debt free ministry since.
Over the 14 years we’ve seen a lot, we seen great things, good things and some not so good things but we’ve persevered through it all and Cricket and I grew from it.
We are now seeing a constant growth in people along with our outreach increasing.
We are connected to several helping centers including the ARC in Marble Falls, the Job Corp in Burnet along with a motorcycle ministry – The Guardians of the Children.
Our focus is the youth. There are too many kids and youth who are having a hard time with what’s going on in the world and we want to be able to support them, and give them a safe place to grow. WE are in the process of getting our permits to build our new Youth Center!
So, if there are more questions please give me a jingle!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
for the most part it has been smooth, but in any endeavor there are struggles. We’ve had the financial struggles, we’ve had the how do I say it, personality struggles, we’ve had the Spiritual struggles with the enemy trying to come in and stop the work we are doing!
but
“I count it all joy when I fall into diverse temptations”
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
this is a fun questions!
My first job at 16 was washing dishes at the Holiday Inn restaurant – lol. The next job was at EZCheck.
After graduating high school in Denton,Texas I went into the U.S. Air Force where I spent 4 years crew chiefing the amazing F-15A Eagle!
Unfortunately I had a fall, long story that shattered my wrist in 1979 which needed surgery – we didn’t find out until 2015 that I had also broke my neck which fused itself naturally. Because of these two injuries they awarded me 100% disabled.
From there being honorably discharged from the Air Force I went to work in the automotive industry; GM Dealerships where I started out as a Lube, Oil, Filter technician. That position didn’t last long when the service manage realized my mechanical aptitude.
I spent the majority of my business career in the automotive industry. Over the years from 1982 to 2002 I went from the LOF tech to Fixed Operations Directer in GM Dealerships. I managed the complete service and parts departments. I was a hired gun to turn these departments from losing money to making money which I did very successfully.
In the winter of 2002 I decided after the last dealership that I was done with the corporate world and went to my first love, restoring and building custom cars and motorcycles.
From 2002 until the end of 2015 I owned a custom car shop that morphed into a collision center in Marble Falls; KO Collision which sold in winter of 2016.
At that time we were also pastoring Abundant Heart Church.
Since March of 2016 we have been full-time Pastors.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
On the current growth of the church, we will have to build a larger facility on a larger piece of property. WE have goals of helping the children in the CPS system to overcome and become an asset to their community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://abundantheartchurch.org
- Facebook: Abundant Heart Church
- Youtube: Abundant Heart Churchh
