Ken Cooper

 Out of all those who have spoken in Discipleship Making and Equipping, Ken Cooper has to be living one of the most incredible testimonies. Living in Ohio most of his life, his first awareness of God was watching an Iranian hostage crisis when one of the American hostages thanked God for his situation. This spiritually leveled Cooper, and he could not comprehend how one could be so thankful.

Ken Cooper was a heavy drug user up until he got married and had a plan about getting into heaven. Like the thief on the cross, he would give his life to the Lord amongst his last breaths. He believed in this plan until he was following one of his friends home, who was on a motorcycle when a semi pulled out, hit his friend and killed him.  God spoke to him “it doesn’t work like that” – one cannot simply decided to give their life to the Lord the last moment of death, because no one knows the moment they will die. Unfortunately  this did not stick with Cooper.

Cooper was later divorced and within hours was at the same bar he had been at when he was twenty, doing drugs. Eventually it would cost him his job and he would have to go to rehab. He was forced to move, and eventually moved close to Glad Tidings. Ken Cooper began attending Glad Tidings and through seeing the workings of GT, and work put into such projects, he was so deeply moved. “He wouldn’t do that for God” he thought. He began to slowly turn his life around.

Now, Ken Cooper has been serving the Lord and is an amazing help at GT. He is a worker for the Lord. Ken Cooper is on fire for God and has a very intense passion for doing God’s work. Cooper, later on in life, gave a Kidney to what turned out to be another Christian, granting that woman new life. I thoroughly enjoy Ken Cooper’s passion for God and his amazing, hard working mentality for the church. 

George Krebbs

 Out of all the speakers we have had speak in Discipleship Making and Equipping, George Krebbs, for me, has been the deepest and most relatable speaker I have yet listened to. George Krebbs, like many, did not have a beginning with the Lord. He mentioned that his father had only been to church twice, that was his and his brother’s dedication as children. Growing up George faced some challenging experiences at a church he was invited to which involved him being laughed at because he didn’t know what a “scripture” was. This left a bad taste in George’s mouth, and It would be a while until he was back in a church once more.

Goerge explained how he got into drugs with this one particular friend, Pete. Pete left the school they were attending, and later returned, but not at all a druggy, but a Jesus-Freak. George expected him to be “pushy” with his newfound Christianity, but found the opposite. Later on, like many of such era, George was watching Billy Graham speaking about reading one’s bible. This spoke deeply to George, and George began just that. A while later George found himself in a church, and eventually being discipled by the head pastor (being that he liked his daughter). George exclaimed that it was the way the pastor lived that witnessed most to him. He was Christian inside the church and out.

Now, George has been serving the Lord for many years. George is also a fishing guide, and he likens his fishing talents the same as fishing for men.  What I enjoyed so much was his method in discipling. His method was not a “throw out the biggest net and see what you catch,” but a very much one-on-one disciplieship, often time spent with those he fished with. Numbers was not a big deal to George, only that single lost soul he was loving on, and working with. It was George’s method of discipleship that spoke to me so greatly, and also the testimony that he is facing now in his life with the battling of his wife and cancer. Any man that goes through such trials as one’s he is currently facing, and can still praise Jesus with the utmost honor has my deepest respect. Life is challenging, and he is moving through some of the most challenging trials.

It is the kind of man that George Krebbs is seen in his method of discipleship and his attitude now as he travels through some of the toughest roads anyone can know that make him one of the most genuine, true and God-fearing men I have listened to. 

Deb Bube

Listening to Deb Bube, Leadership Development and Director of Creative Arts at Glad Tidings Assembly, I am more and more impressed with the inner workings of Glad Tidings and the people that help bring everything together, and help Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings come to fruition. I enjoyed Deb’s simple yet very truthful lessons in working with volunteers, such truths that can and seem to be easily forgotten in the workings of ministry: “If people are going to be involved, it needs to be fun” and also “It can be spiritual and fun at the same time,” simple and yet so true. All to often and quickly can the volunteer job become just that: a job, and it loses its meaning and value, but keep it fun and spiritual, put those with gifts where they belong, and it will go such a long way.

I was also blown away by the amount of volunteers that are needed to ‘run the show.’ Around 150 are needed at Glad Tidings, in many, many different areas. One can understand such a high number with that greatness in number that attend, 2400, but in my world, 150 is a decent size church, let alone the group that volunteers for a church. Being from New England, we deal with a different ‘ball game,’ but while we may have less in attendance, the truths that Deb Bube presented on volunteering can work with any church, and size. Keep it fun, and keep is Spiritual.