New Jersey – Peter Gowesky

In Faith in Real Life

Your Message in a Bottle

September 16, 2013 No Comments

The other day I was out spearfishing in an undisclosed location of New Jersey. (Somewhere on the Northern Tip of Barnegat Light) I was out hunting around for a big 19+” black fish, a massive doormat of a fluke, or even the elusive triggerfish. As I was diving down I was taking note of how beautiful everything was around me. The day was just gorgeous, the sun was out, and the water was clear. Yes I know. I am talking about New Jersey water. It can be clear people! Since I have my clamming license, I always bring a mesh bag with me and collect some mussels along the way. My wife, Tiffany, can cook up some mean Mussels Marinara and boy do we enjoy that! I took a dive down and ended up grabbing some really nice sized mussels. On my way up I noticed a small water bottle floating along with me. At first I didn’t pay it much attention, but then I thought, “come on, what is with people and throwing their garbage into the water? I guess I’ll fish it out and recycle it.” As I swam nearer to it, I noticed that inside the bottle was a neatly rolled up piece of paper, a few pebbles and some sand. I stuffed it in the top of my wetsuit and didn’t think much more about it.

When I got home I told the kids what I had found and we opened the bottle together and read the message. Here’s what it said:

I’ve never found a message in a bottle before. Have you? When I think about a message in a bottle I think about two movie’s, Message in a bottle starring Kevin Costner, and An American Tale. Clearly I’m revealing my age. Remember when Fievel Mousekewitz falls off the boat and ends up being washed around in the bottle?

I’ll be honest, I was a little dissapointed by the contents of the message. I was at least hoping to find out that I was going to be the reason someone was rescued off a far off island, or maybe it would be an ancient love letter, or who knows. But alas, I didn’t.

So, what would you write? What would your message in a bottle be? Let’s imagine together you are stuck on an island and this is it. You have one piece of paper and one bottle left. What message would be so important that you had to write it down and cast it into the ocean?

Let’s hear em!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Chapters, Journeys, and other such things…

March 13, 2012 2 Comments

For four and a half years I have served as the Student Ministries Pastor at First Baptist Church of Doylestown. There have been times when we have laughed so hard that I cried. There have been times when I have flat out just cried. There have been times when we stayed up all night. There have been times when we served our community and the communities around us. We have seen God break through in the lives of countless students and truly be their Lord and savior. I have been given the privilege to work alongside of some really gifted individuals that love God and love others. I have had an opportunity to train and mentor others. I have learned new things about leadership, students, volunteers, myself, and God. It has been an incredible journey.

God has blessed me abundantly more than I could have ever dreamed He would.

It is with a contemplative spirit that I write the ending to this chapter in our history. I am thankful for all that God has done in and through us here at First Baptist. We are truly excited for the future. We are excited to dream about what God is going to do in and through us as we follow Him. The future is filled with unknowns for us. But whose future isn’t? So we will walk by faith, knowing that God has never left us hanging, never let us go, or ever turned His back on us.

Some of you have been asking what I will be doing in the future. I am excited to share with you that I have the opportunity to continue to serve alongside of great men and women. I will be working at Liquid Church in New Jersey. I will be working at the Morristown Campus. For those of you into details, I will be working as an Associate Campus Pastor. I’m super excited to figure out what that exactly means. I know one thing, I will be able to continue to lead people to life and growth in Christ and partner with others as they explore their journey of faith. Stay posted to the blog for more info of what I’m doing in life and in ministry!

Now onto the good stuff:

This past Sunday was my last Sunday here at FBC. The church was incredibly generous in praying for us, thanking us and being a huge blessing to us. So to all of you from FBC, THANK YOU! We love you all dearly. I had the opportunity to preach, to laugh (thanks Bob Miller), and to pour my heart out. Then later that day was my last youth group. What a great night! There were some highlights for sure. I loved being able to share with students the one thing I want them to remember: To Love God, and To Love Others. We concluded the evening and my ministry here at FBC with a baptism service. I could not be more proud of these six students! Each of them had a story to tell about what brought them to this point and why they wanted to be baptized. We cheered, hollered, screamed, and whistled in celebration of our six friends who decided to make a public statement that they are following CHRIST!

The pictures tell it all!

To all of the students at FBC, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your pastor. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for partnering in the kingdom mischief, I pray that you will keep it up. I’m super proud of all of you! God has great things in store for you.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Sand in my cuticles…

July 28, 2008 3 Comments

Today we went to the beach with the Junior high. The beach is one of my favorite places to be, pretty much anywhere near a body of water. It was a great day, we had a great group of kids come, and I really enjoyed spending time with each of them. We swam, laughed, played cards, ate lunch, fought off pirating seagulls, laughed some more and all around just enjoyed the beach. It was quite the day. We went to Island Beach State park where we found great weather but not warm water. The water temp was 55 degrees. That is cold for those of you who don’t know it. That is ice cold. That is also really strange for the end of July. Anyhow, we had a great time. I enjoyed the sand between my toes, and sand sticking to the back of my bald head. Everyone seemed pretty intrigued by that. It’s the small things in life.

Today actually brought back a flood of memories for Tiffany and I. It brought us back to our old church, our old youth ministry, our old home, our old life pretty much. We lived about 30 minutes south of where we were today. Every week we used to get our students together for “Beach and Bible” (I doubt any explanation is necessary…) I have only the greatest of memories of those days. Today was filled with throw back moments. It reminded me of those days.

Ed, one of our student leaders, reminded me today that if Al Gore is really right, it won’t be too long before Doylestown is beach front property and I will have the sand between my toes yet again. If that’s the case, and global warming pans out Beach and Bible could thrive again. Gotta love Ed.

Where is your favorite place to be?

~Peter