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August 2005 UPDATE
Dear friends & family,
Wow!!! God has been at work in some huge ways over the
past few weeks. Thank you for praying and making a
difference. I am extremely grateful that you are joining
with us in this step of faith. Here’s a quick overview
of what God has been up to and some additional prayer
concerns we have.
What is God doing?
1.
God has granted us favor in the eyes of the
Church Planting Commission (CPC) in the Classis of
Pleasant Prairie:
The CPC recently approved our requests to recommend to
the classis that Bridge of Hope be officially
acknowledged as a church plant in the RCA, that I be
called as a specialized pastor for the classis, and that
Bridge of Hope receive a $25,000 grant for 2006. Our
Classis meets on September 13 to act on these
recommendations. The grant, in particular, is a huge
deal for our classis, which has limited funds available
for church planting.
2.
God has given wisdom and clarity on important
decisions:
Those who get the prayer updates via email also
occasionally get urgent requests from me. This week I
sent a request
for wisdom and clarity regarding accepting a position with West
Music. I had come to the point of believing God was
closing the door, but then received the job offer with a
raise. Suddenly, I was reconsidering whether God was
opening or closing this door. In the end, it was clear
that 40 hours a week would be more harmful than good to
my family and BOH. The counsel I received consistently
raised this concern. Thus, I turned down the position at
West Music even though it would have greatly eased
anxiety over the finances of BOH. I am at peace and
trusting God will provide for our needs.
Our launch team also made a very important
decision this month.
We decided to move our Launch Team
Gatherings from Sunday evenings to Sunday mornings. We
began this on August 7!
3.
God has provided us a place to meet:
When
we made the decision to begin meeting on Sunday
mornings, we also concluded that it would be best to not
meet in a home. Thus, we began praying for a location.
For the immediate future, God opened the doors to two
facilities in which we could meet. Through some
friendships both McNelly & McKenna Photography and
Dyball Acoustics Inc. were made available to our group
for Sunday worship. Both have a medium sized area for
the adults, a smaller contained area for children and
both were offered free of charge!
As
many of you know, we have been planning to launch our
weekly celebrations on Super Bowl Sunday in the
Crossroads 12 Theatres. In June the owners announced
that they would be doing a major renovation project
which would shut the facility down for about 4 months.
It appeared this would be taking place from January to
March, which would really throw a wrench in our plans.
However, the owners announced on Aug. 2 that they would
be shutting down on Aug. 15 and reopening before
Christmas. This means we have the opportunity to launch
in a facility with a brand new lobby area and new
high-back rocker chairs.
Rejoice with us in the work God is doing.
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