Church Planting, a Whole New World

Well this past year has been quite the year for us.  We have been up and down & back and forth about SO many things.  Schools, Church, To build or not to build, adding to our family, and much more.  It was the first time I really had NO idea about what to do in any of these situations.  Each choice & decision we had to make was preceded by much prayer. "God what do YOU want us to do?"

Back in January after much prayer my husband and I felt The Lord tell us to build in a city 30 minutes north of our current location.  Which is a BIG risk, it's a different county, different schools, different people...It also meant we would have to switch churches.  I always pictured our family growing up at our previous church.  We loved it there, we loved the people, they are so caring and uplifting, they preach the word, it's just a great place to raise a family!  So we really prayed hard to be sure God was telling us to build so far away & move away from all we know.

Once the doors finally opened for us to build, this summer, we felt we better try to find a place to worship closer to our new location.  We started attending church with my husband's brother & family.  We love the atmosphere & just the sense of unity in the body of Christ that was evident at this new church, but it just didn't feel like home.  We began praying, "God is this where you want us to serve?  Please show us where you want us."

In the beginning of Fall good friends of ours, the Roys, announced they would be starting a church, in the location we were hoping to find a church home in.  The couple never asked us to join them, they are so humble, they would never.  We know the heart of the Roys is that God will bring the people who are supposed to join them in this desire to start a new church.  While we were thrilled for our friends, we didn't want to just jump in and go do church planting when we weren't sure if that was what God wanted US to do.  And not to mention, we have a young family to focus on & have never helped in ministry just starting up.  How much could we offer?  How could WE help?  Are we ready for something like this?  We began to pray again, "God is this where you want us? We need wisdom & we know you have a specific place for our family."

In the past few weeks God has been confirming to Andrew and I both that He wants us to help.  Now the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to come together & why God is moving us to a new area.  Tonight was their first launch team meeting, we went to it and watched as God is starting to knit together this ministry for the glory of Jesus.

So we wanted to share that news with you.  That after much prayer we feel The Lord has led us to help do a church plant in our area, where over 700,000 people in the current county we live in are not in church.  I hope to give updates on our progress and share some really cool stories of God moving some mountains & splitting seas.  Please join us in praying for great things to be done through this church, and for our family & the other families involved as we all take this leap of faith into unchartered waters.  We are excited!