Saturday, August 21, 2010

August Update

Since the beginning of the summer it’s been quite busy for me:
● The landscaping job has kept me hard at it and worn out by the end of the day.
● I’ve been running roughly 20-30 miles a week to train for the Chicago Marathon in October (17 miles, the most I’ve ever ran, today!).
● For the past 3 weeks I’ve been traveling back and forth to Mt. Pleasant, TX for a job with Acoustic Emissions Consulting. One of the weeks, I was able to fly into Houston, TX for a weekend to visit Kris. He’s doing well in his job but told me it gets a bit lonely. He is still interested in planting a House Church but not on his own. He is currently going to his sisters church, which he tells me is a bit big and gets lost in the crowd.
● 4 weeks ago our House Church made the decision to branch out into two different locations. Since then it’s been great to see the different type of leaders come out and be who they are in the body. This has also been a good teaching moment about the body and why it’s so important to let Jesus lead as the head.
● The Tuesdays that I spend building relationships and praying with the staff of Life bridge has been very helpful. This past week I met up with one of the “evangelists” in our House Church to talk about a House Church Network. The idea is to provide the necessary resources of equipping and encouragement for those interested in being sent to start new House Churches. With an assessment strategy from Alan Hirsch’s APEST (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers) test and an online community to be connected wherever the Spirit takes us geographically. This will certainly need some prayer.
● Last weekend while there was construction being done along the sidewalk outside the church building, two huge rainstorms came through and flooded out the basement which is where the church gathers. We were already planning on doing some renovation but not to this scale. You take a look here for a video of the damage.
● For the past 10 days our church has had a booth at the Porter County Fair allowing kids to pull a sucker from a board and win a small prize. It’s been a good opportunity to meet new people and introduce ourselves to people all over Porter County. Last weekend we had the opportunity to host our church gathering Sunday at the fair for anyone to come and join us. This worked out perfectly since we were flooded in the basement. They also allowed us to meet there today!
● My mom found out a couple of weeks ago that her house is being foreclosed on. She had until this weekend to move out before it’s being auctioned off on the 3rd. She did find a place to move to and is in good spirits about the whole situation. Please pray for wisdom and wise choices to be made.
● I started playing soccer with the community parks league to meet some new people in the community. It’s been a good time and hopefully will lead to some new relationships. Please pray for that.
● Please also pray that I will continue to persevere where I’m at. It can be discouraging sometimes and a bit frustrating. My heart is not always pouring out God’s love and it can seem hopeless or even comfortable to be this way. Please pray that God will surround me with some present “great cloud of witnesses” to encourage and live the life with. Thank you for your love and support! josh