Things have been going well. On May 25th we had our first baptisms! Seven people signed up to be baptized and we had three who spontaneously felt compelled by the Spirit and they came up in their clothes and all! One girl I met afterwards said she was only in town to help a friend move, then she was going home to Illinois. They just so happened to attend MHC while she was here for the weekend and she got saved! Talk about providence. It was awesome to hear the testimonies of how God has moved in the lives of those who have suffered through major sin. He has healed people of addictions, lives of crime, expiated the torment of guilt and depression, it was so cool. It was also very encouraging.
This past weekend the downtown campus leaders got out of town for a couple days and spent a lot of time in prayer, strategizing and fellowship. I don't think Ive ever shared who I work with so Ill list them out now. This way you have names to pray for when praying for our church. This is the core ministry team: Tim Gaydos, Dave Kraft, Tim Reber, Eric Eberlien, Caleb Davis, Will Little, Nick Mangini, Wes Oaks, Jeff Bettger, and me. Anyways, we went away and talked about what we want Mars Hill Downtown to look like in the year 2020. We then reverse engineered it and developed some practical tangible ways we can see our hope happen. Ultimitly it will take being faithful to Jesus and His call for us to make disciples. This happens through relationships. We don't have a lot of 'programs,' we have a few and we do them well, the focus being relationship. If the ministry doesn't revolve around serving people, its a waste of time. We came up with some cool ideas and we may be starting a non-profit organization soon to minister to the poor of our community and serve the city. This would allow us to do things that as a 'church', which also non-profit, we cannot do.
Continue to be in prayer for us as in two weeks we will be hitting the half-way mark in my internship. I cant believe that six months has already blown by. God has been so faithful and we have been so blessed. We are still continuing to raise monthly support and praying for 'daily bread.' Our rent was raised this month to $1020, it is due on Friday, we still need $400.
Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. Feel free to give us a shout anytime!
grace, peace, and blessings to you!
Joel and Sarah
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1 comments:
You are in my prayers.
I enjoy reading your blog.
I want you to know that I am praying that God will bless you in ways you have never thought possible. Remeber that God is the God of the impossible. He joins us on the ash heap of life. He is with us during time of blessing and hardship. Again, you are in my thoghts and prayers!
I hope you have a wonderful week brother.
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