Too much to say

It’s a VERY busy time in our church family, too much to blog about. But we would definitely appreciate your diligent prayers during a heavy time. Tara Patterson’s little girl Bailey will probably pass away very soon. This Wednesday through Monday we have another couple of prospective team members coming to visit.

Growing pains, kids choir, and loving it

There is little value in counting visitors, but “returning visitors” are entirely different. In other words, it’s not a big deal for people to visit our church. We’re just another of the Christian options in this area. It is a big deal for them to come back after they discover just how different our church is from the other options in the area. All that to say … in the last few weeks we’ve had four “returning visitor” families, which is very exciting for us. Last Sunday we had our highest attendance in several months.
There are plenty of growing pains, especially for a “portable church.” We just replaced our banners and spent several thousand dollars to upgrade our sound system. We’ve purchased more chairs. And it wasn’t very long ago that we upgraded to a larger trailer – which we have nearly filled already. The biggest difficulty is that all of those things are so expensive. But the Lord has provided to allow us to take all the steps we’ve needed to take so far.
Yesterday our new kids choir sang for the first time. Adam & Kristi Lee have done a great job working with the kids. It was really thrilling for me to watch and listen as they sang. It’s such a great opportunity to influence them toward godly music, and build a church music program from the ground up.
Despite my use of the term “growing pains,” we are definitely loving the privilege of serving here! It is very exciting to be part of what the Lord is doing.

More Team, Part 2

We had a good visit with Mike Huguet this weekend. We are excited that he is making his plans to move to the Menifee area and be a part of our ministry beginning this summer. We also have two other young men coming to visit March 28 – April 2. I know they would each appreciate your prayers that God would give them His direction in these major decisions.
I barely averted being seated on a jury for a criminal trial this week. So the Lord was gracious – I only missed a day and a half instead of the four days it could have been. Maybe there is hope for Sunday’s sermon! Contrary to my expectation, I am thoroughly enjoying preaching through the life of Jacob. It is a four-thousand year old story of how God humbles someone to bring them to a point of grateful dependence – and it is so relevant it almost hurts!

More “team”?

Over the next couple of months we have three individuals or families coming to visit who are considering moving to this area to be part of our church family and serve the Lord here. I would appreciate your prayers for them as they seek the Lord’s will. Of course this is very exciting for us, but we just want what God wants for them.
We are in the middle of a sound system upgrade which is taking a lot of time for audio newbies like us!