Here we are again, one month later. I'm glad I didn't make a New Year's resolution to post blogs more often or I would have already broken it : ) . Time truly flies when you are in over your head.
Blackfoot Christian Fellowship Updates
Things are moving right along, we continue to see new faces and have repeat visitors. I'm still trying to figure out how to make sure that we can retain and disciple the ones that are here.
We will be starting small groups in the month of February and we'll start with a series that I know y'all are familiar with - North Point Community Church's - Christian. It's an exciting new venture for the church and a great way to get our melting pot connected.
I mentioned in my last post that Claire is getting baptized tomorrow, which means that Papa and Gram are here. I thought that she might be the only one who was going to get baptized, but we have a one more tomorrow and perhaps another two in a couple of weeks! This is exciting because its more proof that God is doing something great here. As a church we have "required" people getting baptized to record a video telling their story. It's an extra step and it can be uncomfortable for some people, but the impact on the church is incredible. It's amazing how much some people's stories resonate with other's in the church.
Tomorrow the other person getting baptized is a young lady named Shanea (Shay-na), whose story is incredible. Honestly she should be dead in a gutter somewhere. She was abandoned here in Blackfoot by her "boyfriend" at a gas station as they were passing through town. The gas station just happens to be owned by a family from the church and they helped here get connected to the Crisis Center and Angela brought her to church the next Sunday. That day she accepted the Lord as her Savior and two weeks later she is getting baptized. Please pray for her because she has a long road ahead, but God is good.
We now have 90 kids enrolled at AWANA and more come almost every week. It's going really well, we just need more volunteers to make it happen. Same story different church right, we all need volunteers. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest because he will provide them for both of us.
Last Sunday I started a series on prayer using the Lord's Prayer out of the book of Matthew as our guide. A while back I felt very that I needed to spend more time in prayer and I started reading more about it in the Bible and I in my morning devo time. It's been really good and I know Satan doesn't like it because there are lots of trials that have been coming this way.
I also started an early morning prayer group that simply "prays the scriptures." Did you know that there are somewhere around 3000 +/- promises in the scriptures and when we "remind" God what he promised like Moses and David and approach the throne of grace with confidence we will receive mercy and find grace in our times of need (Heb 4:16). Don't worry I'm not going off the rails with the prosperity gospel : ), it's simply an effort to know the scriptures better.
On The Homefront
Claire is getting baptized and I need to say thank you to many of you who have been praying with us for her for years, and to those of you helped teach her specifically (Doug Elliot, Lesley Sander and Kathy Ruckdaschel) we are so grateful to your faithfulness to the Lord for loving our family. Just in case you're wondering, Claire prayed to receive Christ several years ago, but we wanted her to ask to be baptized, we wanted it to be her decision and so this is so exciting for us. I know it's got Daniel asking questions now! I think that you'll be able to watch the baptism on the website www.blackfootfellowship.org
Homeschool is going well. The kids are very smart, what else would I say, and I'm sure they have the normal challenges of sometimes not wanting to do certain subjects, but they seem to be heading in the right direction. Please pray for Kate as she teaches them and ask God on her behalf for wisdom, patience, and discipline as mommy and teacher.
Please pray for Kate and I, as there are so many things going on with the church that I'm stretched pretty thin right now and I need to make sure I'm not giving Kate and the kids my left-overs. We will celebrate our 14 anniversary in about a month (hard to believe) and of course I'd do it all over again, but I'm not sure I ever guessed this is where we'd be or what life would look like.
Finally, we're excited to again cheer for the Seahawks in the Super Bowl and we'll miss the incredible Barney party and all the craziness that goes along with it. Wish we could be there for that, but I guess we'll have to start a new tradition in Blackfoot.
Again and as always, sorry it's so long in between posts. We love and miss y'all.
