Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Church Planting Manual

During Bible reading this morning, I was reminded of the front cover of a local Baptist minister's Bible that I happened to notice when he sat it down next to me at a Ministerial Alliance meeting.

It was a thin-line Bible, brown leather cover, and on it, someone had had printed in gold letters: "Church Planting Manual."

It warmed my heart because this quiet leader, this well-known Man of God, had been the first to birth and build the largest Hispanic effort in our town, and perhaps area.

This man, though I don't know him personally at all, and he wouldn't even know my name, is someone I greatly admire and PRAY FOR. When I had heard that his own people were turning against him and leaving the church because of the Hispanic outreach, I drove down to the parking lot at his church and prayed over the work and over his ministry, in particular. I have a burden for this man.

Interestingly, since this time, he and my pastor have become close friends.

We are not alone. Never. God's people are united. Always.

Prayer:
Saying a prayer for this Man of God today, for encouragement, for renewed energy and vision in the work of our Lord. I pray over his family, for the generations of his family, and over the spiritual family and generations he has served, birthed, and raised in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. May our Lord's Name be Honored Forever. Amen.

Update: Italy

It feels very real today. Very.

Saturday, April 27, I made a deposit on our apartment in Florence, Italy.

Yesterday, April 29, I purchased our plane tickets to Florence, Italy, as well. En route, we will fly from Dallas to Atlanta to Paris to Florence. On our return, we will fly from Florence to Paris to Cincinnati to Dallas.

We are still waiting to find out whether someone, a dear friend, will be joining us or not. We will see!

Prayer Request for Today:
--COMPANION/S. That we will get a definite answer on whether or not we will have someone joining us.
--BUDGET. We need, at this very point in time, $4,000 to come in for the trip.
--PURPOSE: God has supernaturally made a way to go on this trip. There is no doubt in our minds that we are to go. But we are praying now that we will have a better understanding of our purpose there, that it will be made known. Revealed. I know God does not make a habit of showing us everything, but I'd like to be as prepared as possible for all he has in store and the ministering opportunities that will present themselves. THIS IS NOT A VACATION. He is showing us things that we need to know for the future!!!
--ORGANIZATION. I need to get and stay very organized about this trip. We have limited resources and I must be careful to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit about the planning of this trip.

I Trust You, Lord

I trust You, Lord,
For everything.
You have made this Earth,
And You have made me.

Your hands are capable.


I trust You, Lord;
You've shown me a glimpse
Of Who You Are
And Who I Am To You.

Your presence is breathable.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Italy.

It looks like Stephen, Psalm, and Myself will be heading to Italy this summer on a Missions trip.

ITALY.

I want to be careful to record here, to the best of my ability, what God has done thus far, what He has shown us about this trip. I don't want to forget what He has done.

Thursday, April 18
Raelynn and I shut the office door, sat down in the floor, cross-legged, and talked about our Call to the mission field, and the frustration of the silence. It was so strange, we had said, that we felt like we knew we were supposed to be travelling this year, but the doors would not open for that to happen. We spoke hope and prophecy and calling over our lives. We knew that God was working, even though we couldn't see it. We promised to pray for one another, that God would direct our paths.

Friday Night, April 19
Stephen was playing a video game and I sat next to him on the couch with my Ipad. I don't even remember what I was going to search, but I felt very strongly that I was supposed to go to the AGWM page and check the MAPS postings. So I did. I scrolled two pages of listings when I saw it: Florence, Italy. Construction teams needed. International English-Speaking Church.

I turned to Stephen and said, "What do you think of going to Italy to help out an International AG church with construction projects?"

He said, "Sounds great to me."

I read the listing to him. "You want me to email the Pastor?"

"Sure," he said.

Before I did email the pastor, I started researching the church itself online, visited its website, checked airline prices to see if it were even possible, looked to see if VRBO had listings for apartments in Florence. They did.

"I'm going to email him, okay?" I said. "It couldn't hurt!"

So I emailed the Pastor, Brother Randy McGehee.

Sunday, April 21
I hadn't heard from Brother Randy, but at church, Sister C led a song about going to the Nations and proclaiming Christ. I could barely breathe, I felt it so strongly. The power of God was so strong. This happens to me on occasion, but I literally felt my heart about to explode--and that's a rare thing. When I got back to my chair, I had a lengthy email from Brother Randy. It was full of encouraging and cautionary words, advice, and introduction.

Most surprising, I think? The Pastor is from Oklahoma!!! He had been through Poteau, he said, travelling to the mountains to the south of us!

I shared the email with Stephen. We were feeling it.

Sunday night, too, Brother Randy emailed me, and I again shared it with Stephen. He was excited about our visit and promised to help us in any way he could.

Monday, April 22
Because Stephen and I felt a distinct OPEN DOOR, we decided to request a meeting time with Pastor so we could move ahead with our plans. I texted Pastor for a meeting, not knowing if he even had the time to meet us. In the text, I told him that God had given us direction on our month-long missions trip. (He had encouraged us last year to go away for a month and seek God for the Calling he had on our lives for missions. Like to what extent we were called to missions.)

I serve Pastor and our church on Wednesday nights, and I try my best never to miss a meeting. This would require us to be gone for four weeks in the middle of the summer. I didn't know if it were even possible for us to miss.

I hadn't heard from Pastor by one. And I stopped everything, sat down in a chair in my classroom after everyone had left, and prayed to God for direction. "Lord, if this is you, open the door here. Please let me hear from Pastor by 3 p.m. today."

At 2:36 p.m., I had a message from Pastor asking if I could come in to meet.

Long story short, Pastor gave us his full blessing to go to Italy to seek God and His direction for our lives for the missions field.

Wednesday, April 24
Right after church, I had an email from Brother Randy.

Thursday, April 25
That's tonight. And I'm dealing with "the wait" and some worries about the apartment. Despite two emails to Stefano and Marco Lorenzo about apartments, and one returned email, I have heard nothing from them since. I am wondering about God's will. Is this silence to protect us from something? Have they already rented the rooms? Do I need to be searching for another? I realize it's only been a couple of days, and I don't want to come across as an annoying American, but I like to have major issues like this one resolved early in the planning process. And it worries me a tad when I hit roadblocks because I seek God's will and can ascertain it by the smoothness of the process.

Other than the apartment, I am really seeking God on the final $4000 we need to go. One thing I am praying about is our tax refund. I am praying it comes through so we can use it to pay for the apartment. Then, we will only have $2000 to raise for our expenses there.

Another thing I'm praying for is the most affordable airline tickets through Delta. I'm praying that by the time I can pay for them that we can all get seats together to Florence, there and back.

So, again, as I PRAISE GOD for the breakthrough, I finish this Blog by praying for the following needs. (If you're out there reading this, I ask you to join us in prayer for the needs, if you will. And I thank you for the prayers...sincerely.)

PRAYER NEEDS TONIGHT: TAX REFUND, APARTMENT, AIRLINE TICKETS.