07/09/07 UPDATE

Yet another cultural difference - people in Omaha go berserk over the 4th of July. Fireworks are outlawed within the city limits, which doesn't really stop anybody. They go out and buy the really big stuff - like the professional type stuff and do their own shows from their yards. I heard stories of people spending several thousand on their shows! Judging by the skyline, it's another case of one-upmanship. We have a neighbor who went out and bought a ton of them. Everybody on our street gathered around the circle and watched. We're on a hill and as you look down the street, you can see a long way. As far as we could see, there were these huge displays going on. It blew us away. I wish i had a video camera to capture it and post it because words don't do it justice.

Other than that, the big news of the week was our block parties on Saturday and Sunday nights. We knocked on roughly 1200 doors to advertise. The Saturday night crowd was kind of disappointing. There were not as many people and they were all Christians committed to their churches. The Sunday night party was awesome, however. We had 47 adults and 50 kids. Many of them were not churched and we had very productive conversations with several of them. We had nine request more information on the church and several more who were not registered. It was really encouraging and we were excited about the results.

One interesting note was that we met two church planters through our work.

Prayer requests:

We have a team hosting backyard Bible clubs in two neighborhoods Monday through Thursday.
I will be traveling to NYC for coaching.
We have several couples who are considering helping us out. Pray that God will clarify that call for us and them.
Luis Palau is doing a big evangelistic crusade in O this weekend.