01/14/08 UPDATE

We had another really great week! Momentum seems to be building again after the holidays.

We had two guy's get-togethers. They gave us some time to hang out and get to know each other better.

The service yesterday went well too. We had 25 (21/4), which is about average lately. The cool thing is that this 25 was very different than the 25 last week. There were also several who are normally there that weren't present either time. The reason I'm excited about that is that it shows we are reaching an ever-growing group of people. Although I would selfishly like them to all show up on the same Sunday so that we can have a bigger group, it's reassuring to know that God is spreading His influence through us to a larger number of people.

One prayer request regarding this is that we have many people who were not regularly attending church that are now beginning to come. We have a group of "churched" people that are there almost every week, but the other group is still making that commitment. Pray for God to continue to mature them and also help us know how to better connect them.

I think the most exciting thing of the day was the Bible study last night. We had 18 adults present. They were packed in our living room like sardines. The scary thing was that it still didn't include everyone. There are at least 4 others that I expect who didn't show up last night due to being out of town, sick, or work. It was encouraging to me but also to those present. I think it helped several people see that things are bigger than they thought. One person who hasn't been at church in several weeks came and asked, "Where did all these people come from?" The study also went well and I think people are learning a lot from it.

One lady shared that she had never been in a Bible study or anything like that before. She said it had been at least 10 years since she even went to church. She lost her husband recently and had committed to start going to church. A friend invited her to come, so she did. She's planning to come to church Sunday as well. It's really incredible to hear all the stories of how God is moving and working in people's lives - particularly ones who didn't think much about God before.

Prayer request from all of this:

- I have a major decision to make regarding how to make this work. We have too many people for our house. I have to decide if it would be better to find another location or split into two groups. Even though the group is too large, I'd like to keep everyone together so that they can keep getting to know each other.

- We have several people who are going through a Bible study for the first time. I think many of them have just made a decision to follow Jesus in the recent past. Pray for God to work in them through the Spirit.

-Pray for endurance as everyone perseveres through the study.

-Pray that we will see where God is at work and how we can join Him.