06/15/08 UPDATE

We hosted our first mission team of the summer this week. They spent the week passing out invitations to come to a block party and also join us at Redeemer. The team was from Long Avenue Baptist Church in Port St. Joe, FL. They brought along 21 people and spent Tuesday and Wednesday contacting about 1,500 homes in the area.

On Friday and Saturday we hosted block parties in two neighborhoods. The first night, we had 53 people who signed up (along with about a dozen who came from the church). Saturday night, we had 49. Of these, we had 6 families who requested information on the church and I will be following up with those.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the turnout. However, I learned last year that there is absolutely no correlation between people who came to the block party and those who attended church. Several people came to church because of the block party (they got the flier and card for the church) but they never came to the party. Only a couple who attended the party actually made it to church. Keep praying for God to use the efforts spent sowing this week.

We had 63 at church yesterday. Of those 21 were part of the mission team, so that left 42 local people (27 adults/15 children). One couple was a first time guest (they saw our sign out beside the road). Just before church started (about 8:30) we had a severe thunderstorm roll through with hail and lightning, so I think we had several who stayed away due to that.

Praises:
- The mission team arrived safely.
- They worked hard and accomplished a lot they we could not have done on our own.
- We met several people who are interested in the church.
- We have had a first time guest each week for several weeks.
- Several people are getting more involved in serving at the church.
- Jared totally lost his voice on Thursday night, but recovered to lead worship on Sunday.

Prayer:
- That God will continue dealing with and drawing those who were contacted this week.
- Safe travel as I meet at the coaching network this week.