Before we arrived in Alabama, we decided we would attend the Calvary Chapel in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida on Sunday Mornings until we felt like the Lord wanted us to start our Sunday morning fellowship. I knew with gas prices near $4 per gallon we wouldn't drive the 90 miles each week so the plan was to watch their live internet video stream on the off weeks. In a litte over two months we have actually only gone twice. Never the less, we (the Lanes and Blakleys) were enjoying our Sunday's in their living room worshipping together and breaking bread afterwards. A few weeks later the Edlers joined us and the first church problem offically reared its head. Each week we had six adults, one Rebekah and SIX kids under nine. After two weeks we decided to start a rotation to teach the kids (was it our desire to minister to them or just keep them quiet? The world may never know.) Thus the Calvary Chapel Enterprise Sunday school program was born. We may not be a church, but we have Sunday school - lol!
I knew I didn't want to offically start "church" until we had enough people to minister to all who would be coming. I figured we would at least need some basic nursery care and an elementary age Sunday school class (got that one) not to mention a PLACE to meet. As usual my expectations and God's will collided. After we had to improvise last week when the Sunday morning live feed just vaporized I decided to pray about starting this week.
My other main issue with starting "church" was a time issue. Preparing to teach 2 times a week has a rather hefty time committment. We will also be opening up the coffee shop soon and to be honest I have no idea what that is going to take out of me. As I tried to calculate six 14 hour work days, study time (12-20 hrs) and then the actual time spent teaching (2 hrs) I came up with about 106 hours per week. So as I started whining to the Lord about this He reminded me that I can do all things thru Him and that His provision is not limited to financial matters.
So with that in mind I see a green light and the door is open... I didn't come all this way to turn back. Keep us in your prayers.
I knew I didn't want to offically start "church" until we had enough people to minister to all who would be coming. I figured we would at least need some basic nursery care and an elementary age Sunday school class (got that one) not to mention a PLACE to meet. As usual my expectations and God's will collided. After we had to improvise last week when the Sunday morning live feed just vaporized I decided to pray about starting this week.
My other main issue with starting "church" was a time issue. Preparing to teach 2 times a week has a rather hefty time committment. We will also be opening up the coffee shop soon and to be honest I have no idea what that is going to take out of me. As I tried to calculate six 14 hour work days, study time (12-20 hrs) and then the actual time spent teaching (2 hrs) I came up with about 106 hours per week. So as I started whining to the Lord about this He reminded me that I can do all things thru Him and that His provision is not limited to financial matters.
So with that in mind I see a green light and the door is open... I didn't come all this way to turn back. Keep us in your prayers.
P.S. For Jodi and Laura, I got this cool thing today.
It's a digital voice recorder and I will be able to post up the Genesis study and after the first 18 chapters you will be able to pick up where we left off in Bible 101 - Promise kept :) You can go here for my audio archive, there is not much there yet but it will be coming soon.
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1 comment:
Wow, congratulations, it all looks so awesome! I will continue to pray for the ministry's progress in AL!
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