Prayer partners,
Thank you for your prayers and support over the holiday season and into the new year! Our family certainly felt and needed that encouragement particularly over the last two months. Read below to hear more about recent celebrations, prayer requests, and family updates.
Please excuse the lack of pictures. Due to the pandemic, we are not able to gather in-person as much as we would like.
Celebrations:
A New Believer in Christ!
Just last week a friend of ours within the church came to faith in Jesus! “B” and his wife have been a part of our church from our very first Sunday because of a flier they received in the mail from us (we sent mailers to each home right before launch Sunday). He has faithfully attended Sunday gatherings, been a regular part of a Community Group, and continually sought answers through reading Scripture and talking with myself and other leaders in the church. After many gospel conversations and much prayer over his salvation, we are overjoyed to call B a brother in Christ now. Pray for B’s continued growth in the faith, for reassurance of his new life in Christ, and for next steps towards baptism and membership.
DNA Groups Have Started!
Our church has started DNA Groups that meet every other week in conjunction with our Community Groups! A DNA Group is a small group of 3-5 people of the same gender from a Community Group that meets at least every other week to study the Scriptures and care for one another. A DNA Group is meant to be a more substantial and intentional time every other week to provide a structure for those in our church to care deeply for one another and to foster growth as disciples of Jesus. The goal of a DNA Group is to foster discipleship relationships that help each person grow to become more like Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the goal is to live out the "one anothers" of Scripture together and to continually apply and be encouraged by the gospel in daily life. We have now established 11 DNA Groups!
Please continue to pray for these 11 groups to grow in deep discipleship by finding gospel implications for daily life from studying the Word together and challenging one another in their walk with Jesus.
Prayer request:
Our Next Indoor In-Person Gathering This Sunday
This Sunday we will gather for our third indoor gathering at 4pm. Due to the higher COVID cases in our area over the holidays, we were unable to gather in-person in January so we are greatly looking forward to our gathering on Sunday! We have approximately 50 people coming to our service, which allows for social distancing and other necessary safety protocols. We will begin a new sermon series called “Letters to the Church” on the book of Revelation this week and greatly look forward to seeing the faces of our congregation again! We pray that the gathering and the Word preached will both encourage and challenge us!
Would you please pray for:
- Our congregation to remain healthy
- Self-examination in our congregation to recognize and fight against sin and complacency
- Hearts to be rejuvenated by the gathering of the church and for the gospel to impact our daily lives
Family update (from Emily):
Over the past two months, we have experienced some health issues that prevented us from being able to send out a January prayer update. Aaron began experiencing very severe vertigo and migraine symptoms in mid-December that got to a point where I had to take him to the hospital since things were escalating to a serious degree. After an overnight stay in the Emergency Room, the doctors diagnosed Aaron with a unique kind of migraine called a vestibular migraine. Unfortunately, the migraine greatly affected Aaron’s vision, balance/stability, and made it difficult to work or even walk for several weeks. While he is much better now, he is still recovering and experiencing double vision and dizziness consistently every day. We have had several follow-ups with a neurologist and he will be meeting with a vestibular migraine rehab specialist soon. Please pray for a full recovery, clear direction on next steps, and quick relief from the lingering symptoms that Aaron is still experiencing and affecting him daily.