Update from this past week

I sit here in my couch and am glad to just be sitting.  We have been on the go for a week now, but it's been good. The missions team from Indiana were awesome! They were so encouraging to us, did great leading the basketball and baseball camps, and covered a lot of ground surveying in our community.  Thank you guys for coming, we appreciate your servants hearts and willingness to come and help, you all were such a blessing to us!!  And a Big Thank You to Bobby and Amy for being so kind to us, encouraging us as fellow church planters. It was nice to get to talk to someone who has been in our shoes before. Your encouragement meant more to us than you know.  :)

On Friday, Justin and I went through all of the surveys (they just asked a 4 question survey about their thoughts on church and needs in the community), and went through and picked out ones that they had notated were people who seemed interested in a new church.  So, we got in our car and drove to their houses and met them face to face. We had good conversations with many of them.  

On Saturday afternoon and evening we spent time at Hills Alive- a weekend event of free Christian concerts by big name artists that they have every year in Rapid City.  This year Skillet, Casting Crowns, Big Daddy Weave, Avalon, and several other bands were there. Over 100,000 people come from all over.  So, we had a booth set up, and had a giveaway for a free Ipod Touch. It was a way for us to get people to our booth so we could talk to them.  We got to talk to A LOT of people and it was really good. We were worn out though.  

Then Sunday morning was our 2nd Preview service.  Our prayer was that God would just bring those that needed to be there to hear about His love and be shown His love. When 10:30 arrived, many familiar faces started showing up.... people that we visited on Friday, people that got door-hangers on their doors, and those that we met on Saturday who came to our booth. We had 37 people total!! 10 people were brand new visits of local Rapid City folks who don't attend any church. 6 others were people from out of town, just in town for Hills Alive, and we had invited them to come worship with us when they came to our booth. The others were those who had already come before and those on our launch team.  It was a great morning of worship and getting to know some new people. This week Justin and I will be having some of those families over to our house to get to know them better. 

Thank you to those of you prayed for us this past week and for our preview service.  God is good! Now for a little relaxation, hot tea, and sleep.