Merry Christmas Y'all....'Bout Time for an Update!

Merry Christmas Y’all! Where is the time going? And where do I start this blog LOL!?! So much great stuff has happened and is still happening since my last blog! So strap in, hold on tight, and I’ll do my best to make this action packed blog as short and sweet as possible!

This summer was AWESOME! We had 4 great weeks of mission teams that achieved so much in such a small amount of time!

Lewisport Baptist Church from Kentucky did a fantastic job helping us at our local Community Garden, promoting our kids camps, and hosting a game day at our local Rec Center-Estabrook!

Mt Airy Baptist Church from South Carolina sent us a group of 60 youth….yes that number is correct-60….that made a huge impact on the community. The whole neighborhood was talking about the sea of purple shirted students that were helping them with landscaping, loving on their kiddos at soccer camp, and serving the community with a free Block Party!

Our World Changers P2 Teams, did a phenomenal job completing 12 major housing projects! Not only did they do great work, but they also held daily Bible Studies at each of the homes which many of the home owners participated in.

Our final team, View Acres Baptist Church, helped us finish the summer strong as we were able to participate in food pantry delivery, sponsor a Frisbee Camp, and host a second Block Party!

Jumping to the fall, we had our 2^nd annual Fall Festival and our very first Baptism Service! With help from a mission team from Mt. Airy, we were able to reach out to just under 400 people at our Fall Festival! What a blast! Then that Sunday we had our first baptism service! We had the blessing of baptizing Dwana who had recently made Jesus Lord of her life! Our friends Hector and Denisse with Connect Church also baptized Edwardo that had also recently come to faith in Christ through their Bible Study Group.

I’ll be honest and the first to say, we don’t always get to see the fruit of the labor that goes in to all the ministry we put out. Cleveland is a hard context to share the gospel in and has lots of “hard soil”, but every once in a while the Lord does give us glimpses of the fruit our labor is producing just like these baptisms.

A few other glimpses include:

-Dereonte. After attending our first block party of the summer, a teenager named Dereonte walked almost 3 miles on his own in the heat of July just so he could attend Gateway Church Old Brooklyn. He is now off at college, but he had the opportunity to hear the good news of Christ before heading on to this new season of life.

-Bobby Lee. An elderly war veteran named Bobby Lee was one of the homeowners who we helped landscape and repaint his home over the summer. The teams that helped Bobby Lee didn’t stop at painting his home, but they also shared the gospel with him. He says he now has New Life and has started regularly attending Gateway Church Old Brooklyn!

-Several Families have also gotten involved with Gateway Church Old Brooklyn after their children’s involvement in our summer sports camps.

Exciting stuff is happening! Whether you came to Cleveland and made these events happen or are one of our faithful prayer partners, THANK YOU! We are limited with what we can do without your partnership through physical participation, financial provision, and prayer! Thanks for reading the blog! Always feel free to keep up to date on Gateway Church Old Brooklyn’s Facebook Page or our website www.gatewaychurcholdbrooklyn.com.

Summer Project Make Overs 2015

As always let me start my blog off with an apology that it’s been SO long since I’ve updated it! But I promise it’s only because we’ve been SO busy doing such great stuff!

During our 4 weeks of mission teams this summer, we had two weeks of construction teams through the World Changers P2 program. These teams were made up of youth that came from all over the United States to help us complete 10 housing projects….yes 10 projects!

These youth not only sacrificed a week of their summer but also paid money just so they could come to Cleveland, participate in these housing projects, and share the good news of the gospel! It doesn’t get much cooler than that! Each day the teams would do a Bible study at their work site and often times the homeowners would participate as well. These youth left a great lasting impression in the Cleveland neighborhood of Old Brooklyn.

Ok enough yapping from me:) Check out some of the highlights below!

 

Thanks to all the volunteers that made these projects a reality as well as a huge shout out to the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation that partnered with us in finding not only the homes but also the necessary funding! What a great summer!

Some Visiting of Our Own!

Hi Friends! I hope your summer is starting off well with some time in the sun, some BBQ on the grill, and a nice glass of sweet tea!

Tony and I figured we had had so many visitors come our way lately, it was time to do some visiting of our own! So we headed down to Louisville KY and reunited with a lot of great friends! Tony and I had the opportunity to share with our old church, Crossing, about all the Lord has done and is doing in Cleveland. We also had the opportunity to help raise support for our friends Colin and Marianne as they prepare to move to Cleveland and help us in our church planting efforts! What a great time! It was a blast being there and catching up with old friends!

 

















When we returned to Cleveland, life quickly became overwhelming between our Wednesday night community group needing a new location, major construction beginning on the road our Church meets on, and our church computer crashing. Welcome home right;) But we’re still trucking along and leaning in to Jesus more and more with each day!

Michael and Aubrey Meadows, our North American Mission Board Interns, are officially in Cleveland! They’ve been here less than a week and have already been a tremendous help and encouragement! We couldn’t be more thankful that the Lord is allowing us both to play a part in each other’s church planting journeys-what a blessing!

We are anxiously, excitedly, and expectantly gearing up for a summer full of mission teams! We receive our first team this coming Sunday. Can’t wait to see how the Lord will use this team of 12 people from Lewisport, KY to further the kingdom in Cleveland!

Please keep us in your prayers sweet friends! Continue to pray for the Lord to bring us a music minister. We know he’ll bring us the perfect person in his perfect timing. Please pray for all our summer activities and mission teams. Pray that these activities would result in people coming to know Jesus as their Savior and joining the local church body of Gateway Church Old Brooklyn.

Now time to get back out in the sun and soak up some rays in the garden! Thanks for reading!

Visitors, Visitors, Visistors:)

I hope each of you had a great Mother’s Day this past Sunday whether that means you were celebrated or you had the opportunity to celebrate or commemorate the lovely ladies that have been in your life-I hope it was a great one!

Since my last blog, we have had several visitors.

The first visitors were Michael and Aubrey Meadows. Michael and Aubrey will be interning with us through the North American Mission Board starting in June! They could easily be the cutest couple out there, and we may or may not be counting down the days till they join us!

The second set of visitors was a Sunday School Class with Mt Airy Baptist Church from South Carolina. We have a lot of teams we host, but this team was absolutely top notch! They came ready to serve, ready to share the gospel, and ready to support and encourage Tony and I. (Quick Side Note When Bringing a Mission Team Anywhere-please strive for those three things! Please make sure your team doesn’t think themselves above any task, isn’t timid to share the gospel, and isn’t quick to critique. Ok soapbox speech over:)) Despite the temps being at least 20 degrees cooler than what they were used to, this team rocked it out at our community garden going above and beyond what the garden leaders expected to accomplish. They then delivered food to several homes, helped an elderly resident with landscaping, and flyered the neighborhood. Several of the residents they spoke with even came to Church the next day! Mt Airy, thanks SO much for the impact your team made in such a small amount of time!

The next set of visitors were Pastor Steve Yowell and his wife Sherylyn from View Acres Baptist Church in Oklahoma. We had the blessing of receiving a group of their students led by Greg McElroy this past summer as a mission team, and we have the blessing again of receiving an even larger group from their church this summer! We had a blast showing off our city to them and sharing stories of all God is doing in the neighborhood! It was a really encouraging weekend. Can’t wait to see you guys again in July!

 

Our final group of visitors is coming this weekend, and they are my parents:) While it has already been staying in the 80’s so far this spring, Cleveland wanted to give them a proper welcome, and the temps are plunging back to the 50’s hahaha. Some things are just out of my control!

Thanks for checking out our update! Please pray for us as we continue our search for a music minister, get ready to welcome Michael and Aubrey to Cleveland, and prepare for this summer’s mission teams! I hope each of you has a terrific week!

Bring on the Weekend!

We’ve made it to Thursday friends-now let’s just keep rolling in to the weekend-deal? We’ve had some pretty exciting weekends here in Cleveland lately! 

Last weekend was the Cleveland Indians’ Home Opener Baseball Game! This city comes alive for its sports teams! Downtown’s streets were flowing with people in blue and red ready to cheer on their team! The home opener game always sells out of tickets and then the poor stadium’s stands remain pretty empty until the weather warms up a bit more LOL!

The weekend before that was our first Easter Sunday at Gateway Church Old Brooklyn! It was a really great milestone! We had about 42 people in attendance. To be honest with you, we thought we may have more people attend, but Tony and I both wholeheartedly agreed we have never been a part of a congregation on Easter Sunday that was so excited we serve a risen Savior as we were this past Easter Sunday. We decided 42 people that were excited to be there was way better than a larger crowd only there by obligation! Funny how we think we know what's best or what to pray for and the Lord turns that upside down!

That same weekend I made a big batch of cookies to take to our neighbors to chat with them and invite them to church. We knocked on four doors and wouldn’t you know not a single one opened their doors to us! (we know for sure several were home too!)  Their loss of both super yummy cookies and great conversation haha! We took the cookies up to the local Rec Center instead and to say the least the Rec Center employees and kiddos were really excited about them! We LOVE our new neighborhood, but it was a good lesson that day that these neighbors could care less about free cookies/kids camps/etc. that we have to offer. The only way you will get a peep out of them is by being their neighbor-doing yard work next to them, shoveling the sidewalks side by side, or taking walks around the neighborhood and taking time to ask about their pets or families. It’s a stark contrast to our last neighborhood….those cookies wouldn’t have made it past 2 houses!

Other exciting news, I put my notice in to my work, and my last day at my job as an Administrative Assistant (for 4 people) will be May 1st. Me working full time and doing ministry full time was getting to be too much. It is still bittersweet! When we moved to Cleveland the first thing I told Tony is that I wasn’t going to work downtown, but that is exactly where the Lord put me and I have LOVED it! I have LOVED the people I’ve worked with, LOVED being in the center of the happenings of downtown Cleveland, and LOVED seeing the city skyline each day as I drive in to work. All of those things will certainly be missed, but I’ll still be popping downtown when I can. I'm really excited to help Tony this summer with the mission teams and then we’ll see what the fall will look like for me potentially picking something up part time.

We have 5 weeks of mission teams coming this summer. Two of the weeks we’ll have back to back teams of 120 people in town for housing projects in our neighborhood so it will be all hands on deck keeping up with everyone and everything! It will bring great opportunity but also bring great need for a vacation when everything is said and done;)

Well I’ve bent your ear long enough! I hope each of you has an awesome weekend ahead of you and keep us in the loop of all your comings and goings!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has sprung friends! This was the winter that I thought might just last forever, but according to my calendar it is officially spring. Not every day feels like spring yet here in Cleveland, but we have seen 60 degrees already so I’m content.

Tony and I have officially settled in to home ownership complete with fixing a running toilet, a door that fell off the hinge, and a door that wouldn’t shut. LOL consider us broken in home owners folks!

Things are going great with Gateway Church Old Brooklyn! We are coming up on Easter Sunday this Sunday and are celebrating our 12^th service! We are officially in the double digits! We continue to have people from the neighborhood check out the church on Sundays and already hear regular visitors calling Gateway Old Brooklyn their church home….how awesome!

We have officially multiplied our community group in to two groups, and things are going great! As with any change, it takes time for people to adjust, but we feel most everyone has found one of the two groups that works well with their schedules and is making it a priority to attend. We are super thankful to the Senal family for opening their home for the second group. While Tony and I are attending both groups at the moment-it is so nice not hosting both groups!

We had a mission team from Tennessee in town this week. We set up shop at our local Rec Center with popcorn, face painting, and games and promoted summer camps and events that we will be hosting this year. It has been such a blessing to have such a great relationship with our local rec center and has been such an open door to be involved in the community.

 
















Please keep us in your prayers friends as we enter Easter Weekend! We sent out another set of post cards to the local neighborhood for Easter. Please pray for the people receiving these post cards to come Sunday!

Please pray for us to be prepared for the people that walk through the church's doors Sunday morning whether that be a large or small number. Pray that we can show them the love and hope they can have in Christ.

Please also pray for the Lord to give us wisdom and patience as we continue to search for a music leader!:)

I hope everyone has an awesome Easter weekend! He is Risen!

Winter 2015 Church Planting Update

Brrrr! Man what a winter we are having huh? Even my southern friends are getting a taste of the below freezing temps and snow and ice. My northern friends and I have gotten much more than a “taste” of the awful temps and snow…..it is I’m afraid the norm:/ I keep crossing my fingers for a snow day at work….but I don’t think it’s going to happen!

I have lots to update you on with the Church Plant!

Our Launch Sunday could not have been much more awesome! The Lord blessed us with 83 people at our Launch Service! It was amazing to see the Lord fill the auditorium with people. One of our partner churches, Mt. Airy Baptist Church from South Carolina, sent a team to help us pull the Launch Service off. We had a blast with them that weekend serving the community and getting the word out about Gateway Church Old Brooklyn. They even helped us throw a Pancake Palooza at our local Rec Center! It was a major hit!

 We are coming up on our 6th service this Sunday! We have been averaging right around 40 people at most of our services, which is right where we were hoping we would be when we started. Our core team has been awesome and so faithful to be there each Sunday to help ensure everything is set up and all the details are taken care of!  Many of our visitors that have come just keep coming, which is so cool to see! Impressive too! Out of our 5 services so far……two of them required a snow plow for the parking lot…..and one of them was a high of 2 degrees! That’s dedication people!

We have had a community group meeting in our home for the last year and a half. The Lord has grown this group for us to now multiply in to two groups! One group will remain on Wednesdays but at another member’s home, and the second group will meet Sunday nights at our home. Tony and I will continue going to both groups for now and are praying for a leader to take over the second group in a few months.

Tony is still both music leader and preacher…..and while I may be biased…..he’s totally rocking it out at both. Just consider me his little groupie:) Other core team members have jumped in on drums and guitar, and we continue to pray for the Lord to bring us a music leader.

One quick story, and then I’ll wrap my update up I promise! We recently moved in to our new home, and one of the bummers about moving was losing our old neighbors Jerry and his sons. I’ll be honest, they weren’t the quietest bunch….but we sincerely loved having them as neighbors and had countless conversations about Christ and the Church over our fence line. We invited and invited them to church and Bible Study, and they never came. We hated to move and lose that relationship, but we knew God was in control. Well guess what…..our God is bigger than moves. A few weeks after we moved, Jerry decided he wanted to visit Bible Study one Wednesday night. And since, he has been to the last 4 Bible Studies and 2 Church Services bringing his sons every so often with him too. How Cool! Don’t give up inviting people….you never know when the Spirit will work in their hearts!

Friends, please pray for us as we transition in to two community groups starting this week. Pray for the Lord to grow Gateway Church Old Brooklyn through this multiplication of groups.

Please also pray as the Lord forms His leaders for Gateway Church Old Brooklyn!

Thanks SO much for keeping up with our updates, friends! Stay warm and remember Spring is coming!

Launch Week!!!!

It’s launch week people….AHHH!
We are officially launching Gateway Church Old Brooklyn, this Sunday morning at 10:30am.

Friends, we would so love your prayers! See some fast rapid ways you can be lifting us up this weekend:)

We have had three evening preview services over the last three months, and they have all gone really well-praise the Lord! We have had 50-60 people at each service and have had new visitors each week from the local community! Please pray for people in the community to continue to come. We want to be a church that looks like our community.
While Church Planting work is crazy exciting, it is also crazy exhausting all at the same time! Please pray for us to lean into God's strength and not our own!

We sent out a mailing of about 5,000 post cards to the local community letting people know we are opening our doors this Sunday morning. Please pray for people to come check out the church after receiving the post cards.

We also have a mission team of 19 people coming in this weekend to help us out. Please pray for safety for the team in all their travels, and for the team to have opportunities and boldness to share the gospel with the people of Cleveland while they’re here.

We will be hosting a Pancake Palooza at our local Rec Center this Saturday. Please pray for people to fill the rec center with an appetite not only for pancakes but also an appetite for God’s Word and the truth of the gospel. Please pray for these same people to come visit Gateway Church Old Brooklyn this Sunday!

Lift up Tony as he prepares and preaches his sermon Sunday. Please pray for the people that come to have open ears and hearts to the truth.

Your prayers and support mean more than you could ever know! Thanks Friends!