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!