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!

Bring It On 2015!

Man 2015 is just 2 days away! I always heard my parents talk about how the years just fly by, and I never believed them until now! Time is flying by and at warp speed!

We had our third and final preview Service December 14^th. That weekend, we had a mission team of 40 college students from South Carolina help us throw a winter festival at our local Rec Center. We had Gingerbread House Building, Balloon Animals, Face Painting, and Hot Cocoa…..what more could you ask for! We had one of our lowest turn outs at this event (75 people not counting the mission team), but we had more gospel conversations with people than we have ever had at any of our other events. Isn’t funny how we worry about numbers or have what we think is the metric system for success and the Lord just turns that upside down!

 

The preview service went really well although I don’t know that I have the time nor space in this blog to tell you all the “bumps” we hit along the way that weekend. From almost not having a gym to throw the winter festival in, to the printing of the fliers for the church plant, to mics magically working and not working, if it could be difficult-it was. But despite my expectations not always being met as to how I thought things should go, we had an awesome weekend and an awesome service and the Lord was glorified (which is way better than my expectations)!

 

We will have our actual launch service Sunday January 18^th 10:30am. From there, we will have weekly morning services. We will be sending out a mailing prior to our launch service. Please pray for these post cards to reach the people of our community. Please pray for these post cards to be put on the fridge and not in the trash can.

We will have one of our partner churches, Mt Airy Baptist, coming in for our launch Sunday as well. They will be helping us spread the word that weekend and throwing a Pancake Palooza the Saturday before the service. Please pray for people to come to the event, for us to have gospel conversations, and for the people to come check out the church the next day.

One last bit of news….Tony and I are official home owners of this lovely little house! We could not be more thrilled! While we are already quite busy with the church plant, we could not be more excited to be in this house. We had the blessing of having so many people pass through the doors of our old home and the joy of having so many gospel conversations with friends - please pray the same for this home. We hope it will be used for His glory!

Thanks for all your love and support you’ve sent our way in 2014. Cheers to 2015 and all the Lord has in store for each and every one of us!

Christmas Time is Here!

Hey Friends! We are just 17 days away from Christmas, and this girl can’t wait! I love the decorations, music, ugly sweaters and all!

Since my last blog, I won first place at the Old Brooklyn Chili Cook Off making me the two year reigning champion woo-hoo! I’ve always known Mom’s Chili Recipe was good, and I am glad to see the people of Cleveland agree!

We had our second preview service. I would be lying if I said it was an easy service this time around. But God is good both in easy times and not so easy times, right? The week prior to the service we had several discouragements along the way including having no clue who would be leading music, but the Lord provided both a music leader for the time being and the encouragement we needed. We had right at 50 people at our second preview service, and we couldn’t be more excited to see all the Lord is doing in our community as He continues to draw new people bit by bit!

We went to Alabama to see my folks for Thanksgiving. We had a blast hanging out with family (especially my adorable niece Abby)! Mom kept us well fed with great food, and we totally got in to the southern spirit by going cane pole fishing in my Dad’s pond and shooting a gun for the first time….Roll Tide!

 

This coming weekend (December 13-14) we will have a mission team in town of 40 college students from South Carolina. Please pray for this to be an easy team to manage and for both us and the team to be an encouragement to one another in the Lord. We will be hosting a Winter Festival this Saturday at our local Rec Center. Please pray for lots of people from the community to not only come but also connect with our members and join us at Gateway Church Old Brooklyn. Lastly our Third Preview Service is next Sunday evening. Please pray for the Lord to draw His people to HIS Church to hear His Word.

Thanks friends for your support! May we not be overwhelmed this season by the chaos that often surrounds our Christmas Traditions, but let us be overwhelmed by the gift of God’s Grace in Christ and let the chaos fade in to the background.

November....Already?

It’s November….AH! Where is the time going? Halloween was great despite the cold and the rain! Tony and I dressed as Mario and Luigi! And we had our community group’s help in being the best house on the block with candy, popcorn, hot cider, fliers about the Church Plant, and hoppin’ music haha! We had a blast!

Now that Halloween is over, it’s gets dark early, it’s cold, and they are talking about that four letter word….SNOW!

There are definitely a few exciting things happening in November! Next weekend is our neighborhood’s annual Chili Cook Off. I tied for first place last year so let’s see if I can keep the title or not;)

The next item will be our 2^nd preview service. Please join us in praying for the Lord to bring people to HIS church to hear the Good News in HIS Word.

And of course right after that is Thanksgiving. We will be headed down south this Thanksgiving to see my folks and this cute little pumpkin head below! Can’t wait for some Southern Cooking and fun times with the family!

Stay warm folks, cuddle up in a blanket and enjoy some couch time with those ya love and some college football of course!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Eve Gang!

I hope you have your costume ready for tomorrow or you’re little ones costume ready for tomorrow or you’re at the very least enjoying some Halloween candy! Candy corn are a weakness of mine I’m afraid! 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support friends. They have been felt in a mighty mighty way! 

The Fall Festival went tremendously well. Due to yucky cold wet weather we were moved inside, but that didn’t stop the party! The Lord blessed us with 250 people coming and enjoying a bounce house, painting pumpkins, and free food. We had so many good conversations with people in the neighborhood, and had a great time as a group serving together! (Thanks to Mark Madere for the photos!)

The Preview Service also went tremendously well! The Lord blessed us with 61 people at our first preview service! We literally had no clue what to expect, but we could not be more thrilled. The worship team did a great job, the kiddos in nursery and kids church had a blast, and while I may be a bit bias Tony knocked it out of the park.

Now we are human, and there are a few kinks to work out still such as lighting on certain parts of the stage, more signage etc. But the things that matter went well! 

Tomorrow night will be Halloween and if it’s like last year we will have a consistent line of kiddos out the door. Please pray that we will have great conversations with people about Christ and coming to the church.

Our next preview service will be November 23^rd. Please pray for the word to continue through the neighborhood about the church. We had 14 people from the neighborhood not connected with a church at our first preview service, and we would love to see this number grow!

Y’all are awesome! Thanks for your support whether it be prayer or financial. Please feel free to message me if you would like to be added to our prayer updates or learn more about supporting Gateway Church Old Brooklyn financially.

Happy Halloween folks!

It's Happening!

Ok I’ve got to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Life has been so busy, and I have just simply fallen off the wagon. But don’t worry, I’m jumping back on!

I promise I’ll start posting at least every other week….might not be too lengthy….but it will at least be something!

Exciting happenings since my last post:

I turned 26 wooty woot! Now I’m over half way to 50, right?

 

Tony and I celebrated 3 years of marriage! Crazy how it feels just like yesterday that we tied knot, but yet you can’t really remember what life was like prior to your spouse being in it!

 

Our Wednesday Night Community Group has grown to 20-25 people! Praise the Lord, He is gathering His people to His Word and Fellowship with one another.

Exciting things that are coming…..and coming quickly!

Tomorrow Saturday October 18^th 2-4pm we will be hosting a Free Fall Festival at our local Rec Center. It will be a great time with pumpkin painting, bounce houses, and free food!

The community is excited for this event! In fact, local stores have donated hot dogs, buns, pumpkins, paint, brushes, and hay bales all for the cause! How Cool!

Please pray for people to come! We want to let everyone in the neighborhood know about our upcoming church services and start having gospel conversations with them before they even come in the church door!

Please pray for us to have enough helpers. We had over 400 people come to one of our block parties this summer. So please pray we have enough help to man all the booths and engage the people in conversation.

Sunday October 26^th is our first Preview Service! Ah! How did it sneak up on us SO quickly!

 

The Lord is faithful in so many ways. But especially blessing us in the last few weeks with a Children’s Minister, Hannah Krabill, and a temporary (for now;)) Worship Leader, Jordan Neimetz and his wife Leah Neimetz. These three individuals are so gifted, and we are SO excited to have their help.

Please commit to think and pray for us Sunday October 26^th from 5-6:30pm during our first preview service. The enemy does not want planting a church in Old Brooklyn to be an easy task. But we serve the Master who is greater than the enemy!

We will have three preview services this year (they are trail runs for us that we still invite the community to.) The services will be October 26^th, November 24^th, and December 11^th.

Our launch Sunday will be Sunday January 18^th, and we will start meeting weekly at that point.

Please pray for us to lean in to God’s strength and not our own! These are not tasks we can accomplish by our own might!

Thanks for your support!

 

Summer Mission Team Run Down

My oh my it has been far too long since I have updated my blog, and I have SO much to catch you up on! We have had a great summer of mission teams so I’ll dedicate this blog to them and include plenty of photos to get you through this long catch up post. Deal? Ok Deal! Let’s dive in!

Our summer started off with a group from Mt Airy Baptist in Easley South Carolina. This team consisted of 5 guys that helped us follow up with the elderly we helped shovel snow for in the winter.  Since the snow was gone, we put the team to work planting flowers. The residents loved it and several of them have visited out Bible Study since then!

 

They also helped us host a Taco Night at our home followed by a Bible study. Our home was busting at the seams with people. What a blessing!

We managed to sneak in a trip to San Diego this summer to celebrate one of our best friend’s Dan Webb getting married. It was such a blast catching up with all of our college buddies while of course being in the beautiful land of San Diego! Definitely a city worth all the hype it has and a wonderful time with friends!

Upon our return, we had a group from Richardson Baptist Church in Texas. I must say after hosting this team of over 70 youth, I do truly believe everything is bigger in Texas! We were not only blessed with their help to pull off a great Arts and Crafts Camp, but we were also blessed with a HUGE block party including 400 attendees from our community! Whoa our God is amazing!

Next we had a team from both Shelbina and Atlanta Baptist Churches. We had a blast with these two teams from Missouri. They helped us pull off a soccer camp, mini block party with a 200 attendee turn out, and paint a trailer home for a local resident. The teams were led by Jon Macky one of Tony’s friends from his days in the youth group. We had a blast with these guys while hearing great stories from Tony’s good old days.

 

Speaking of Tony’s friends, our next Group was from First Baptist Church Powell in Powell Tennessee which one of our college buddies Chris Garner grew up in. We had a great time with them helping out at our community garden and handing out flyers for our upcoming Game Days. They were a huge help and refreshing encouragement!

We then had 2 back to back weeks of World Changers and P2 teams. One day Tony was juggling 3 teams at once. Two of which were at 2 different construction sites and one team that helped at the Garden and Rec Center for Game Days. We look back and laugh that it was only by God’s great might Tony pulled off coordinating all three teams and getting them lunch. But thanks to all these teams’ help, several home owners have homes that are now up to building code and we have made countless relationships.

Our last mission team of the summer was from Louisa Baptist Church in West Virginia. This was to be honest the oldest group that we had of the summer, but you would have never known it by the work they did, energy they had, and encouragement they gave. They did a great job assisting us with our last Game Day at our local Rec Center. The Center is always busting at the seams with people and we don’t always have enough of our own people to engage everyone. What a great help to have the team play basketball with the guys, games with the girls, or just be there to chat!

 

There are a million stories I could share of the summer. Some good, some not as planned, and some just plain funny. But the biggest story of this summer is the Lord’s grace and strength. He gave us strength to make it through all the planning and coordinating of the teams. He gave us strength to pull off all the events despite items not going along with our plans. He has given us grace that has changed our lives and graced us with opportunities to join in the mission of sharing that same Good News of Jesus with our community!

Thanks to everyone that served with us this summer. It was such a blessing to see the Church body from all around our nation reach out to our community making kingdom impact.