Greetings! Today, I can see the Lord at work in bringing everything back to life after winter. What a great yearly reminder we have of how our God specializes in bringing life from death!

The Lord has truly been at work over the last month. Below are a few praise reports:

1) Last month I asked you to pray for Bill Braman. He just celebrated his 87th birthday last week and more importantly he was baptized on April 20th. The Lord answered our prayers by allowing him to stay healthy enough to be baptized and a local church in town loaned us their baptistry.

(2) On April 3rd we were able to celebrate our family being a part of GLC for 10 years. We had a church wide meal after our worship service and we had the highest attendance in our church's history. So many of you have supported us for all those years to make our service here possible. Thank you! Check out our facebook page for video and photo highlights of the event. We had an epic dessert table.

(3) We had seventeen new guests in April. We've seen four return for a second visit, but eight of them visited on 4/24. Hopefully, we will see more of them return.

(4)The Bible study that someone started at their work is continuing and they have seen one new man join them for this weekly lunch study.

(5) We are hoping to start three groups in the fall. This is looking like a realistic goal, because we have around 20+ adults who have signed up for small group training.

(6) Ankeny Christian Academy is where we gather for corporate worship. They are sending us a lease this week for us to sign. While it is not the five year lease we wanted, we are thankful it is for three years instead of the original one year lease they proposed.

(7) We also have discovered a short-term plan to increase our seating by forty in the auditorium. This will buy us more time to settle on a more long term solution to our future meeting plans.

(8) By God's kindness our offerings exceed our expenses. We have always been blessed in this way, but sometimes it's easy to grow complacent towards God's blessing. So I wanted to give the Lord thanks for how he has always been faithful to help us meet our budget.

(9) We received five new members this past Sunday. We now have 97 members.

Please pray for these issues:

(1) I asked this last month, but there is still a need. One of my children is asking about salvation and following the Lord in baptism. Pray I would have discernment in talking with them and thinking about the timing of their baptism. Both Debbie and I have sensed a new direction in their life, pray this is truly from the Lord.

(2) Pray for two others in our church who are working through material about the gospel and baptism. We believe the Lord has saved them and hope to baptize them this month or next.

(3) Pray for our small group training that will run from June-August. Pray we will effectively communicate a few small changes in our current practice and the leaders will be receptive to our leadership.

(4) Once we sign our lease with the school, we are going to be asking to use more rooms in their school. Pray this request is received well. Pray God will give us wisdom in how to bless the teachers who share their room with us. Keeping these teachers happy is important to our long term use of their rooms. If you have any ideas of what would show them appreciation, I'd love to hear from you.  

(5) By adding the forty new chairs we are currently at 75% seating capacity in the auditorium at the Christian school. When our elders met this morning we once again discussed this issue to talk through our next move. We are trying to avoid multiple services by considering moving to the gym. Currently there is another church that meets in the gym on Sunday nights. This church can stand in the way of us using the gym on Sunday morning. Pray they will not hinder our usage. Also pray we as elders make a wise decision and that the church finds joy in submitting to the decision of the elders, especially if it is counter to their preference.

(6) Pray for the sixteen people who have signed up for our membership class that meets on May 22nd. Pray they will be given direction on whether to become members here at GLC or if the Lord wants them to serve elsewhere. Pray if any are unbelievers that will be made clear to them and us and they will come to trust in Christ for salvation.

(7) Pray for the week of May 22-28 as I take a break from preaching to focus on my personal walk with the Lord and plan for the next couple of months. The following items need my attention:

    (a). Evaluating my marriage by identifying where I need to repent and grow as a husband.

    (b). Reworking our membership interview form.

    (b). Study a book of the Bible I hope to preach this fall or early 2023.

    (c). Thinking through a plan to provide training for our deacons.

    (d). Brainstorming a few evangelism ideas for 2023.

Thank you for lifting up these concerns to the LORD!