It is hard to believe tomorrow will mark 2 years since we officially kicked off this journey to revitalize the ministry in Southgate. According to worldly standards we did just about everything wrong. We did not have the resources we were told we would need and we had no plan other than to pray, preach the gospel, and do our best to love the people. I don't think I ever said this out loud to anyone but I was prepared for the result that God might bring the ministry there to a close. Instead, he has provided everything we needed right at the time when it was needed. I have often heard that from missionaries and other pastors but to experience it is another thing. When I speak to our ministry partners they are often curious about the health and growth of the church. I appreciate that but this morning as I think about the past two years I realize how much work he has done to grow me and several others here. Praise God for that.

As far as the church goes, I am certain that many of the amazing blessings we have seen are because of your prayers. We are still a small church with a lot of challenges and not a lot of resources. We still have great spiritual and physical needs, but Christ is working here. Please keep praying!

Here are the most recent updates so you can continue to lift us up in prayer.

Praises / Prayer:

• Praise God that we have had many wonderful fellowship events like bowling, game night, etc. but what encourages me most is the increasing frequency of folks organizing their own fellowship events. This in itself is wonderful but we are starting to see people using these as opportunities to invite unchurched friends, etc. Please pray these would be fruitful and used by God to draw more people to himself in faith.

• Pray that we would find even more ways of connecting in meaningful ways with our shut-in members who find it difficult to attend services..

• Pray that we would find even more ways of connecting in meaningful ways with the missionaries we support.

• Please continue to pray for the children's program. God has been bringing us many more children and we have has a few more people to sign up to help. This remains an area, however, where we need and want to have a thriving and meaningful ministry while not overtaxing members. We need those who serve to be able to rotate regularly so they can be fed and fellowship as well.

• Please pray for Ali who is a young muslim man, The Lord has allowed us to connect to a few Muslims this month but Ali has come to worship services multiple times and has signed up to attend our Christmas dinner. I am trying to get on his schedule for lunch. Please pray that the love of God would come through in the preaching and the fellowship of our church and that he would be led into the truth.

• Please continue to pray for the Bible Institute and several bible studies that are going on. 

• We have several folks who are committed and participate for some time now but are not members. Please pray that they would grow in their understanding of the importance and benefit of making that commitment. 

• We have a member who has gone dark. She is a young lady and I know there are health issues in her family, etc. Please pray God will give us wisdom as we proceed through the process of addressing this. So far, she hasn't responded to any efforts to restore her to fellowship.

• Please pray for our Christmas Dinner on December 9th. We hope we can have a good turnout of both members and guests.

• Please continue praying for the group who are considering establishing a Christian counselling center in our region. This is an important and growing need.

• As always, please pray that we would do this in God's power and His timing. That we would have unshakeable confidence in His promise that His word is sufficient and that we would be patient and obedient so that He will receive all the glory, which He alone deserves.

Other Updates:

• The carpet install has been completed in the common areas and looks great. The Lord has blessed us to be able to do several things we did not think we would be able to do this year. The children's areas still need to be done. There are several remaining projects such as the bathrooms, etc. that we will have to save up for but the things that have been done have made a big difference. Our goal is that the facilities are not what people remember when they leave. We don't want them to be so nice that it stands out and we don't want them to be something negative people think about. We have made good progress along those lines. Please pray God will continue to provide and that we will have wisdom as to what would be stewardship for his glory in terms of these facility type investments.

• Again, I want to thank you so much for your continued prayers. 

"Finally, brothers [and sisters], pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you..." (2 Thessalonians 3:1 ESV)