someone from the church asked if I could give a blurb about what's going on down here and I figured that it would a good update on a couple of different areas for all you... thanks in advance for your prayers.
be of good cheer....
Here's a little bit about how the Lord has been working.
Location -
God's been doing a great work down here. Even since before the arrival of the new senior pastor, Steven Bronston, the saints have been excited, and now that he is on the ground the Lord is bringing them all together on one accord. Currently meeting at the home of one of the members, the group has recently just signed a lease agreement to share a church building with another congregation. This is a work of the Lord that both pastors see the building as just that... only a building, not the church - the people in whom the Spirit of God dwells.
The praise report is that we are well underway to making some minor beautification touches and modifications to the property to allow it to present excellence even pre-launch. We have a decent building,currently set up to seat one hundred people, instruments available for our use and ample space for children’s ministries as well as auxiliary meetings. Although we are still in a 'pre-launch' stage, we need this space to meet together. The anticipated date of the first service is July 6th.
Musical Worship Leader –
We have been diligent in interviewing a few candidates for the position of a Director of Musical Worship. In our search we have include personal references as well as website referrals from churchstaffing.com, used at the suggestion of another HBC church plant pastor. I have attached our job description that I put together if you know of someone who may be led to join us in the kingdom work in TCI.
The website has yield three applicants: two from Tennessee and one from Ireland, and we are still interviewing another candidate who was a referral. We are praying for God's confirmation and leading.
Assimilation
As not only the Sr. Pastor, but a new resident, I am getting acclimated to the area. Moving to a new country is tough, I am continuing to try and connect with people on the island as well as having lunch appointments with people throughout the week. My weekends are full of events where I can support the brothers and sisters from the church and their families. Last week was a dog show that several people in the congregation had dogs participating in, and this week is a football (soccer) match between several people that come to the church who all play in the same league through their company.
We haven’t had anyone officially sign up to be small group leaders, but our average attendance on Wednesday nights is about 15 people. We are currently taking a look at the Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn which speaks to stewardship of God’s property… considering that everything belongs to him! Last night’s time was fruitful.
The next couple of months will be a lot of shaking, as people will be coming and going off the island every week for vacations back to their homelands. The length of the vacations vary from 2 weeks to 2 months, so we are praying for stability during this time as it is uncertain who will be around each week. Lots of advance planning will be necessary.
Prayer Needs:
Growth in sanctification and holiness, drawing us closer to Him. As we get closer to Him, we’ll be closer to one another.
And along with sanctification… unity. We have a diverse group of people and backgrounds and we need to unite on the essentials and give grace on the non-essentials.
We are also praying for God to send us a Director of Musical Worship that would compliment the leadership and with the help of the Holy Spirit, usher the people into the Lord’s throne room.
We pray that you all rejoice with us over the answered prayer of providing a facility where we can meet, reach others and grow together.
ation that Hannah and Ike ravaged on the island. But I'll just post a bunch of pictures to give you a story line of what it was like ... if you
want a lot of words, call me 649.242.5996 (or even if you don't want a lot of words and just want to chat you can still call! smile).
Ike. But when many people heard reports of 80% of the roofs being damaged, it was a often just a few shingles missing like on this house.
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It showed them that even in their youth they could help. One pic is of me and Lauren packing a bag. Lauren, even though only 4 years old really wanted to help! Another one is Kennon and Stanton excited about serving. Then, standing in the next pic is Dante, Tajhan, and Conroy. And the final picture at youth group is Miguel (!!!!) and Quinn. I thank the Lord for an opportunity to minister to these young boys as they grow into young men. 
Another thing that was sort of wild was taking my first inter-island flight. The day we went to Grand Turk to check out the damage that had been done by Ike, I flew in the smallest plane I have ever been in. Check out these pictures. The plane had 8 people + the pilot. and it was tight (not like "cool" = "tight", but "I can't breathe" = "tight"). The flight being about 70 miles, it was about 35 minutes in the air. The funny thing is that in spite of the relative brevity of the flight, I still took a quick nap. On the plane. But I think that part of the reason that I sleep on planes is for comfort. I don't think about being locked in, I don't worry about my ears popping, I don't concern myself with the temperature of the cabin.... which is good because I woke up sweating, and otherwise I would've been thinking about how hot I was the entire time had I been awake the whole time. The reasons that people were going over were varied: Some people commute back and forth between the two islands, some going to check on family and friends, and others helping out with relief efforts. The crazy thing is that the flight was still $200 for a 35 minute round-trip. Crazy! You do what you've gotta do. I had the seat right next to the emergency exit, and if you look past the sticker you can see the propeller of right side. the only one... so God help my claustrophobic inclination by providing a little bit of relief. I got to see first hand what the cockpit was like. And I was able to capture a few photos before the pilot told me to put the camera away.
denominational lines. Please pray the the Lord Jesus Christ would tear down any walls in the hearts of the people that prevent his love from flowing to one another as well as to nonbelievers who needs to receive his love and hear the gospel message of hope, redemption and salvation.
