Ministry Update

Well, it’s time to tell you a bit more about what is going on in our lives and ministry at this time. As some of you know we have spent five out of the last seven Sundays traveling to Winterville, GA (east Athens area) to be with Harvest Church, a non-denominational church. I’ve preached twice – and will again on November 2 – and we have just gone to worship three times.

Since the first time we went we have felt that there has been a call to do something there. It is a small congregation at present. If I ever had prayed for a large church, I realize now that I need to be more specific – the building is about 30,000 sq. ft. and sits on 7 acres of land. We have seen only about 20-25 people total in all the Sundays we have been there. There are some more members but they haven’t been there.

Needless to say there has been some “history”, luckily none of it involving the current pastors, other than time issues. The economy and other factors have played into this. We also feel that things that happened before Harvest Church started meeting there have some bearing – another church had it previously, and it was strip mall in a past life; before that it was probably old farm land.

We are stepping out in faith to team with Curtis and Patricia Parker, the founding pastors, to possibly be associate pastors there. At first, our responsibilities may be teaching the mid-week Bible study and preaching when Curtis needs us to. Curtis is the regional director for Marketplace Chaplains and you can tell that is where his passion is but God hasn’t released him from the church totally – thus the time issues I mentioned earlier. Curtis travels a bit (he has the largest region with 100+ chaplains under him).

Obviously, this means we will be moving soon – probably not until after Christmas; Kathy is one of the best at what she does at Pottery Barn and does not want to leave them in a bind. Her job will go away when we move – mine will continue. She will look for another one – unless we win the lottery 🤣.

There is a lot of potential and there are a lot of issues to be resolved in time – both personal and church-wise. There is no money for any salary. We both would love for God to provide a way for us to spend the time needed for ministry without working outside of the church but for now, we will have my salary. We have done some exploring and looking at places to live – we already started looking at houses.

So, it goes without saying, we NEED your prayers!! Prayers for a place to live, prayers for provision (deposits and fees related to a new home – and any appliances that may be needed – and for our future income; talk to us if you would like to help), prayers for wisdom, you name it – we need it! Seriously, we truly appreciate all the prayers for us in this area. Mostly we pray to continually hear God every step of the way – we would have a tendency to run ahead of Him and we don’t want to do that. Pray for travel mercies for the next little while as we go back and forth.

God really blessed us recently at the TMCI annual conference – and we received further confirmation of our call to this ministry. We believe this is where God would have us be. We’ll see where He takes us.

Be well,
Steve