Catching Up

Sorry I havent blogged in a while, life has been really hectic lately. I thought it would be easier to just do a one-punch update to let everyone know what's going on in our world. The trip to Germany was awesome the concert was off the hook. I love how God breaks barriers in race, language, and culture. There are pics on my facebook page of the trip. I got to share my faith alot and planted lots of seeds. I would love to go back again and sing. When I returned home from Germany the devil was really busy. I started being harassed at my job and we made the decision that I should resign. Alex and I went to spy out the land in Austin and we made some great new friends. We spent a week praying and driving around the city. We ate so much Church's chicken it was unreal. But God showed his presence immediately by providing a meeting place in a demographic that has no churches. We actually felt God leading us to be in two locations and we have favor already in the community. God helped us make alot of great connections and we look forward to putting legs to this vision. God has confirmed that Austin is the place. We are currently taking a church planting class to help fill in the gaps. I'm doing the bulk of the planning, while Alex is working on sermons. Planting a church is hard work. We already have been attacked financially, physically, and emotionally. Both of our dogs have died within a 60 day period. Our best friend in ministry passed away tragically in a car accident. My father has disowned me again, to name a few trials. But God is faithful, we are eating hamburgers and hotdogs, not take out because our finances are extremely tight now that I'm not working. I spend atleast 12 hours or more daily on church planting stuff, reading, researching, and planning. I've had a couple of interviews, but know decisions being made yet. We were depending on my income to save for the move and pay bills off, but apparently God has another plan. The key is being patient and waiting on God, but also doing the necessary things on our part so He can work on our behalf. We still don't know how or when we will tell our pastor were leaving. We want to leave him in a great position after the building is complete. He won't be able to pay our salary and we don't have many job prospects here. We can't make it on a minimum wage income here the cost of living is too high. I know Alex will have an even harder time finding a decent job. But we are simply trusting God to figure it all out. We are preparing to move and will do what ever we have to do to survive. Where God leads he provides. The area that we are planting in is urban, so we face alot of challenges. Austin is known as the graveyard of pastors. Some of the biggest names in ministry have tried to plant churches, but failed miserably. We have resolved that if we leave it will be in a body bag or if God tells us to go somewhere else. We both sense destiny and our kyros moment in the distant future. Keep us in prayer that God move heaven and earth for us. We need $ to plant the church and are praying that our friends and previous churches will support us or sow seed in our ministry. We are also trying to recruit a team to go with us.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Memphis turned out to be joyful. We were licensed and launched out by our home church. Service was great, I went over. oops:o) My father got to see me minister, he cried a little. I learned so much this trip about myself. Strengths and weaknesses, new ideas, more vision and passion. I'm excited about recording this year. Maybe this recording will be a catalyst to launching our new church. I don't know how things will work out, but God does and that's ok with me. I'm going to Germany in 6weeks so excited to see what God does. Seeds are being planted and prayers are going up daily. The next 40 days are crucial for me because I will be doing a 40day fast. I know that I need to be in top shape for this trip. I need to be more disciplined and fasting will provide the foundation for this. This year i'm in the fight of my life, will I continue in mediocrity or move into abundance and live the life i pray and dream about. What's holding me back? What's holding you back? Identify and destroy that enemy, don't let him continue to hold you captive. It's my time to live the dream!!!!!

Going Home

We're going home to Memphis to visit my dad. Going home is hard for me because of losing my mother and brother. I'm going to speak at Bethesda Church Sunday morning and be ordained on Sunday night. I know I should be excited, but I'm scared. My father will be there and I don't know how he will react. God has been so good to me. I have been reunited with my long lost baby brother and my best friend from high school within 2 weeks of each other. I lost a friend to a brain tumor that devastated me. Yet God allowed me to see the victory in her death. I have been experiencing exhilarating highs as well as painful lows. I'm a planner by nature and it's so hard not having the details. God is only giving us a little at a time. I feel that our life will be changing even faster than we know. I like stability and planting offers no stability. I also like taking risks and trying new things. Church planting is definitely walking by faith. We talked to a staff pastor at Pursuit church in Austin about renting there facilities. It's in a great location, with all the amenities, but they are charging 2,500 per month to rent the facilities and have usage of everything. We are going to tour the facilities in July. We have to come up with a plan to recruit our launch team and staff. Keep praying for us as things begin to come together.

Be Blessed,

Regina

Stepping Out In Faith

This week was really reflective for me. I had to face my fears and realize that planting a church is destiny for us. I prayed all week for our future members, launch team, staff and there families, favor with other planters and ministries. We finally finished writing out beliefs, mission statement and values. That felt like giving birth uncomfortable but glad the vision was birthed. We started our first draft of our prayer and intecessory pray team request letters. I ordered business cards for us to hand out when we visit Austin this summer. I was concerned about not having any family in the area. But as God would have it, I have a cousin who is unchurched living a rock's throw away as he described it. He fits the target profile we are wanting to reach. So I plan on interviewing him and hopefully using him as a liason in the community. He works for a fortune 500 company and maybe one of his friends could be on our launch team. I was praying for a unique way of making contacts in the area before we transition. God put it on my heart to do tear sheet marketing, like I do at work. So I want to send fliers with business cards to coffee shops and christian book stores and community bulletin boards at colleges to see what kind of connections and friendships we can generate. I would like if we could build a core group and meet every quarter and have conference call meetings between time. We are so excited to see how God will move in Austin. This week we are ministering at Bethesda Church and I am being ordained and licensed. I'm so excited to receive ministry and to give ministry also. Church was awesome today. The young adults did a great job!!! I felt like a mama bird pushing her babies from the nest and watching them fly. It was sort of a sweet victory for us also because we were given a mission impossible and God vindicated us showing that we had the ability no matter how difficult the challenges were. Lately it seems we are being pushed from the nest at a faster rate. Alex is concerned about timing and so am I. Normally God changes our season during the fall of the year. Every major move in ministry has occured in the fall. They are scheduled to break ground on the new church in less than a month and estimate 6 months to complete. So if they start in June and finish in November. We will be out of a job unless attendance and tithes pick up. We are trying to save every dime we can. We had a family meeting this week letting the kids know what to expect in the next year. My daughter seemed sad, but she understands the nature of our jobs. We will have to downsize if we have to live on my income solely. That will leave no room for saving for relocation to austin. So we are going to leave it up to God to make up the difference. If we do our part he will do his. We all mutually agreed to jump out of the plane as a family. Look out below Austin here come's the Week's family.

Regina

Adventures in Church Planting

Today we visited a local university to check out there church planting department. We received some great info and tools. We were busted by a church member who was in the office also, she had just returned from a mission trip in Mexico. We quickly changed the subject as we have not shared any of our intentions with anyone yet. We were actually there to pick up an evangelism planner tool to help us with planning outreaches. We spent most of the morning doing assessments and downloading a billion how to manuals. It can be overwhelming trying to digest the variety of methods and strategies. We both did well on the assessments and would make excellent church planters. Too bad it's not that simple. We are blessed to have 10 years of paid ministry experience and have held pretty much every position in a church except Senior Pastor. We are scared, excited, overwhelmed, grateful and moved that God would allow us to pioneer a church. Our kids are excited about this new season of our lives as well. There is so much to be done, but I know in God's strength and timing we will be just fine.

Pastor GiGi