Thursday, July 9, 2009

Del Sol Northeast weekly update

Here's the latest update on the Northeast campus:

- I apologize that again, I’m a day late with this update. These last 2 Wednesdays have been very busy, but know that I’m not trying to make it a habit of sending this update out on Thursdays.

- God’s been up to some great things since I last updated you on the NE campus! Last week I mentioned that the best place to be is the place of surrender, just trusting God and saying that if anything’s gonna happen, He has to be the one to make it happen. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said that HE would build HIS Church and that the gates of hell would not overcome it, so I’m encouraged to know that Jesus is in charge, not me, and anything that happens will be the result of His actions. Sure, I have a responsibility to lead appropriately and to use my gifts wisely – but in the end, Jesus didn’t say that Ariel would build Ariel’s church, but that He would build His Church, so I’m simply trusting Him to do that with the NE campus.

- That having been said, God is really working out some details and giving me wisdom and insight and very good, Godly, wise counsel about some important decisions I’ve had to make this week. For example, I had initially schedule a consultant from Church on Wheels (COW) in California to come on July 22nd to do a site visit and help us figure out the best equipment, room configuration, and setup for the NE campus, but after talking with that consultant, praying, fasting, and talking with some other trusted advisors, I decided to postpone that visit until mid-August because I realized that to go and do a site visit on a site that we don’t have nailed down is really putting the cart before the horse, as the saying goes.

- I believe that God led me in that decision, so I think it was the right decision to make, and it gives me a lot more time to get some things nailed down, though it’ll make the end of August and beginning of September pretty intense.

- Like I said, we don’t yet have the location for the NE campus nailed down yet. We’re hoping to meet at Dr. Nixon Elementary School, but as I mentioned last week, there was a miscommunication that I need to clear up with the school’s principal – but he won’t be back to work until July 22nd, so right now I’m just kind of in a holding pattern as far as that’s concerned. Like I said, it’s a good place to be, just waiting on God and trusting Him to act on behalf of His Church.

- If you remember, a couple of weeks ago I talked about the multimedia CD’s with the Bible, a Gospel presentations, and testimonies that the Baptist General Convention of Texas has provided for El Paso to give to every home in the county. I also mentioned how I’m in charge of organizing the other churches in the 79936 zip code to get those CD’s to every home in the zip code. Well I’ve got a strategy all ready to go and I’ve contacted the other churches in the 36 zip code, but haven’t heard back from them, so I’m going to have to spend some time following up with them so we can get the Gospel out to everyone in our zip code.

- I’ve spent a lot of time this past week orienting two of our new staff members to their jobs. Please pray for Josh and Nicki Sattelmeier, for myself, and for Craig and Dag (our worship pastor and GrowGroups pastor, respectively) as we all work together to orient and train up Josh and Nicki for leading ministries at the NE campus.


Here's how you can pray this week:

1. As I said, God’s working out some details, so please keep asking Him to give us wisdom, guidance, direction, and to show us the next step in some very important areas where we need His insight.

2. Pray for God, in His grace and mercy, to work in the heart and mind of the staff at Dr. Nixon Elementary School – especially the principal – so that we can meet there and partner with them to be a blessing, not a burden to the school. Also ask God to show me how to properly communicate and cast vision to the principal there.

3. Ask God to guide me as I lead Josh and Nicki (our NE campus GrowGroups & Outreach Director and Worship Director, respectively) in this time of transition, and for me to be able to coordinate the other churches in the 36 zip code so we can get these CD’s out to the people in our zip code.


Thanks for your prayers - I truly believe they make a big difference.

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