As we came into 2011, we wanted to push forward as a church in 2 particular areas. The first area was "to equip the saints for work of ministry" (Eph 4:12) which is essentially training already committed members of the church to minister more effectively to build up the body of Christ. This goal is obviously focused toward training within the community of the church.
The second area was to reach out to West Bend with the love of Christ that we have received and now are commanded to give to others. The point of this blog post is to explain how we started as the non specific goal of reaching out to the city and came to the specific direction of outreach at Arbor Trace. (A second blog post will follow as to the equipping of saints)
In January, Scott and I and other leaders from Bend City prayed and fasted asking for direction as to how we could practically be "the light of the world" to our home city. Then in February, we asked the church to pray and fast every Wednesday throughout the month asking God this same question. How could we be used by God to reach out to West Bend as a church community?
From this prayer and fasting a number of individuals within the church had ideas as to how we could reach out and where. As we waited, talk through ideas, kicked around possibilities, it became apparent that God was leading us together as a church body to reach out to the area of Arbor Trace. The leading consisted of relationships in the area, a sense of caring for the individuals there, and a growing desire to minister the love of Christ to that specific apartment complex. We believe God answered the where.
From there, 3 separate people from the church came with 3 separate ideas of how we could reach out to Arbor Trace and begin to develop relationships there. From these ideas, more prayer and discussion, a plan has been laid for the months of July and August for the outreach.
The first outreach is taking place Monday, July 18th through Wednesday, July 20th and will consist of a Backyard Bible Club (BYBC) from 9:00am to 11:30am each day. We have rented a 20'x40' tent, hung up a large banner at the apartments, and are going to be handing out flyers 2 times before the 18th. As the day is growing closer, excitement is building as we are looking forward to what God is going to do in the kid's lives there.
Before the tent is taken down, on Saturday, July 23rd we will be having a free pancake breakfast that will include pancakes, sausage, and other good stuff. Our hope and goal is that these two outreaches will help us to develop relationships with new people that we may not meet in our day to day lives.
Finally, we are following up these 2 events by doing a backpack program for the kids at Arbor Trace. Any school age child that would like to get a backpack and back-to-school supplies for the fall school season will be able to sign up at the BYBC or pancake breakfast. On Saturday, August 27th, we will come back to Arbor Trace to deliver the backpacks.
Needless to say, these outreaches are going to take A LOT of work by A LOT of people to happen. We are excited as we feel God has lead us to do this and that by his strength we will get it done. Please pray for God's favor in this work and ask God if and how you could be involved in it. More updates to come-
Shane
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