I love the old Church Lady skits from Saturday Night Live. It totally cracks me up. I'm beginning to feel like the Church Lady because it sure feels like Satan is on the move! I'm not one of those I-see-Satan-behind-every-bush kind of Christians. But I also have a healthy understanding of him and how he works. I get the feeling that he's not very happy that we are starting a church on the Vegas Strip.
Here's a small sampling of what's been going on:
1. Several of our launch team members have had things happen that have led them to make the decision not to come to Vegas.
2. The day before our house closed was one of the worst days of my life. If I told you everything that went down, you wouldn't believe me.
3. Our house in Vegas has been vandalized. They stole our water softener and tried to steal our pool pump.
4. One of our launch team members just suffered a miscarriage (please pray).
5. Fundraising isn't going as well as we hoped.
My natural inclination is to quit; to hide under the covers and say, "Just Kidding!" Obviously this isn't what God wants me to do in this situation. Prayer plays a huge role in battling spiritual warfare (please pray). I also think during times like these it's important to remind myself how awesome God is and how hard He's working on our behalf. It's so easy to focus on the negative and to feel like a victim, but God keeps reminding me that He is in charge and that He's moving!
Here's a small sampling of what God's been doing:
1. We were able to rent back from the new owners of our house until December 20th. This gave us an extra month to pack!
2. Not only did our house sell in one day, but Robb and Shaula's house sold in the first weekend!
3. Vince's replacement at Forefront, Jason Bedell, is amazing! The timing of everything has worked out perfectly.
4. Even though fundraising isn't going as well as we hoped, people and churches are supporting us financially! The generosity of people has been amazing, especially considering the bad economic situation we're in. We also receive checks out of nowhere, from people we never expected to hear from.
5. Even though things were rough the day before our closing, we did close on our house!
I know God wants us in Vegas. We knew before we made our decision that this wasn't going to be easy. We knew that Satan wouldn't be happy and that we needed to be prepared.
I guess this is what we've been preparing for!
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