A Block Party, Police, and Old Chandeliers

On Easter Sunday, we started special meetings with Evangelist Jake D’Andrea. I was encouraged by the faithful attendance of our people. The special meetings were a great help and encouragement to our people. 

Please pray for two visitors who expressed a need for salvation on Easter Sunday. Lindsey and I were able to speak with them after the service and had looked forward to talking more, but they have not returned. We are grateful that they heard the gospel and are confident that the Lord will continue to work in their hearts. 

I have told you about my interest in ministering to our local Police Department. We have been praying as a church for opportunities to minister to our first responders for some time. I am specifically praying for an opportunity to get involved in the police and/or fire chaplaincy in our city. 

A couple of months ago, the director of chaplains with the Mass State Police reached out to me. We had no previous contact, and no one had passed along our information. This was a clear answer to prayer. She requested a meeting to discuss our church holding first responder appreciation and community engagement events. These are the exact type of events we have been praying for an opportunity to host. 

In the meantime, one of the neighbors of the church approached me about another dream/prayer of mine — hosting a church neighborhood block party. He approached me about the idea and suggested that we make it a “First Responder Appreciation Block Party”. On July 13, we will be hosting a First Responder Appreciation Block Party. We are working with the city now to have the street next to our church closed for the day. The event will involve food, games, face painting, a bouncy house, and a touch-a-truck event in conjunction with local police and fire departments. 

About a month ago, I finally had that meeting with the director of chaplains and the community liaison officer in charge of our area. Apparently, they have been looking for a ministry that supports the police in our city for some time and had not even found one that would be willing to sit down for a meeting.

They were legitimately blown away when I shared with them my heart to minister to our police officers. I shared with them the plans for a Block Party and the desire to eventually set up a police lounge/break room in our building for their use during the week. I learned that there is a State Police Barracks in a neighboring town, and I am excited to minister to those officers in the future. We look forward to planning events with them, and they are looking forward to participating in our Block Party event.

Please pray that this involvement in the community opens doors for the gospel. There is a lot of red tape involved in holding an event like this. This means a lot of face time with neighbors and city officials. Please pray for wisdom and patience for me and for gospel opportunities to come from these interactions. 

July is going to be busy. We have two missions teams coming to help us in July. One from West Virginia and another from Pennsylvania. The WV group will be with us the week of July 13. They will be helping us with the Block Party and (spoiler alert) helping us prepare for and promote our VBS. 

They will be removing old pews, chandeliers, and tearing out old carpet in our “old auditorium”. We’ve never used the space for anything other than storage as it is super expensive to heat and cool, and requires walking up steps and limits our ability to minister to those with mobility challenges. This space will be used as an activity/game space during our VBS. This fall, we will be exploring the options for using the space for further growth and long-term stability (more to come on that in a future update). 

Later in July, a group from PA will be helping us put on our first Vacation Bible School. They are bringing all of their expertise and supplies to help our church learn how to run a VBS on our own. Our church people are excited about this opportunity to reach the kids in our community. VBS will be from July 28 to August 1. Please pray for a good turnout and for souls to be saved through this ministry. 

We are praising the Lord for the opportunities He is giving us this summer, and I am exhausted just writing and thinking about all that is coming up. Please pray for us to have strength and wisdom in the coming months. We are excited to see all that the Lord will do!