"O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good"!

Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for, both personally and as a new church! This Sunday we, like many others during this season, will be enjoying a church dinner dedicated to praising the Lord, concluding our celebration with a special time observing communion. 

As we review our blessings, we see the Lord working in a number of ways, and we'd like to share them with you.

• We are thankful for the growing unity and the beginnings of openness to changing seen in individuals and our church family to do God's work. 

• The men's prayer breakfasts have been well attended and a source of encouragement to those who have come, including 1 man who doesn't attend church anywhere.

• The Sunday evening gatherings were a great success for our people who are not used to Sunday evening meetings. They loved the creation series we used and wanted more! We plan to begin again at the first of the year with a series on marriage and family with the purpose of attracting unchurched people.

• Everyone enjoyed a "Tacky Party" a couple of weeks ago. Who knew we had such "tacky" dressers in our group? The entertainment was a big hit and the "tacky" menu had everyone talking. We were pleased to have some guests come, too.



Pretty tacky - even for missionaries!

• We have a couple of children attending our Good News Club whose families do not attend church and we are working on reaching them. Although our numbers aren't high (we average about 12), we're having a great year.

• The church constitution is completed! We hope to have a supporting church review it for us to make sure we didn't miss anything, and then we'll be going to the next step of adopting it and becoming recognized.

• A few of us attended the second Intentional Discipleship workshop. This is a huge new idea to our people who are interested, but full of questions. The deacons want to know that more will commit to the program before approving the financial investment it will take. Several people are interested and we are thankful they're beginning to see the need for this type of training.

• You probably already know that our house in Michigan has finally been sold, but we just have to include it here in our list of blessings. We're still celebrating!

• We look forward to a lot of fun with our younger daughter and son and their families coming here for Thanksgiving.

• Cheryl has successfully survived a second concert as accompanist for the Danville high school choir! The next ones will be December 14 and 16, and then she can breathe again for a while. Ed fills the important role of official page turner. These opportunities for community involvement are helping also to create more awareness of the church.

• We could never end the list without including you! We run on the power of your prayers and faithful support. None of this would be possible without a great team behind us, and as you can see, the Lord is working here in Danville because of your efforts as well as ours.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day reviewing all the Lord has done for you!

Joyfully serving,

Ed & Cheryl

September, 2010

It's fall! Where did the summer go? We were too busy to notice! But here is some great news - we have a good offer on our Michigan house!! We are waiting eagerly for a response from the bank as it's all in their hands now. Please continue to pray with us that everything will go through. We'll keep you posted. And now to catch up. . . .

We really enjoyed having a mission team from our sending church, Berean Baptist in Bunker Hill, IL, come for a week. They were able to get so many things done that would have been impossible for us otherwise. The week ended with our second Community Outreach event. (You can see pictures, if you'd like.) We considered it very successful with several families to follow up with.

Another very big project that took lots of time was a web site for our church. A man in our group did all the technical, behind the scenes work to set it up, then we did all the work of designing and publishing it. Now all we have to do is maintain it (all we have to do???) The final step still to be done is getting it listed in searches. Feel free to check it out (link at right) and then give suggestions for improvement. We want it to be a good reflection of God's work here.

The Good News Club is underway again for the school year. The lady heading it up and Cheryl were able to attend a workshop and came back with some ideas for better organization for our club. We have fewer children than last year so far, but it should grow. We are very thankful for the cooperation and even encouagement of the school administration. Our game time is much better because of a different room, and the kids are loving it!

Now that schedules have become somewhat more predictable, we have started a new men's group called Men of Integrity. Seven men came, including a guest we've been praying for, for breakfast and Bible study on Saturday morning. This will be a monthly event with the purpose of building spiritually strong leaders for our church and our families.

Sunday evening, Sept 26, was the first of our small group gatherings. Fourteen people came. We are using a DVD series on creation/evolution and will meet for 4 weeks. After a break we plan to begin again with a new topic for study. The purpose is not only for teaching our church group, but to give them a non-threatening setting to bring unsaved or unchurched friends to.

We are looking forward to attending a seminar from Sept 30 - Oct 2, called "Intentional Discipleship." We have already been to the introductory session held during the summer, and the material is excellent. It should be an invaluable tool for starting a church out doing things the best way possible



Ryan - 2



Seth - almost 2



On a personal note - we're going to be grandparents again! Elizabeth and Troy, who have 2 little boys

will be adding a 3rd little one to their family in the spring. We're hoping for a girl, but another boy would be just fine with all of us, too.

      

Cheryl was offered the job of accompanying the junior and senior high choirs of the Danville school. She had just been praying that if the Lord wanted her to work, she'd be willing, but a job would have to come to her as she had no idea where to look. About 2 days later, she received a call, and now she's spending much needed time practicing and running back and forth to the school - choir is right in the middle of the day! It's pretty stressful for her, but she's really enjoying it.

We cannot end this without once again saying how much we appreciate and are thankful for our wonderful supporters. You have been so faithful even during financially difficult times. We are often amazed at the way the Lord has provided for you and for us. Thank you so much for giving and for praying. We could not do this work alone!

Joyfully serving,

Ed and Cheryl