Through the challenges of moving to Rapid City, one of the best experiences has been finding ministry partners and friends.
Joel & Lori have been praying for us almost since we’ve arrived. We’ve been adopted into their family before we’d even shown commitment to the church. They’ve come by for a campfire, and I expect to start prayer walks with Joel in November and host a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) with him soon.
Skyler & Amanda have been easy to hang with and aspire for kingdom impact. They’ve also been crippled by their COVID experiences and came to South Dakota for recovery. Skyler has advocated for DBS at his church and hopes to read Miraculous Movements and Contagious Disciple-Making after he finishes next Sunday’s sermon.
Dominic & Kati are our neighbors across the street. We’ve enjoyed a campfire with them too, and are excited to have our first DBS with them on the 10th of November.
Will you pray with us?
Father, the kingdom of your Son is our joy, hope and mission. Pour your reviving Spirit over our neighborhood, washing the streets of fear and broken relationships and restoring us to right relationships with God and neighbor. Unify your community to listen to your voice and serve with the strength you supply. Let the needy find welcome and support, the lonely find family, and the struggling find camaraderie. May your Son, his words, his works, his wounds and his ways, be our treasure and obedience. For Jesus and his kingdom, forever!
Draw Westgate and Westminster church and their neighbor churches into extraordinary prayer that sparks revival. Bind Dominic, Kati and ourselves together in love and friendship with Jesus at our center, and create opportunities to expand into more homes. Heal Skyler, Amanda, his friends, Amie and I of the wounds inflicted during the first years of the pandemic. Protect us from our Enemy and guide us into the dark unknown with faith.
We were host to a neighborhood Fall event last Sunday. Of the thirty invitations Graham and I had delivered, nearly ten households dropped by at some point during our two hour event - a great turnout! It was remarked multiple times how good it was to see neighbors, some of whom hadn’t talked for years, and to reminisce about times when there were more public gatherings in the neighborhood. Some who I’d only waved at in passing came by to introduce themselves. Many generously brought food so that our small table was covered in snacks.
On another note, we’ve been appalled recently by the level of unseen resistance to actions of love that seem insignificant from our vantage. Our simple gathering, with no purpose than to meet our neighbors and foster community, was viciously attacked. The night before, all four of us came down with flu-like symptoms. The morning of the event we were all on edge, having slept poorly and awaked in pain. I particularly was both detached and intensely irritable such that I snapped at Graham and Amie multiple times. I stumbled groggily from a nap minutes before the event started, waiting for the ibuprofen to lessen the aches while I tended to our campfire in a cold, blustery wind.
It’s disappointing that books about Disciple-Making Movements are often tarnished with critiques in the first few chapters. Whether the critiques are valid or not isn’t particularly important if it puts the reader who’d most benefit, the leader of a local church, on the defensive from page 1. Illustrations of a better way are far more persuasive than critiques of the existing model, but pastors are unlikely to get to the latter illustrations when the former critiques are so scathing. Can’t we put the critiques in an Appendix?
There’s not been a day like yesterday in some time.
In the morning, Amie, Graham, Royal and I joined a team from Westminster Presbyterian on a hiking trail repair project at Camp Rimrock.
The best part for me was getting to know Skyler a little better. He and his wife moved to Rapid City from Oregon about a year ago. We share some similarities, not least of which is the long-term tension between what’s best for the stability and growth of our children (though he’s got a few more than we), and our own aspirations as individuals and couples. I can’t wait to catch coffee with him soon. May the Spirit of grace sustain his little family and their brand-new-born child.
We dropped in to Grandma Jaynne’s home after a short break. She had some wood to stack. I was thinking about why I enjoy it so much. It’s like natural therapy. Nothing about it feels like work; it’s all enjoyment.
In the evening we had a campfire on our front lawn. Our neighbors came over: Dominic, Kati, Brianna and Jonathan. They’ve been “just a little” busy - last weekend Dominic and Kati were married! I’m so happy they were able to make it, and that they’re doing well. We share a love of board games and a mutual interest in reading the Bible. May we have more opportunities not only to hang out, but also to discover all the riches of God in Christ Jesus together.
I thought that’d be the end of the evening, but while Amie and I were enjoying the fire after Dominic and gang went home, a man walked up and joined us at the fire. His name is Robert. He has an inoperable brain injury that’s slowly paralyzing him. He’s lost hope and has decided to liquidate all his assets and fly to Ukraine to fight in the Ukrainian Army. I guess he’d rather die fighting. I laid hands on him and prayed that Jesus would heal his brain injury. Nothing happened, except that his headache subsided. Would you pray for Robert, that Jesus would finish the work of healing in his body and hijack his self-destructive plans? I cannot help but think there’s purpose in the most random person I could imagine walking up to join our campfire, but also please pray that any schemes of the Enemy would be foiled. Robert isn’t in a healthy mental state, and now he knows where we live.
It’s a full week. I had a lovely call with Brad Wathen on Monday and Amie had MOPS Tuesday. Tomorrow Royal has his first day at his new “school,” then a show-and-tell at Graham’s school in the evening. On Friday Amie and I are helping to watch the kids in Graham’s classroom so their parents can have a kid-free evening, then on Saturday we’re helping to repair a trail near Camp Rimrock. How do we end up with weeks like this? We just keep saying yes to good things. Maybe we need some great things so it’s easier to decline the rest…
