Hi all, it’s barely January anymore, but I’ll still call this the January prayer update! As I write this we’re finally experiencing winter in all it’s glory, all I see is white out of every window, and still negative temps! January has flown by at what feels like a breakneck pace, which has probably been exaggerated by a constant lack of sleep! Yes, Raelyn has been having trouble sleeping all month save for a few days here and there, she has been getting her 2 year old molars, one at a time and each seems to take about a month to come in! So we’ve felt like we’re in a fog quite often, yet still having to live life and work and serve the Lord.
Not only have we have had our ups and downs throughout the month, last week felt like we were under spiritual attack, which was pretty cleverly disguised so we only discern it after it’s been going on for a while. I’ve been working on writing a sermon and we’ve been continuing to try to listen to the next steps that God has for us in many areas. We’ve also seen the Lord working in amazing ways, like healing my back and blessing conversations with people who need to hear the good news. So it makes sense that the enemy wants to take us out and bring us down. Most of our church staff have been experiencing this to some extent or another, so I ask for prayer for protection and relief, and for the Holy Spirit to empower us to stand firm.
We have continued to enjoy watching Raelyn grow though, so it’s not all bad! She is really funny and likes to goof around and roughhouse, she like so ride horsey and play hide and seek. We’ve enjoyed going to the public museum although the Dinosaurs moved and roared so they were scary, but she loves the carousel. Raelyn is really into counting: 1, 7, 8, 5, 9… she has the numbers but just needs to get the order down. She also loves to repeat things and sing too, she’s learned songs that we sing before bed and the other night I taught her to say “Jesus is Lord.” It is a really fun time and minus the sleep deprivation, things are going really well.
I will be preaching this week Sunday so I’d like to ask for prayer coverage for that also. I am preaching on Acts 19:8-20 and focusing on remaining in Jesus as the source of life and the power of the Holy Spirit. I am contrasting that to those who were not connected to Jesus and had bad results. I will be giving a challenge to commit or recommit lives to the Lord, and this is coming on the heels of last week’s sermon where we were encouraged to be prayed over to receive the empowering of the Spirit, as did the believers in Ephesus. I am excited about the sermon, and am still working on it after having given it to the pastors and staff yesterday as practice. Anyone who wants to come is invited as well, church starts at 10am on Sunday at 49 Gold Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504. Pray also for the weather to cooperate!
Ministry here at Gold continues to go well and as I mentioned we are seeing great fruit as we pray for revival in our church, neighborhood and world. This month Rebecca is working on scheduling a record number of Healing Prayer Appointments, I’ve been involved in some recently where we saw Jesus bring healing and freedom to deep inner wounds. It is so exciting to see Him set captives free, bind up broken hearts, and bring the kingdom to earth. Our Prayer Partner ministry has been busy lately as well, praying for people after the church services. In addition to praying for strengthening and encouragement we’ve seen healings and freedom com in those short times as well.
The Children’s Worship team has also met a few times to work on improving our ministry to the 3-5 year olds, even as we still need more people to help so that we can re-open our 1-4th grade class. We’ve had some newcomers in our GoldRush middle/high school youth group and have seen amazing fruit as leaders are learning to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and students are meeting the Lord and confessing sins. We’ve had a couple older students express interest in continuing to help after they graduate so we are encouraging them to attend church more regularly and focus on their relationships with Jesus.
With all that is going on we are still fervently praying for more workers, as there is a huge harvest here but we need more workers! We already have many people who are very involved but we don’t want to burn people out so we need more help. As we continue to seek the Lord’s will and try to keep up with where he is bringing us, we continue to invite more people to support us in prayer and join us in ministry. If you know of anyone who might be interested, would you please let us know?
Thanks so much for standing with us in prayer and for lifting us up to the Father, in Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. We really appreciate you and all that you do for us!
Love,
Mark, Rebecca & Raelyn
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