November Prayer E-mail

Dear Family and Friends,
As you read this months prayer e-mail, I hope you will come to the same conclusion we have. We serve an amazing God! Since I last wrote, we have seen God move in many ways as He continues to affirm His call on our lives. The following is an updated prayer list for us:
SBCV Approval Process
We will be meeting this Thursday (12/4) for a four hour assessment interview. LuAnn and I will be asked a series of questions which are designed to identify our strengths and weaknesses. This is not a "go or no go" type of assessment, but the purpose is to help us as church planters.
We have been invited to the Executive Board Meeting of the SBCV on December 10th in order to share our vision and passion for planting a church that reaches Navy families. This will be about a 45 minute interview, after which there will be a vote on whether to approve us as SBCV church planters.
Based on what we have been told, we feel very good about these two meetings, however, we still ask you to pray for all to go well.

Location of Church Plant & Person of Peace
We had an awesome visit to Virginia Beach from 11/24 - 11/26. We met with Mark Custalow, Chris Gill, and a pastor from a local church in Virginia Beach. Mark and Chris represent the SBCV and they have been a tremendous source of encouragement to us in this process. The pastor we met with has been praying about his church sponsoring a church plant that reaches Navy families. To make a long story short, we have identified an area between NAS Oceana and Dam Neck Fleet Training Center in which to focus our church planting efforts.
Praise God for leading us to this area and for the new partnership we will have! I can't begin to explain how God's work in this matter lifted our spirits and affirmed His call on our lives. Pray that God will now lead us to that "person of peace" who will open the door for us to reach the Navy families in this area.

Sell of Our House
We are planning to move in the January time frame, but for that to happen we need our house to sell or else we need to find someone who will rent it. We have had it on the market for two months now, and it has only been shown once. While we are not discouraged, we do ask that you pray for our house to sell and that we will have patience as we wait on the Lord. I'm reminded of a quote which says, "God is never late, but He is seldom early."


Funding & Partnerships
As it stands now, we have two SBCV churches that will sponsor us as church planters. The first is Palestine Baptist Church where I currently serve, and the other will be the church I mentioned above. These two churches are an answer to our prayers, and I want to thank you for praying with us in this matter. We are still looking for churches that will want to sponsor us, so if you know of one that might be interested, please let us know.
After our Dec. 10th meeting, we will have a clearer picture of what our funding will be for next year. I know there are some individuals who expressed a desire to support us financially, and this truly humbles us. Thank you for being willing to be used by God in this matter. In talking with Mark Custalow, the SBCV can accept donations on our behalf, and they will send a charitable contribution receipt if requested. As soon as I get the information on how to do this, I will let you all know. Continue to pray for God to raise up churches and individuals who would want to support us financially.

Don't forget you can keep up with what's going on at my blog www.stoppedwatch.blogspot.com
Thanks again for all your prayers and may God bless you richly this day!
His by Grace,
Bert, LuAnn, Taylor, Jonathan, & Emily