The Big Move

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These are the blueprints for the new Storehouse location.

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,
                  At the end of the last post, I asked you to pray for our Storehouse transition. Moving is bittersweet, because the Storehouse came together in its current location by the Lord's providence over six years ago.  Herb Thompson, who owns the building, has been a fantastic landlord and supporter of the ministry.  He has become a dear friend, and we will forever be thankful for the ways the Lord has used him to bless Mountain Vision and the people of this community. So why move?

Over the last year, the Lord has gradually been opening the door to a new location for our ministry in the lower level of the Calvary Chapel church. The new location is in downtown Greeneville, making it more accessible to both clients and volunteers.  The new location will have handicap restrooms and paved parking, which will make access easier for our disabled clients.  It will also have consistent climate control, internet access, and our donation drop-off right in the parking lot.  All we need to do is...

Convert what used to be the morgue into handicap restrooms.

Convert what used to be hearse parking into space for clothing racks and shelving.

And update this office into a functional one.

That, of course, is an oversimplification of the process, but it gives you the general idea.  In early May, a mission team from Denton Bible is going to come and do most of the construction work.  Before they get here, a local plumber is going to take up the floors and do the rough plumbing, so the that the team can finish the new handicap restrooms.

There are lots of nitty-gritty details to work on in order to accomplish our big move, from acquiring construction permits to planning mission team housing, but we know the Lord blesses the details, and we appreciate your prayers for the Lord's guidance and provision throughout this process over the next several months.

We're also gearing up for another JobsforLife class.  We finalized the dates yesterday, printed fliers this morning, and will begin recruiting students tomorrow.  The class with be Tuesdays and Thursdays March 17 through May 7.  Over the next six weeks we will be recruiting and interviewing prospective students. If you're new to the blog and JobsforLife, this 2 minute youtube video explains the program.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UhT-60sw9A

We continue to work towards increasing our involvement in leadership training.  Next week I'll be meeting with pastor Willie Lunsford, who directs the Seminary Extension program.  We've been looking for opportunities for expansion, and next week we're getting together to discuss what opportunities lie before us.  There are several, so please pray we would be discerning of which are the best use of our time.

Also, it has become quite clear to me in the past two years that we need to offer a basic preaching/teaching class, similar to the one we did in 2013 that met in our home. I've been looking at potential curricula, and I haven't found what I'm looking for yet.  What I'd like to have, ideally, is a curriculum that devotes a few weeks to basic hermenuetics, a few weeks to basic bible study methods, and then a longer section devoted to homiletics with an emphasis on teaching narrative and epistolary literature in Scripture.  All of this needs to be written at approximately a 10th grade reading level (which means it can't use the words hermeneutics or homiletics!). It should be accessible not just to professional theologians, but to Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, etc.  I've got some different things I'm looking at, but if you know of some fantastic resource out there, please share.  I'd love to hear about it.

One of the new ideas that came out of our team meeting in Texas was the suggestion that we start a local Young Guns program for college grads.  Young Guns is a program that Tommy Nelson started in order to teach young faithful men their Bibles.  When I graduated from college in 2001, I moved to Texas to go through Tommy's Young Guns program.  I knew I loved Jesus and missions.  But I had a physics degree from ECU, and I wasn't exactly sure where the Lord wanted to use me, either in full-time ministry or as a believer working in the field of secular science.  That year, Tommy taught us Bible. Four mornings a week, verse by verse for two hours. Tommy taught the first hour and Charles Stolfus the second. I also worked full-time and was an intern in the missions office.  By the end of the year, I had more than doubled my understanding of the Scripture, but I had also solidified my calling into full time ministry.  It was one of the most profoundly influential years in my life.  Starting a similar program here is an interesting suggestion, and has a lot of appeal for me.  This spring I'm going to meet with a number of people who are currently working with college students to see if there's an interest in Young Guns here in east TN.

Things you can be praying for this week...
1. Please pray for the Lord's guidance and provision for the Storehouse relocation.
2. Please pray that the Lord would provide the right group of students and volunteers for JobsforLife.
3. Please pray for my meeting with pastor Willie and the expansion of Seminary Extension
4. Please pray that the Lord would guide our process of putting together another preaching/teaching class and the potential for a Young Guns program in the Fall.

These two love to watch the world outside.

On a typical morning, there's always a little drama from this little princess...

And this guy is ready for another day...

One morning this week, the day started out pretty rough, with basically everything going wrong that could go wrong. Meredith was pretty frustrated.  Tears were involved.  I came up from my office just to make sure everything was okay, and Hosea was climbing up into Mommy's lap to give her kisses and cheer her up!

And Lily was giving mommy hugs to help her smile!

Watching the kids cheering mommy up was one of my proudest moments yet as a dad.  We are all learning about grace and how to better extend it to each other!  Couldn't ask for two sweeter little ones!