Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part II

The capitol building in Providence
(seen by all four angles tonight, thanks to our GPS!)

It's been a very busy day for our team today in Providence, Rhode Island. Before I give you details on that, though, I want to write about our meeting last night with a church planter.

We met Rafael H. at a local "hot-spot" restaurant in Providence last night. I think we were all a bit nervous about our first official meeting with a local church-planter, but we quickly figured out who would lead the conversation and how to engage with each other. It couldn't have been a better meeting to begin the week with. Rafael has been a church planter for more than 30 years, and has been in this area for just about as long. As a result, he had a wealth of information to give us about church-planting in Rhode Island and Connecticut. One of the first bits of info he gave us was the following:

1.6 percent of New England is evangelical. The IMB classifies anything less than 2 percent evangelized as an unreached people group.

This statistic came up again today and has really impacted us as a team. If you consider these populations to be unreached people groups, it really means that a church planter has to be considered a missionary. More on that a few words later . . .

It seemed that with any area or city that we asked Rafael about, he would answer, "Yes, that would be a very good place to plant a church. Mmhmm." There are so few churches - Biblical churches - in these cities, and the need is great.

Our study at Grace Harbor on Wisdom v. Folly
in Proverbs 9

That information was only confirmed today, as we experienced our first full day in the city. We attended worship services at Grace Harbor Baptist Church, pastored by Kevin McCay. We so enjoyed our time there with a group of about 70 brothers and sisters in Christ. Kevin and one of the church elders, Travis, shared with us that this church plant is considered the "success story" of Providence. They've been a church plant for about seven years, but it has only really taken off within the last two (which is when Kevin & Travis arrived). They meet in a board room of a downtown (or "downcity," as they call it) hotel, but the unusual atmosphere did nothing to dampen their joy in meeting to worship the Lord. Many of the members were eager to welcome us to their congregation, and shared with us their appreciation of the familial and community feel of the church. Their love for each other and for the city was very evident. We saw a special aspect of this congregation, when later in the day we were at a local coffee shop, and saw a church member sharing the Gospel with his homosexual boss, who has recently become open to hearing about the Lord. God is doing a great work in and through these people, and we were blessed to be a part of it this morning.

Downcity Providence
(and the Ghostbusters building, I hear?)

The craziest thing that happened today was by far one of those "small world" moments. As we were preparing for the beginning of services, another Spring Break college group walked in, and they happened to be from Union University in Tennessee, which is where Ryan graduated college. Leading that team was a couple that he was great friends with during school, and it was a neat treat for them to see each other three years later in Providence of all places!

After the service, we had lunch downtown with Kevin and Travis, who shared more about their work and answered many of our questions about church-planting in the area. They restated many of the things we heard from Rafael, but also provided new insights, such as information about specific campuses, other churches in the area,etc. They were the ones to really bring out the idea of sending a missionary rather than a church planter, and shared with us what that means for the church back home.

"Church planting is a marathon; not a sprint. The church needs to look their man in the eyes and say, 'You're our guy. We're completely behind you and trust you to do the job well. We're committed to you and to the city for the long haul. It will probably take 7-10 years, but we're in it for that long. Unless you come and tell us that the Lord is moving you or the church plant elsewhere, we're there."

That really stood out to our team tonight, especially as we studied together in 2 Corinthians 4. "Therefore, we do not lose heart." Church planting is not an easy task, especially in the northeast, but it needs to be done. Wherever the Lord leads us, we as a church body at UBC will have to make this much more than a passing interest, but a long-time committed endeavor.

Our home at Providence College?

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, specially Providence College, where we were able to interview several different individuals for our community survey. We're excited to begin gathering a lot of information, and enjoy debriefing on each of those conversations together at the end of every day.

Providence College - Catholic Chapel

Please continue to pray for us. Travel in these cities is hard on our own with only a cantankerous GPS to get us around. Pray that the forecasted light snow for tomorrow would remain light. Pray that we would find the right areas to survey tomorrow (our last full day in Providence) and that God would lead us to the right people to talk to. Pray that each member of our team would understand and embrace our specific roles, and that we would work well together as we go. Pray that God would begin to give us clear discernment as to where He might lead us to plant a church, and that we would be prepared to communicate that effectively to those at UBC. Once again, pray for the unreached people groups of Providence, New Haven and Hartford!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part I

Our bulging suitcases

Almost a year ago, Ryan began developing a prospectus for church planting at UBC. What began as an idea written down on paper has now grown into an adventure for Ryan, myself and four others in the northeastern United States. During Spring Break, we will be spending time in Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut. During our eight days in those towns, we will meet with local church planters, pastors and campus leaders to get a scope for the current evangelical presence in these specific areas. We will also spend time walking the streets, driving the neighborhoods and hopefully sparking conversations with local members of the community, with a desire that what we see and hear will give a clear picture of the spiritual needs of focused areas of these three cities. Our prayer is that God will use that information to help us clearly identify whether He would have UBC plant a church in the near future in one of these areas. 

Five of the six members of our team drove to Tulsa yesterday. Brant, our sixth member, will be joining us on Wednesday - an event Ryan is ready for considering right now he is the only male representative on the team! We had a 6:00am flight out of Tulsa this morning, and were blessed with the hospitality of Trey & Kristen Richardson and her parents, who provided us with a home for the night near the airport. The alarm clock woke us up at 3:45am, which was WAY too early, but it was nice to arrive in Rhode Island early in the day. After getting on the plane headed to Detroit, it took me about 45 minutes to get adjusted to the idea of being 20,000 feet in the air (this happens EVERY time I get on a plane), but thankfully our flights were smooth and the weather was great, with the exception of 32-degree temperatures on the breezeway in Detroit. 

Speaking of weather, pray that it's favorable for us this week as we drive from city to city. There's a chance of slight snow on two or three of the days, and we would hate for that to interfere with any of our meetings or time in the city. If it does snow, though, Ryan and I are prepared. We were the only ones to bring a carry-on bag AND a checked bag, probably because we brought so many sweaters, heavy coats and scarves. :-)

Mission Trip Multi-Tasking 

After finally getting our fancy rental Yukon (we're high-rolling it this week!), we made it to our hotel, which is actually in Massachusetts. The hotel itself is not so high-rolling, but it fit the budget and is quite comfortable when you're living off of four hours of sleep. We made it just in time to watch the last part of the first half of Kentucky's basketball game, and then found lunch in time to see the end of the second half. We're now checking up on our brackets to find out who to cheer for in the rest of the games this afternoon. 

Our first church-planter meeting is tonight, so we're all getting rested up for that before dinner. We're all excited to get into the "meat" of the week and to see how God works in our team, in our individual lives and in the future of our church. He is definitely at work in each of these three cities, and it is our desire to see what part He might have us play in that as He continues to bring glory to Himself through these people and in these places. 

Please pray to that end with us this week - pray for protection as we travel; pray for the Gospel to be evident in our words, our actions and on our faces; pray for unity and fellowship within our team; pray for us to ask the right questions of those that we meet; pray for divine appointments; pray for clear vision and direction; pray for Hartford, Providence and New Haven!

As a complete side note, here are a couple of observations about the Northeast (and/or areas between there and Fayetteville):

- Lake Erie is much bigger than the lakes around Fayetteville.
- Traffic is way too congested. Going for a "short drive down this road" is not an option.
- It's still exciting to see a Walmart, even when you've lived next to one your whole life.
- There is an Indian Pow Wow happening in the conference room of our hotel. The Blue Cloud Moon Tribe is fun to watch.
- The Providence airport REALLY likes the moving sidewalks. Twenty minutes of them just to get a rental car.

nothing hidden

I'm becoming more and more grateful for people like John & Angela Mueller who are willing to bare their lives in order to better prepare Ryan and myself for marriage. We had another counseling session last night, and it's just so good to have someone tell you point-blank specific things that will inevitably cause struggle and difficulty in marriage, but to look you in the eyes and give Godly encouragement and wisdom for those times as well. We talked about submission and leadership last night, along with needs, roles, etc., within the marriage. As I mentioned in my last post, it's so refreshing to go through this ahead of time and to see the weight of the commitment we're making now rather than wondering what in the world happened later.

a heavy heart

It's been crazy the last week or two learning what goes into readying oneself for marriage, or rather, a couple readying itself for marriage. As we've delved head-first into pre-marital counseling materials, we've learned a lot about ourselves and about what we're getting ourselves into. The best thing, though, is realizing that it's God Who is getting us into it - it's not about us or for us really. It's about Him. Realizing that is easy. It's living it out that gets hard.

So many things that we thought we had worked out already...like how we do the laundry, who manages the budget, how we handle birth control, where we spend holidays...suddenly aren't as easy because it's not just about what works well for us, but what God has called us to. We haven't found that there is any big problem with that either between us as a couple or between us and the Lord, but there's still a new level of thought that has to be involved in every decision. And it just so happens that all of that thinking can make a man and a woman tired and cranky. It's a challenge, but I'm so very grateful that we're dealing with it now rather than going into marriage thinking it's going to be a piece of cake (although there will be cake, and lots of it, involved in the first day of our marriage).

We haven't written our vows yet, but we've been talking about them. They seem to become weightier each day, and I mean that in a good way. I can't imagine standing before God and declaring these vows that mean almost nothing to me because I don't understand them. Just as I'm daily learning more and more about what my covenant with Christ means, I want to daily grow in my knowledge of what my covenant with Ryan means. It gives the term a "heavy heart" a whole new meaning, and I love it.

the holiness talk

I'll just ignore the white elephant in the blog. You know, the fact that it's been more than a month since I posted even though I committed to put my words out there publicly more often than that. It's that looming statement that I'm choosing to ignore and not even bring up. I've been busy.

It's funny. I find myself surprised that there was still so much to do "wedding-wise" even after mentally planning so much ahead of time, but everyone else hears that we're done planning with 80 days to go and thinks we're way ahead of schedule. Personally, I would have liked to have been done a month ago. Really, though, I'm enjoying it, so I'd probably be bored if there wasn't so much to do.

Enough with the wedding talk, though. I'm not that kind of blogger. I've been processing a lot after a summer of mission trips, and especially as we really dive into marriage counseling (promise, that's the last wedding reference). I'm realizing just how dreadfully far away from holiness I am. At times, I'm so overwhelmed by my own sinfulness, I wonder how a saved person can feel that much guilt. I am convinced that God has saved me, but my sin seems so big, and the reality of what it deserves is deadly. More than guilt, though, I think I'm daily increasing in the realization of God's grace in my life. The more I learn about who God is and what He has done and continues to do in my life, the more I see the depth of who I am - which is nothing. The fact that God looks at me now and sees Jesus Christ is incredible. It's that kind of awakening that is drawing me more and more to the Lord and that is creating within me a deepening desire for holiness.

I'm glad I was ready to say yes!

I guess it's about time I update this thing on the details of the surprise-laden birthday weekend. The actual birthday ended up being overshadowed just a smidge, but I have decided to be okay with that. It's been nine days since the event, so hopefully I can remember the most important stuff.

We left my house at 5:45 in the morning, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We weren't far down the road when I was allowed to open my gift, which was a Razorback glass (symbolic, perhaps, of his accepting my Hog-ness) filled with red confetti and ticket to see the musical Wicked. I was super excited because I had been wanting to see the musical for quite some time. I remembered earlier in the week that we had talked a few months back about the musical being in St. Louis on my birthday, so I had a hunch, but I wasn't sure of anything. Once I opened that, I assumed that this was the big surprise that he had been planning, so I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be getting engaged on this particular day. Ryan made a passing remark that before lunch he wanted to go down by the arch and take a picture for my birthday, but I didn't really think anything of it.

So we get to St. Louis and Ryan starts to get a bit nervous, but he told me it was because the Fourth of July parade was shutting down traffic and he didn't want us to be late to lunch. I kept trying to tell him that we had plenty of time, since it was only 10:45 and our lunch reservation wasn't until 12:30, but he really wanted to go take this picture. I start to get only slightly suspicious at this point...

We find a parking spot in a parking garage (for which we should have paid, but it wouldn't take his credit card, so we got off free...sneaky, sneaky), and Ryan immediately grabs my hand and starts walking. I can't imagine how he didn't notice that my hand was shaking, because I think I was really starting to suspect something. Still, though, I was doing a good job of containing myself in case nothing was going to happen. We walked down to the fountain in front of the capitol building in front of the arch (whew!) when he asks the question that convinced me otherwise..."Do you want to sit down?" Why was this boy who was in SUCH a hurry suddenly wanting to sit down and relax by the fountain? It was about to happen!!! We sat down and he said lots of nice things (which I don't remember, but see below...) before saying this:

"Do you remember when we were here in January, and you said I looked like I had a ring? [I say yes or nod or both] Well, I actually have one today."

At that point he pulled a ring out of his pocket (I vividly remember seeing the green box come out of his pocket and covering my mouth), got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!! I said yes about three times and then gave him a hug. He got up and put the ring on my finger, which took a minute because my hand was shaking, and then I kissed him and said yes again. There was a group of people watching us that started to clap, which was pretty cool. I looked at the ring for a while and then we started having random people take pictures of us. At some point I called my mom and then started calling everybody else. Of course no one was surprised except my grandma, but that didn't matter. I was engaged!!

When we got to the car, Ryan gave me another gift. It was a three-part frame with the picture from January on the left, a place for a proposal picture on the right, and in the middle he had written out everything that he said to me before proposing (see above). He's the best!

From there the day became a bit of a blur. We kept calling people until we got to lunch (at the Triumph Grill, which was wonderful but with lacking service) and then again until we went to see Wicked. In the words of a tv show I once watched, it was "Wicked awesome!" Finally we then made it to Kentucky, where we crashed after quite a long day. I kept having to remind myself that it was my birthday...didn't really feel like one this year, but I'd still say it was the best one yet!

to be or not to be ... surprised

I (and many others) am so ready for this weekend to get here. It's my birthday Saturday and Ryan is taking me on a mini-vacation of sorts; only, I don't know any of the details. A few months ago, I told him that I wanted to be surprised, but now that it's only 40 hours away, the suspense is killing me. Here's what I know at this point:

- We leave at 6:00 AM Saturday. We must be on the road at 6:00, so he will be in my driveway at 5:50. I will understand at 6:00 why we are leaving at that precise time. For a few brief moments, I thought that maybe this was so that we could watch the sunrise together like we did on Mt. Sinai, but after having the sun wake me up around 5:20 this morning, that's obviously not the case.

- We arrive at his parents' house in Kentucky at approximately 8:00 PM Saturday. For those who can do simple math (that's all I can do anymore), that gives us 14 hours to get there. It only takes eight. Evidently, we are stopping at some point along the way, which was confirmed earlier this week.

- We are eating for lunch on Saturday at some place that has a good variety of food options. I don't know if this is to be a place familiar to me, but if it is, and if he's smart and has a good memory, it'll be Ruby Tuesday. About a month and a half ago, I answered the "favorite restaurant" question in front of him and RT was my choice. I also pointed out at that moment that he and I never go there. We still haven't been.

- I'll meet Alan (his mentor) on Sunday at church, and we'll have grilled pork chops for lunch. I'm assuming something will happen between lunch and dinner, but if it doesn't, we'll have either pizza or Italian food right after the pork chops.

- A reference was made in passing one night last week that we would be watching the fireworks from next to the river. I don't know which river and I don't know which day and I don't know if I was supposed to hear that. I'll act surprised. Oh, and I'll enjoy it - because fireworks are kind of a big deal to me, and we left two separate baseball games early this year (missing the fireworks show) because we were a) sore losers and b) hungry. I'm ready for fireworks, and I don't mean the cheap ones my brothers set off last night right next to Ryan's car.

- We'll have a "yummy breakfast" on Monday morning and arrive home at some point on Monday. Can you tell I've only received the food itinerary so far?

- I'll be given a packing list this evening, but am not permitted to ask any questions about it at all. It was suggested to me this morning by my boss that I just pack everything up in a U-Haul and expect the Justice of the Peace to be in the passenger seat next to Ryan. For the record, as ready as I am to be married, I would like to retain the opportunity to execute all wedding plans! :-)

That's pretty much everything I know...I think I've given up on guessing. It's taking too much effort and I'd rather be surprised. I think.