 Sunday morning, August 26, Sherry and I had the privilege of worshiping with Pastor Tony Bye and the team at Marion Brookhaven Wesleyan Church. It was a joy to participate in the dedication prayer for their newly-remodeled children’s ministry and Christian education spaces. After the service, Sherry and I hosted the Bye family for lunch. While Brookhaven has a great legacy of faithfulness, I am glad that they are still taking risks to share the Gospel to the next generation.  Sunday evening, Sherry and I were at our home church, Fishers Waterline Church, for an outdoor worship gathering and baptism. This was also a special anniversary marking 8 years to the day from the first launch team meeting with Pastor John & Danielle Freed. Praise the Lord for the difference this young church is making!  After the service, Sherry and I had the special privilege of connecting with Bishop D’Aldo Jones and his members of his team from "The Pour House", an urban church that stepped out in faith to plant 19 years ago. We have mutual friends in Pastor Terry and Lennaire Vaughn. Pastor John Freed also stopped by our table to meet our new friends.  On Monday morning, I joined Pastor Matthew Trexler's (Region 1 Assistant DS) and his leadership cohort in Huntington at Hope Rising Church. This mentoring group has been meeting monthly through the summer and are working through J.D. Greear's challenging book "Gaining by Losing." (Rev. Chris Williams, Assistant DS, hosted his Region 3 leadership cohort for their first meeting this past Thursday in Logansport.) Sherry and I had a new experience leading an online prayer meeting on Monday evening as part of Waterline's 21 Days of Prayer. Once we figured out the logistics of FaceTime Live, it was good to connect with several other members of the congregation to lift up specific prayer requests. Waterline does this with different volunteers leading in each of the 21 evenings leading up to the fall launch. Tuesday, I joined Rev. Chris Williams as he led a StratOp renewal with the leadership of Tipton Trinity Wesleyan Church. It is exciting to see the progress at Trinity and to join them in planning for extended impact through their new campus in Kokomo.  Wednesday was an office day for phone calls and emails before heading over to Lapel Daybreak to meet with their LBA as they interviewed a pastoral candidate. The congregation voted unanimously on Sunday to call Rev. Andy Cole as their next pastor. Pray for Pastor Andy and Elicia as they seek God’s direction. Thursday morning, I met with Elvin Weinmann, head of our district audit committee, and Nancy Schoonmaker, District Treasurer. While this is not a full professional audit, it was good to receive the clean bill of health from our audit team. Later that morning, I met with Dr. Ed Hoover to review the update stats report program that he has developed. He does a wonderful job of compiling helpful information and charts that are valuable to the planning process for our local churches. Please keep Ed in your prayers as he prepares for a serious surgery on September 10. Friday morning, I met with John Bonham, Town Council Chair for Upland. In addition to his active role with the town of Upland, John is also actively involved in our Hartford City Wesleyan Church. I met with him to better understand the needs and opportunities of the town in which Sherry and I now live. I was glad to pray with him in the leadership role that God has entrusted to his stewardship for our community.  Friday evening, Sherry and I hosted Pastor Jarod Osborne and the Warsaw Zone pastors and spouses for a time of fellowship at Thornapple. This zone has been praying for an open door for Hispanic ministry in their zone and are excited to partner with Rev. Eliorgy Guerrero and the team in Elkhart to explore church planting in Warsaw and Goshen. In addition to the food, fellowship, and prayer, we managed to enjoy another Indiana tradition. Pastor Seitz was the beanbag tossing champion of the evening. On Saturday, Sherry and I hosted Pastor Dale Munsell and the team from Albion Cornerstone for their first annual planning retreat. Some of you may recall that Cornerstone has the highest ratio of conversions to attendance in our district this year with 25 professions of faith. They are also looking at hosting a Maximizing Impact team next spring as they reach out to the thousands of lost people in their zip codes.  It’s hard to believe that summer is nearly over and Labor Day Weekend is upon us. Sherry and I will be with our children in Michigan for a couple of days and then I’ve heard a rumor about a football game in Marion on Saturday that I don’t want to miss. Hope to see you there. Go Wildcats! This coming Sunday, I’m looking forward to worshiping with Pastor Rick Fletcher and the team at Lifeway Wesleyan Church. Keep on making a difference in the cause that counts for eternity! Your servant in Christ, Mark Gorveatte P.S. There’s still time to register for the Discipleship Making Conference at Indianapolis Trinity Wesleyan Church on October 1 and 2, but slots are filling fast! Register here: https://www.encountertrinity.com/DMC2018/  Comments are closed.
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