How to Pray

You remember that last month we asked you to pray for our children and the relationships they are building in Orlando. Well, within days Eli and Titus were asked by a little 10-year-old girl to be a part of a play that she had written and was going to perform at her home. This family isn’t even from our church and yet God, through a web of His own making, connected us to them.

Eli was cast as Jesus and Titus played the dual roles of “leper” and “boy raised from the dead”. They spent Monday and Tuesday afternoons practicing and we watch the debut performance last night. It was wonderful to see such creativity in this small group of children and to see our children joining right in.

We asked for prayer … you prayed … our good God was pleased to give.

Praying is Investment and Praying for Investment ::

Because of your great faithfulness to pray for us (and the kindness of many of you in financial investment) I want to share with you these three specific prayer needs.

1) Please pray for our faith and perseverance as we await God’s perfect provision for our needs in the coming months and year.

• God has provided two separate grants through the Illiana & Florida Classis and the RCA Church Multiplication office for $15,000 each.
• As we left First Reformed Church in Sheboygan Falls we were abundantly blessed and encouraged by numerous financial gifts to aid in our move and send us into mission.
• We have received a number of monthly commitments and have received such joy and connection with our friends around the country as we have begun to receive the first of these gifts.
• Though we are short of our financial needs for the year we see these investments as signs of God’s blessing as we pursue His call.

2) Please pray about personally investing financially.

• I want to emphasize that this is a prayer request and not a giving request alone.
• We need to raise an additional $2,500 in monthly commitments within the next 60 days. These commitments will fund the remainder of my apprenticeship at CrossPointe Church (Check the bottom of the page). These commitments along with future grants will also carry us into the first months of the church plant next year.
• For more information about investing in our church planting mission visit our Online Giving Page or download a Donor Commitment Card.

3) Please pray about connecting us to others who would consider investing.

• Most of the people that provided for Paul during His missionary journeys Paul did not even know before he began. It was because of the hospitality of many partners in the gospel that God planted the seed of the gospel through His ministry.
• Please share our website information (JeremiahFyffe.com/prayer) with others who you think would consider joining us in this endeavor in both prayer and financial investment. I would love the opportunity to share our vision with others whom you would recommend.

How to Pray ::

• Pray for our fundraising efforts, that we will approach this process with humility and faith.
• We thank God for some of the connections that our kids have made even in the last week! Thank you for your prayer so quickly answered by the steadfast love of our God!
• Pray for our Mondays as we continue to commit Monday afternoons for our search for a location for the future church plant.
• We have begun reserving our Friday evenings specifically for meeting the people in our immediate neighborhood. Pray that God would open our home and our lives to those around us.

This morning was one of the most touching & heart-rending moments since we came to Orlando. Sandy, Titus, and I were standing in the kitchen. Titus was helping Sandy cook some eggs for breakfast when he began to explain that he had a dream about his friends Makayla and Hayley from back in Wisconsin. Makayla and Hayley are two kids who lived across the street from us and became very precious to our whole family during our time in Sheboygan Falls and.

After sharing about his dream, with a strained voice he said that this just reminded him that we had moved away from them. In a way that only Titus’ precious heart can do he drew his mom in for a hug and they both spent a good deal of time comforting each other.

We are certainly not the first family to move to another town and leave friends and family behind. But sometimes we feel like we were uniquely blessed with our friendships in Sheboygan Falls which makes our sense of loss seem quite great at times.

Of first importance we want you to know how precious each of your friendships have been to us. You have encouraged us in countless ways. You have had an eternal impact in your love for us and for Christ. You have given us great joy as we have grown close to you and alongside of you up into Christ.

Of equal importance we want you to know how important your friendship and partnership continues to be in our present mission. God is blessing us with relationships here, but nothing can replace what our friends in Wisconsin and elsewhere have become to us.

We treasure your continued prayer, your words of encouragement, and your phone calls and cards to our children. We are feeling more and more the reality of Paul’s words to the Philippians,

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

My our partnership continue for the building up of the body and the glory of our great God!

Sandy and I have decided to devote our Monday afternoons to our search for a location for church planting. Like we did last week in our visit to the Melbourne area we are visiting an area just north of Orlando called, Altamonte Springs. Please pray for our monday adventures. We are praying that God would give us clear discernment not only for an attraction to and burden for a place, but also for a small group of two or three families that will share our vision of bringing the gospel to this new community.

One of our primary goals in the coming months is to seek a people and a place. We believe that God has already prepared a small group of people that will join us in mission and ultimately become the core team of a future church plant. We just haven’t met them yet. Yesterday (2011-07-25 – Monday) we took a family field trip along the Atlantic coast (near Cape Canaveral) getting to know the towns along Highway 1. This is one of the areas that we are praying over. In the picture below we are driving over one of the many huge bridges that connect the mainland to a long strip of beach that runs for miles along the coast.

Next week we are going to take a similar trip just north of Orlando to investigate another area. It is exciting to drive through these areas looking at businesses and churches and neighborhoods. Sandy and I spend that time praying and dreaming together about who we might meet someday in these communities.

Every time I shake a hand of a new person that I have met and every time I drive through a new community I wonder, “Is this person going to become a future partner in ministry? Is this the neighborhood that God is going to use our family to ignite a gospel movement?”
We invite you to join us in prayer that God would cause us to meet with just the right people in just the right place in His perfect time and according to His perfect plan.
The Lord Bless You & Keep You

How to Pray ::

• Prayer for us as we search for a people and a place for the church plant.
• Jeremiah is now in his third week in the CrossPointe office. Pray for Jeremiah as he establishes a routine.
• We have begun reserving our Friday evenings specifically for meeting the people in our immediate neighborhood. Pray that God would own our home and our lives to those around us.
• Pray for our fundraising efforts, that we will approach this process with humility and faith.

For those of you who still think that we moved to Florida for the beautiful weather you might want to take a good look at this video of our daily thunderstorm (or as Titus says, “Twice a day!”).

Our family was formally introduced to the CrossPointe community this past Sunday along with CrossPointe’s new family pastor. We are so very thankful to be here to serve and to grow alongside the believers at CrossPointe.

The Fyffes witnessed history today. After Jeremiah’s first week of office work, we headed east and viewed the final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis! Our family was in awe of the amazing sight of the take-off, trailed by a 700-foot flame… To think that it will take the astronauts almost two full days to reach the International Space Station, covering thousands of miles of the vastness that God spoke into existence with a word. Humbling and awesome!

Funny little fact about our shuttle viewing experience – we watched the launch from the Atlantic coast in the town of Titusville. What fun for our Titus!

God has blessed us in many wonderful ways since coming to Florida. On the day we unloaded the truck, our neighbor, who lives two buildings from us, introduced herself and her three sons who are the same ages as our oldest two boys. What a blessing to have friends for the kids so close, and sharers in ministry as well. The boys’ dad is a children’s pastor at a church in Kissimmee. Praise the Lord for Rosemary, Matthew and their sons! Another blessing is a dog park at the end of the road. Without a yard, Irish’s energy can become pretty extreme. Thank the Lord for the little things!

We are slowly meeting some of our other neighbors. It can be difficult since few people venture out in the hot summer months. But in the comparatively cooler mornings and evenings, the brave souls sneak out for a walk with the dog or a trip to the playground or mailboxes. A couple across the street is expecting their first baby, so I made sure to introduce myself and offer my baby-cuddling services!

Psalm 34:5 says that “those who look to [the Lord] are radiant.” In the newness of everything here for us, and the sometimes lonely days, our prayer is that the Lord would make our faces radiant that others may want to know the great God we serve!

After two and a half weeks of hard work moving in and occasional rest for our family I am finally spending my first day in the office at CrossPointe Church (No, it doesn’t look like much, but at least I have my mac!).

We are very glad to be here, to have met some neighbors, to have celebrated the Fourth with some new friends, and to begin to get a glimpse of life and ministry in Orlando. Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support!

How to Pray ::

• I am spending much of this week learning and establishing my new routine. Pray for clarity and vision in the upcoming days.
• Pray for wisdom as we continue to raise support for the upcoming year of ministry.
• Pray for our connections back in Wisconsin. Each member of our family misses our friends and family very much. Know that we pray for you and love you very much!

The Lord Bless You & Keep You.

We are almost on our way. The house is starting to fill up with boxes. Seven stacks of paper have been thrown out of the church office. And the U-Haul is reserved.

We are loading our house on Saturday (2011-06-11), enjoying a Sabbath rest on Sunday, and starting our three-day journey to Orlando on Monday. It is hard to believe the time is almost here to leave.

Core Prayer Team ::

We are seeking 30 families and individuals who would be willing to join us as our core prayer team in the years to come. If you would like to be a part of this team, please send me an email (email@jeremiahfyffe.com) and let me know. You will receive periodic email updates with specific prayer requests for this core prayer team.

Resources regarding our future life and ministry.

• June Support Letter
• Give Online at Razoo.com
• CrossPointe :: The church Jeremiah will be apprenticing at.

Prayer Needs ::

• Obviously strength and wisdom in packing! This is an excellent opportunity for Sandy and I to re-envision our home and the direction of our family.
• Safety in our travels next week.
• Most importantly, it has been clear to Sandy and I that the last few weeks have been difficult for our kids. Not so much because we are leaving. They have had wonderful opportunities in recent weeks to spend a very great deal of time with their friends. What we have noticed is that they are craving time with their Mom and Dad. When we arrive in Florida we will spend the remainder of that week unpacking and organizing our home, but the week after we are going to take the entire week to simply be with our kids and each other before beginning this new season of ministry. Pray that Elijah, Titus, Solomon, and Eliana will enjoy these last days in Wisconsin and that we will have a special time together in two weeks to simply be a family together.

Thank all of you so very much for the many means of kindness and encouragement that we have received in recent weeks.

The Lord Bless You & Keep You.

I thought the following video might help some of you to visualize the kind of church we are seeking to plant in Florida.

(via Ed Stetzer)

P.S. Hopefully, the sarcasm/irony was thick enough for you.

I have shared previously that our family visited a ministry in May. We have continued to be in conversation with this ministry and have been invited to visit again on July 25.

As I shared at the beginning we have discerned that God has been leading our family into either church planting or a unique established church ministry. I have spent the last two and a half years studying, praying, reading and seeking spiritual guidance from ministry friends to discern my family’s direction into the future.

In this case, the ministry that we are in conversation with is a church in a Southwest suburb of Chicago that is seeking a lead pastor. Their previous lead pastor recently left to plant a church in a neighboring community. The church has experienced considerable growth in recent years and is in an area that is expanding rapidly. But they sense a two-fold need: to deliberately seek to proclaim the whole counsel of scripture with the gospel clearly preached in the midst of an expanding membership and to focus upon the discipleship of those that have come into the church in recent years.

So what is unique about this existing church ministry? The fact that most of my preparation and study in the past two years has been in the area of what I have come to call “gospel-community”. This phrase captures my two fold passion for preaching and discipleship.

• Unlike a church plant ministry, an existing church ministry would provide the opportunity begin to lead the congregation in preaching from day one. This would present the opportunity to set forth the gospel clearly week after week as we would work our way through the scripture.
• In addition, there is already a large web of relationships built in this church and in the community. Gospel-community seeks to weave discipleship into these relationships through the reading of the Word together, prayer, and the sharing of our lives in Christ.

How to Pray ::

• I ask you to please pray for my family and this church as we discern the purposes of God for the future.
• Pray for me as I prepare and preach on July 25.
• Pray that there will be unity of thought about whether or not to pursue a pastoral relationship.
• Pray that God will continue to give my family diligence as we seek to be faithful in ministry in Sheboygan Falls, both out of our home and in the church.