By Steve Chamblee:
Greetings from beautiful Vail, AZ!
Wow... where do I begin? God continues to bless and move in our city. As we continue to seek His face and make His name great in this place, He continues to move! This October we will celebrate our two year anniversary as a church launch. God has certainly brought us a long way from the days of meeting in my living room, next to our garage and now moving to the Vail Middle School. The eleven that began in my living room has grow to an average of 160 meeting on Sunday mornings!
We have seen God gloriously save over a hundred people and we have had the privilege of baptizing over sixty of those new believers. In fourteen years of ministry experience, I have never seen the hand of God like I have here. That is an absolute and complete testament to Him...not us!
God has opened the door to a relationship with a church and an orphanage in Naco, Mexico. Naco is a border town in Mexico which is about 1.5 hours from Vail. We are working on a partnership with the orphanage and men's alcohol/drug rehab facility. Working with a local church, we will be seeking to build the orphanage a new building. The present building is in terrible condition. The rehab facility wants us to come down on a regular basis and hold worship services for the residents. There is also some opportunities to do some pastor training for local pastors. Please be in prayer as we are seeking to extend our boundaries of His influence to Naco. We have prayed from the beginning that God would weave within the beginning fibers of this church a missional heart. It is exciting to know that you can drive an hour and be involved in international missions.
We have begun our third semester of connection groups (small groups). We have eight this semester going on during the week. Our students are now meeting in the library of the High School on Wednesday nights...we believe this new place and time will open new doors for our students.
Please pray for our upcoming men's retreat (Oct 21-22). I am very excited about our retreat this year! Our theme is "Warrior"! Pray for our men! Continue to pray with us and our vision for a community center. We have leased to purchase 6.2 acres of land. Our vision is to pay this land off and to construct a community center. God continues to sharpen this vision. This fall we will begin a capital drive to pay this land off. Please pray that God would provide the partners to help us do this. Thanks for all your prayers and please continue to keep these prayer requests in mind.
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