I have been wanting to write this blog for a while now and haven't had time to do it justice! I found this amazing verse a few weeks ago during my quiet time and it has stuck in my mind...I love it. It is so relevant for our lives and the life of our church at this time!
"All the people you live among will see the Lord's work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring." Exodus 34:10c
This verse impacted me the moment I read it! Many of you know about our church, the relocation process we are in, and how we have gotten to this point, but some of you do not...I'll talk about some of that here, but it would take several blogs to share all the ways God has positioned and worked out all of the details. Every step of this process has been directed by God and it has been so obvious to those of us at Maplewood that this is His work. This has been awe-inspiring to Corey and me already, but God desires more...He desires for all to see His glory. We are amazed that He is allowing us to serve at Maplewood and be a part of His work here...part of "the people we live among" here in Paris and Henry County seeing the awe-inspiring work of God.
Over the next few weeks, dirt will begin moving at our new location. That will be incredibly exciting! Our church has been waiting for at least six years to begin building something. Only in the last few years did God make it clear that this relocation process was what He desires though. And now, in less than two years time, we have voted to relocate, purchased property, hired an architect, developed a five-phase master plan, finalized the plans for an initial 21,000 square foot facility and all of this with a sweet, loving, unified spirit among our church! That has no explanation other than God's leading.
Those details alone are amazing, but in addition to all that, God is sending the workers to build our church! Carpenters for Christ, a volunteer labor group that builds churches has partnered with us. We will have the dirt work, foundation, plumbing stubs and metal frame for the sanctuary ready when they begin arriving the first week of June, and at that point they will be sending teams throughout the summer for 10-17 weeks to complete the work. In the first two weeks alone, we will go from the foundation and metal sanctuary frame to completely dried in!!! We will most likely be in our new facility by late fall THIS YEAR!!! (I think I need more that 3 exclamation marks for that!)
So for us, God has been awe-inspiring all throughout this process. But we are so excited about the people around us beginning to see His awe-inspiring work. Tears come to my eyes as I think about an entire church building coming together in such a short period of time...it is going to be amazing to see! We are anxiously anticipating the testimony this will be to our community...that when God's people follow His leading, He will do wonders among us! On our own, I think everyone of us knows we aren't capable of such a task. But, "with God all things are possible." I think that is the most exciting part about this to me...who are we to be used by God? We aren't anything special. Just willing. It is humbling and wonderful to know that God is allowing us to be part of something bigger than we can accomplish on our own.
Over the next few weeks, dirt will begin moving at our new location. That will be incredibly exciting! Our church has been waiting for at least six years to begin building something. Only in the last few years did God make it clear that this relocation process was what He desires though. And now, in less than two years time, we have voted to relocate, purchased property, hired an architect, developed a five-phase master plan, finalized the plans for an initial 21,000 square foot facility and all of this with a sweet, loving, unified spirit among our church! That has no explanation other than God's leading.
Those details alone are amazing, but in addition to all that, God is sending the workers to build our church! Carpenters for Christ, a volunteer labor group that builds churches has partnered with us. We will have the dirt work, foundation, plumbing stubs and metal frame for the sanctuary ready when they begin arriving the first week of June, and at that point they will be sending teams throughout the summer for 10-17 weeks to complete the work. In the first two weeks alone, we will go from the foundation and metal sanctuary frame to completely dried in!!! We will most likely be in our new facility by late fall THIS YEAR!!! (I think I need more that 3 exclamation marks for that!)
So for us, God has been awe-inspiring all throughout this process. But we are so excited about the people around us beginning to see His awe-inspiring work. Tears come to my eyes as I think about an entire church building coming together in such a short period of time...it is going to be amazing to see! We are anxiously anticipating the testimony this will be to our community...that when God's people follow His leading, He will do wonders among us! On our own, I think everyone of us knows we aren't capable of such a task. But, "with God all things are possible." I think that is the most exciting part about this to me...who are we to be used by God? We aren't anything special. Just willing. It is humbling and wonderful to know that God is allowing us to be part of something bigger than we can accomplish on our own.
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We will be thinking about you and praying for you during this process.
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