Brand New Church Salem- Temporary Home

This past Sunday was our first official Sunday for Brand New Church Salem campus. We met in a building at the fairgrounds instead of my living room.

To say we were excited would definitely be an understatement!

 

We met up at the building on Saturday along with the help of Sonic Happy Hour and a late night pizza run. Because really, what brings people together better than Jesus and food? Can I get an Amen?! :)

 

 

The guys worked hard plugging in wires, connecting this and that, setting up mikes and speakers.

And because we are classy ( and also frugal right now ) we used a sheet for our projector screen. It worked perfectly!

 

After a long day of getting things set up and lots of trips back and forth to our homes and Dollar General for this and that, we hit it hard early the next morning too.

 

 

We got the snack/drink table all set up. And my mom loaned us an olive green percolator from the 70's. Praise God it worked!

Starbucks never tasted so good!

 

And I had the sweetest little helpers who were so eager to stack up the fruit and snacks on the platters. But they were truly most interested in helping with the coffee.

And then once they had poured in the grinds and plugged it in- "Is the coffee ready yet?"

" How about now?"

Love that!

That's how we do it at Brand New Church Salem.

We teach the kids how to brew coffee:)

#futurebaristas!

#trainthemupright

 #notheydidnotdrinkanythatimawareof

 

 

And also because we like to keep things interesting, we made a few calls on our banana phones!:)

Hello!

 

The worship guys practiced (sorry for the blurry picture).

And things really started moving in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

But before all this happened, the devil really tried sneaking in to steal our joy.

 

You see the devil likes to do that sort of thing.
He thrives on darkness and ugly situations. And he really jumps at the chance to kick us while we're down or prey on our weakness and doubts. The devil does not want us to succeed in spreading the love of Jesus. He doesn't want everyone in Salem or any other town for that matter, to fall at the feet of Jesus and get saved from the flames of Hell.

He wants us to sit around in our misery, despair and brokenness.

What a jerk.

 

We were all tired and stressed and couldn't quite see the end picture. Things weren't going the way we thought they should and some of us were feeling down right defeated and ready to give up.

The devil LOVES that.

In fact he was probably giving himself a pat on the back.

 

But guess what?
We serve an awesome God who NEVER abandons us.
Especially when we are down and out and can't see the light, He still shines!

 

Romans 8:31 says it so perfectly.

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?"

 

Psalm 18:28-29

"You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop;with my God I can scale a wall."

 

We had the upper hand in this situation. We chose to let the devil defeat us in that moment.

We worried unneccesarily.

We had our own expectations and weren't fully relying on God.
God is our constant companion! He goes before us to prepare the way AND He walks alongside of you.
There really could never be a more constant Companion.

 

Before the night was over,we came to our senses.

 

" For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lifet you up in their hands, so that you will not stike your foot against a stone."

Psalm 92:11-12

 

"The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace."

Psalm 29:11

 

He has brought us so far and already opened so many doors for us in Salem. And we are not alone.

He surely isn't going to kick us to the curb now.

What we really should have done is stop everything, got down on our knees and prayed to the ONE and ONLY God who is in charge of it ALL.

 

 

 

Are you struggling with something today? Or feeling defeated by life and circumstances?

I want you to know that I pray for each and every person who's eyes read this blog. I pray that somehow, someway it will brighten your day if you need it. Or it will be a resource of hope if you need it.

And if you ever want to ask questions or dive deeper into God's love for you, I would be so pleased and honored to chat with you.
The greatest gift is available to YOU 24/7, 365 days of the year.
And it's FREE.
No strings attached.
Who wouldn't want it?

You can leave a comment or find my email information on the sidebar.

 

For all of you reading this today, I have a small favor with a BIG reward.

Would you pray for our little town? Would you pray for our church who is ready to do BIG things in people's lives and in our town? Would you pray for strength amongst our church and it's leaders? And would you pray that people will flood the doors of our church seeking Him?

 

I am nearly in tears as I type this and think about how far I have come in my walk with God. I am so grateful to have this platform here to share His love with you in this very dark and depressing world.

Thank you for reading my little blog and for praying.

 

You mean so much to me!

I hope you have a wonderful day!