Prayer mail 10-9-08

"I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations." Psalm 89:1

God is so good! I sense God's presence and power with every step I take. It is such a blessing to be doing what God wants me to do, and know and to feel His approval. That is the way I feel about the ministry here at The River right now. I know there will be difficult days, but for right now I am basking in God's unparalleled blessings!

I have been waiting, sometimes not very patiently, for our first Bible study for The River and we finally had it this Wednesday! It went great! There was good attendance with 18 people in total attendance with several people who planned to come but did not make it for one reason or another. I began a three part series called "How to Spend a Day With God". It went very well. We are struggling with meeting at Rembrandt's Coffee House. Wednesday night is a pretty good night to meet, not as big of crowd, but we are in a room right next to the counter and the blenders and counter noise is very distracting. Pray for us to come up with a great solution. I love being at Rembrandt's, everybody knows where it is, it is a very popular place in Eagle, but if God has anther option, pray that I will hear Him clearly and be willing to follow His lead.

As a church, we are in the core building stage. My focus is on building a core of committed believers who can and will carry on the bulk of the ministry. At that same time I am putting together my staff and leadership team. I am finally talking to someone with experience and availability that may take on our Children's ministry! Please pray, I have said this before, but this is a key position as Eagle is VERY family oriented and we need to have a significant ministry to Children if we are going to really reach into the community. Please continue to pray for the other staff positions I have mentioned previously. There are two very qualified pastors who are ready to make commitments to The River and begin raising support. I hope to announce their names to you soon so you may pray for them individually. I am still looking for a worship leader/team and a youth leader. Again very vital parts to reaching the non churched in our area. And having a worship leader is key to starting any preview services, without one, we will not begin.

While I am doing all that I can to build the core group, I am still reaching out to people in our community who are far from God. I have been building a relationship with a man at my gym for a couple of months and I asked him to come to our Bible study last week. He was speechless, in fact could not speak to me for at least 10 minutes. It was the first time he found out that I am a pastor and I think he was replaying everything he had said to me (not Godly stuff to say the least...) and had no idea how to respond. I don't think he has ever considered God as an option. On Tuesday I was in the middle of a set of sit ups and he sat next to me and just began to vomit out his life, bad choices, issues in his marriage, issues with his step children (18 & 20 yrs). It just poured out of him for about 10 minutes. Then all of a sudden he realized where we were and jumped up to leave. I had finished my sit ups, put my hand on his shoulder and asked if I could pray for him. Again, speechless... he looked around and said, "Th... th... this is not an appropriate place." He was very uncomfortable so I said no problem, He could go his way, but I wanted him to know that I would pray for him, and he bolted! Haven't seen him for two days, but that's not that unusual. Pray for this man, his name is Bob and he really needs the Lord! Pray for more opportunities, divine appointments, where I can gently weave in the message of God's grace, and that he would respond. This is why I am here! I love these conversations.

Praise God that Cathy continues to heal. She told me that Tuesday was the first day she had no headache and she could actually feel her finger tips! More progress! Two steps up, one step back. God is healing her, slowly but surely. Thank you Lord for Galen Danielson, owner of Rehab Authority, who volunteered to treat her physical therapy for free. We could not have done it without him. As for her job, she took in a letter to announce her leaving and looking for another job. Her manager decided she really needed her so she designed a job for her as a co-teacher in a 2-3 year old class. She was offered a regular schedule and less chaos. Cathy and I have prayed about this a lot. In fact this week I was praying and fasting asking for God to do something significant. We feel He has. It will not be perfect, far from it, unfortunately, the center is more concerned about accomplishing their goals and business than they are in loving and nurturing children. And Cathy is all about loving and nurturing. She believes the co-teaching position might work well. The biggest variables, besides their erroneous theory of child care, is if her manager can manage to let her staff do their jobs and not create additional chaos. It should be interesting to see if she can. Keep praying for Cathy, she has been the light of Christ at her place of business. I am very proud of her as she has maintained integrity and worked hard in the face of adversity and physical discomfort and pain, all the time keeping a smile on her face. She is ministering to the workers, loving the children, and looking forward to extending that loving care to the parents of the children she works with.

We had someone volunteer to give us a complete portable sound system with a built out 20' trailer to haul it with last spring. We have been trying to follow up on this offer, but there have been several snags, mostly with people being out of town . Pray that we can make the necessary connection and that the offer still stands... and that if we are going to get this equipment that we can get it by November 1 so we can learn the system and be able to use it; that is if we have our first preview service on November 23rd. Pray that either the offer for equipment comes through or that God will provide other options for a sound system and equipment transportation.

Thank you for your prayers and support!
God bless

Dave Griewe
1-208-570-3732
http://www.riverchristianchurch.com/