A New Year begins

Its hard to believe that we are almost at the end of January already. Certainly the New Year seems to have started at a fast pace. This month Carol and I managed to drive through the oncoming ice storm before it managed to shut down the city, and make our way to Jacksonville, Florida for the annual Winter Conference for the newly named, Anglican Mission in the Americas. This name change recognizes the growing influence and size of the mission in terms of new churches and new Anglican networks. The conference was a good time of celebration but also challenge to press on into the next stage of what the Lord has in store. The theme was taken from the text of Isaiah 54:

"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left;"Isaiah 54:2-3a

We then went on to spend a couple of nights together in San Antonio to celebrate Carol's birthday and our 28^th wedding anniversary before returning to Austin. Each way we also managed to stop off in Houston and see our grand-daughter Kate who is now crawling around and even standing up against things. All in all, we managed to cover a little over 2300 miles in 8 days!

We feel that we have entered 2007 with an increased sense of anticipation for what the Lord is going to to. It was good to have a Saturday morning of prayer with leaders earlier in the month and for them to spend an extended time in praying for and affirming Carol and me in our ministry. This was a wonderfully encouraging time for us and it was also good to be joined by Matt Kessler from the other AMiA church here in Austin. This past weekend at our corporate gathering, we prayed for and laid hands on a new group of young people, just setting out to start a new Home Church. Please pray for them and their leader Steven.

This Easter, Neil Cole (author of Organic Church) is the main speaker at Rez Week on the campus of the University of Texas. It looks like we are going to have Neil come and meet with us as a network which should be an encouraging time. It also gives us a chance to connect with other simple church networks here in the Central Texas area, including a network of Authentic Faith Communities on the UT campus. Please pray for new partnerships that this could bring into being.

Our own home church has grown to 14 people and now we are just getting to know one another as we grow and develop together. It is an exciting time and it is encouraging to see the people that the Lord is bringing into our fellowship.

Major prayer points:

1. Development of relationships in our growing home church

2. More of the Lord's favor and anointing upon our network and the churches within it.

3. Favor with other network leaders as we seek to work together and establish new relationships for God's greater good.

4. Openings and opportunities to share the gospel with those with whom we continue to build relationships outside the church.

5. Ongoing financial provision for the work.