April is here! We are inching closer and closer to our big day in September. We have had an amazing month of seeing God's goodness work through and in Ascent. I am excited to share some of our praises and request with you. Praise Reports1. We made our very first investment in missions! We had the cool opportunity to be a part of God’s grand mission this past month. We were in the middle of teaching on our vision to be a church that seeks to spread the name of Jesus - throughout our local community, the state, nation and world - when we heard of a need that another church plant had. They needed around $2,000 and as they shared the need with Taylor and I, we felt like the Spirit was leading us to do more than only ask our team to pray for them. It was like the Holy Spirit was saying, “You want to invest in missions, here is your opportunity.” I was terrified to take up an offering because we are a church plant ourselves! We are raising money for our mission and here I was about to ask our team for more money to giveaway. I always say that our God is bigger than our needs and that faith isn’t faith until it might not work; this was my chance to prove what I say with my actions - so we took up an offering. We didn’t collect the goal of $2,000 - we collected $2,800 to send off to another church plant! How cool is that? We aren’t even holding weekly services as a church and were able to invest in God’s mission. I don’t share that to brag on us, but rather so you can praise God for it. It was the generosity of our team that made that happen. 2. God has shown us He is a provider; again! I mentioned that one of my fears - albeit selfish - was that we needed to be raising money ourselves. We have a lot of major purchases coming up and yet we felt called to give some of our money to someone else. If we were a brand new business everyone would think we were foolish, but we aren’t a business. We are a family of servant missionaries serving the mission of King Jesus. In the week following our offering for the other church plant, we received three unexpected checks in the mail that made up for and actually exceeded the amount we gave away. How cool is that? The blessing was in being able to give - but what we received in return was a display of God’s goodness to us. I pray that you would pour out praise to God for this and I also pray that this serves as an encouragement for you to personally live with faith. Trust God when He leads you to sacrifice, He is worthy of trust and won't let you down. He is truly a good, good Father! 3. Continued Interest in Ascent We continue to receive inquiries and messages everyday from people who are interested in Ascent. The coolest part is that many - actually most - of these questions are coming from people who have no connection to Jesus or a local church. This is an answered prayer in and of itself. One of the biggest oppositions I wrestled with personally when discerning the call to plant in Woodward was the idea that Woodward had enough churches. I thought that everyone who wanted to go to church had a church and those who weren't interested already had their mind made up that they weren't going. God convinced Taylor and I that this wasn’t the case, but the enemy has been ruthless in attacking us with this claim. We have had some well meaning - and some not so well meaning - people tell us that we were foolish for planting in the bible belt. However, God has blown us away with the response of broken and spiritually dry people yearning for what only Jesus can provide. Please praise God for this with us. We aren’t starting Ascent to reach those already in the family God, we want our mission to be the same as our King's, “to seek and save the lost”. Through His Spirit we believe we accomplish just that. The Lord has been working in the lives of many people in NW Oklahoma to prepare them for a moment with Jesus. I truly believe that Ascent will see many of them come to know and follow Him through our church plant. Your prayers for us and the area are making a true difference. Thank you! Prayer Request1. Please pray for our first interest meeting and team growth. On April 14th, we will be hosting our first interest meeting. This will be a time for us to meet a lot of new people, share the vision of Ascent and give them an opportunity to join the journey with us. Will you be in prayer over this upcoming Sunday? You can pray that God would give me wisdom and favor when presenting the vision. You can also pray that our team would have the courage to invite our friends and family that need the life-giving presence of Jesus. Finally, please pray for those attending. We are praying that even if they don’t know the love of God, they would be able to experience a taste of it through the way we love them on the 14th! 2. Please pray for our worship leader search We ask that you continue to pray for our worship leader position. I believe God is moving in a big way! I have a meeting coming up that was just too coincidental to be a coincidence. Please pray over that meeting. I am hoping that I will be able to move this from the request category to the praise report section soon! It has been neat to watch God answer our prayers and I am excited to see Him continue to do so as He builds His church through us. 3. Those searching for Jesus I am asking that you join us in prayer for those who are in the process of seeking Jesus for the first time - some of whom will be visiting our interest meeting this Sunday. Just yesterday, I was notified that two men who have never been a part of a church are going to be coming to our meeting. One of which will be coming with his wife who has tried to get him to be apart of a church for years. Both men said they are coming in hopes that this will be different than what they’ve experienced in the past. It makes me want to cry and shout for joy all at the same time because men like that are exactly who we are starting Ascent for. Those who wrongly believe Jesus and His people are all about rules and regulations - we are coming to (re)present Jesus for who He really is; the giver of life. Will you pray that these men experience Jesus for who you and I know Him to be? Will you pray that they hear the good news clearly and for the first time possibly begin to believe it? Will you pray that they find a judgment free, gospel saturated environment on Sunday? Thank YouI am beyond grateful for each and everyone of you. Your support, prayers and kind words have been used greatly by God in my life. I always say it, because its always true, we couldn’t do this without you! As always, I’d be honored to pray over any request you might have. Please let me know how I can be praying for you by emailing me at pastorblakefarley@gmail.com
If you’d like to read prayer reports from previous months you can do so by clicking, here . Until next time, Blake
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