July Prayer Team Update

​We have had a BUSY month here at Ascent -which is why you haven’t received your physical newsletter yet for this month! I truly apologize for that. We are moving into an apartment in Woodward and for those of you who have moved you know how hard keeping life organized can be! Ha. With that said, the newsletters are scheduled to be stuffed and sent out by Wednesday. Thank you again for taking the time to pray over our prayer requests each month.
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Without further wait, here are this month’s praise reports and prayer requests.

Praise Reports

#1 Together, we raised the $18,000 goal for the church equipment ​

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​For those of you who might of missed it, at the beginning of June we were offered an amazing deal on church equipment. We were planning on raising $81,000 to buy a package similar to this one, but in God’s providence another church planter offered us all of their equipment for $18,000! What a blessing. The only catch was that we had to raise it in 4 weeks time because this church plant needed the money by the end of June.

That is a lot of money to raise in a short amount of time, but with God no number is too big! The cheesy preacher in me would say something like, “If it’s God’s will, it’s God’s bill!”

He always provides the resources we need for His mission and He showed up big time. In fact, we not only raised the $18,000 we needed, but rather a total of $23,000 in four short weeks!

Praise God! Together we did that. It wouldn’t have been possible if you didn’t give and pray for the mission of Ascent. I’m so thankful that we are surrounded by so many people like you who are obedient to the calling of the Holy Spirit when he leads you to give!
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#2 Our launch team meetings are off to a great start! ​

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​On June 30th, we began weekly launch team meetings in preparation for our September 15th launch. Up to this point we have been focused on bringing new people onto our team - and while that is still a focus - we are now in season of strengthening our current team.

We have had three meetings so far and they have been well attended by people passionate about helping us start a new life-giving church. Thank you for praying over these meetings and I ask that you continue to do so!
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#3 Taylor and I had a refreshing vacation!

​​Church planting is a weird season. There is so much work that goes into starting a church from the legal administration, pastoral duties, facility negotiations, social media, follow-up, outreach planning, outreach execution and I could go on! It’s a lot. I don’t tell you that so you feel sorry for me, I tell you that so you feel sorry for my wife! Ha. Taylor has been an amazing support to me and does a lot of work for Ascent. In addition to that, she is a full time student and makes sure our home stays in order.

For that reason I was so excited to spend a week away from everything to relax and refresh on vacation. While I was scared to leave work behind, I knew it was necessary for the health of our marriage and spiritual life.

It was amazing and I was reminded of this - God is in control. When I returned home the world hadn’t melted and the work I thought needed to be completed was just fine to wait another week. I think sometimes we think we are more important than we really are. God is good and in control. When we truly believe that in our hearts it is easy to rest in Him.

Thank you for praying over our vacation and let this serve as a reminder that you need to rest in Him also. Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is to take a nap!
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Prayer Requests

#1 Pray over our Serve Day impact.

​​On July 13th, Ascent had the opportunity to demonstrate the love of Jesus to Woodward. Our goal was to help as many people in practical ways as possible on that day. We were able to help out with projects at the middle school, serve breakfast to the local fire department, mow lawns, visit nursing homes, give a way surprise treats to the community and end the evening with a party in the park of an apartment complex complete with inflatables, corn hole and hot dogs! 

It was an awesome day of pouring ourselves out for the Kingdoms sake! Will you please pray that the community feels the love of the Savior and that our people get a passion for serving others in everyday life? Most importantly, pray that these acts of love would lead to Gospel conversations moving forward!
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#2 Pray for our ongoing fundraising. ​

​​We are so blessed to have raised the $18,000 necessary to buy the bulk of our equipment, but we still have a ways to go before we are fully funded. We still need about $17,000 more to buy the rest of our equipment and to fund our major outreaches leading up to launch. In addition to that, we are working to raise consistent monthly supporters to help us with the normal day to day cost of running a church. Would you pray that God continues to show us favor in fundraising? Also, would you consider making a one time gift or becoming a monthly partner?

You can sign up for monthly giving anytime at: myascent.churchcenter.com 

Or mail a gift to
205826 East County Road 49
Sharon, OK 73857
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#3 Pray over our personal mission opportunity. 

​​As I mentioned above, we moved into an apartment this weekend and I’d love for you to pray for our personal ministry opportunity. We really wanted a house and felt like the door was being shut on us - it was really frustrating. 
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We now see that God wasn’t keeping us from something, He was giving us an invitation to be a part of something! We have some dear friends and launch team members who already live in this apartment complex and they have been given many opportunities to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel to others living there. This complex is a huge Gospel opportunity!

We are so excited to begin having cookouts and getting to know our neighbors so that we can invite them to believe the Good News found in Jesus. We believe that is what it is all about! Being everyday people making disciples in everyday life. Pray that we would have favor with our neighbors and that God would use us to draw many to Himself.

Thank You

Thank you so much for your generosity. Your generosity with kind words, time, prayers and financial support. I am so proud to be a part of this with 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 [email protected]

If you’d like to read prayer reports from previous months you can do so by clicking, here.

​Until next time, 
Blake