It’s been over a month since our last update, but both of our families were in South Carolina for a little while during the last month. We (the Davises) were in South Carolina for the wedding of Carissa’s brother, Hunter Sipe to Nikki Gershman, and then for vacation with Carissa’s family on an island near Charleston (Seabrook). It is great to have Nikki as an official member of the family now. Brode got to be in his first wedding. 
He did better than we feared he might do, and the rest of the wedding was great. It was also good to be with Carissa’s family. Ryan and Danielle got to spend some time with family too. Ryan was back in Greenville, SC for a few days of work in his home office, and then they went with Ryan’s family to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for some vacation.
We’re all back out here now, and we had anticipated that once we got back, we would start moving forward at an even faster pace to get the church going. That indeed seems to be happening. Our incorporation is done now, we’ve opened up a checking account for the church, and we’re trying to get all the material together necessary for official 501(c)(3) approval. Apparently, this is assumed, but we hear that it is wise to get the official stamp of approval, so we’re putting everything together for that purpose, which is a pretty tedious process. We’re also moving towards getting the preliminary website finished and ready to put on the internet. 
Ryan is doing a great job with this, especially considering the fact that he knew nothing about website development before he moved out here. We’re looking forward to getting that out there. We’re working on some other printed material that we can pass or mail out to people in the area too. Another thing we’re doing is joining the Chamber of Commerce in Brighton. They offer some very helpful services to corporations. I met with the Executive Director of the Chamber, and she also connected me with a lady who works for the Economic Development Corporation. They’re helping us as we look for a place to meet for Bible studies in the short term and a place for regular Sunday services in the long term. At this point, we’re hoping to get some studies going sometime in August moving towards services in the beginning of 2010 as the Lord allows. So, there’s a lot of groundwork to take care of, and we’d appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s help and blessings in these efforts.
At the same time, the Lord is beginning to allow us to make some good relationships. We have some new friends with whom we may be able to begin a Bible study, so we’re excited about that and would appreciate your prayers to the Lord for fruitful studies. There are also some families and individuals who have expressed an interest in the church plant in Brighton, and we are meeting with them to talk further. We continue to hear from people who do not even live in Colorado who are considering coming out here to help us. Please pray that the Lord will keep on working to connect us with people whom we can serve and with whom we can minister, fellowship, grow, and worship the Lord. It’s very encouraging and exciting to see God working in these ways, and we trust he’ll continue to do so. So, we have reason to thank and praise the Lord, but we’re also aware of our need for continual dependence on him and his purposes because we realize that we will likely have personal disappointments in the days ahead as things don’t go as we’d expect or hope. It’s good to know that Jesus Christ has it all under control though and that he will build his Church as he promised many years ago to do. We’ve got nearly two millennia of church history to prove the truth of his promise, so it’s exciting just to be one local church that’s part of the global and eternal Church that Jesus is building. This is the framework for our prayers, and we’re grateful to have you praying with us in the same way.
Please also pray for 7 people who are coming out here the last week of July to check out the area as part of their consideration of whether or not God is leading them out here to help us with this work. They are Matt and Kate LaCava, Neill Marks, Paul and Tara Hurst, and Randy and Rebecca Davis. We’re looking forward to their visit, and please pray that God would use their visit to give them further clarity on what he wants for them to do. In addition to showing them around the area and talking with them about our work and plans, we’re going to go out once or twice into some of the neighborhoods in our target area to pass out information about our church, gather more information about our community, and invite any interested people to some Bible studies we hope to begin in the area. Please pray for the Lord’s direction in planning and carrying out this effort and for his blessing on it. We’re hoping for some more relationships that will arise from this work that will allow us to share the good news of Christ with people and to form a core group for the church plant. We need God’s grace and power, so it’s good to know that he’s gracious and powerful.
As for other personal news, we get to find out this Wednesday whether we’re having a boy or girl, so that’s exciting. Carissa is doing well with the pregnancy. She’s also working now in her permanent job as a hygienist two days a week–Tuesday from 7am-2pm and Wednesday from 7am-4pm. This is a really good schedule for us, and she really enjoys her office, so we’re very thankful for this. Danielle’s work is going well, and please continue to pray for her as she gets used to a new and different work environment. I guess I can say the same for Ryan as he continues to work from home. Please also pray that the Lord will direct Ryan and Danielle to the right house he wants them to have. They have made an offer on a traditional sale home, and they have offers on two short-sale homes that they’re still waiting to hear back on. Meanwhile, they continue to look at some other houses. 
I think I’ve already mentioned that we’re building a house in the Brighton area. It’s moving ahead well. The footers and walls have been poured and the dirt filled back in around the foundation. Next, they’re pouring the garage floor and beginning to frame. These steps are supposed to take place this week, so it’s exciting to see the house going up. We’re all really looking forward to getting moved in to our target area in Brighton.
We all continue to enjoy Colorado. The weather has been pretty nice so far this summer. It’s very greenbecause of all the rain, which we hear is unusual . We all got to see our first funnel cloud about a month ago, and there were a couple of weeks with lots of tornado warnings or watches, but they don’t tend to touch down or do too much damage before they get a little further to the east in the plains. It was certainly a new experience for us though, but by the end of the stretch, we were pretty used to it all. We’ve gotten to go hiking a couple of times which we really enjoy. 
Ryan and I did a very fun and hard hike through a bunch of snow to a nearly 13,000-foot summit, and we all went hiking this last weekend in an area full of wildflowers. God is a glorious creator and sustainer of his world, and we’re blessed to be able to enjoy this particularly beautiful part of it.
God has been good in all his work in our lives, and we continue to experience his glory and greatness. It’s a wonderful privilege to be part of his work, but even more just to be his children. We’re grateful for your prayers on our behalf, and we’re grateful to God for his continued work in our lives to make us more like his Son and to grow us in our knowledge of him and love for him. Please pray that God uses us to extend this work into the lives of more and more people out here in Colorado.
