Update Tuesday 29/03/11

Well, it has been a busy week with a lot going on behind the scenes.  Let me share a few exciting things that have been going on this past week.
Firstly, I have been offered an invitation to the annual Southern Baptist Convention to be held in Phoenix Arizona in June.   This is in conjunction with a new focus of the North American Mission Board on church planting and I would be one of the Canadian representatives.  Along with attending the conference I would be hosting a shift at the NAMB booth in the exhibit hall in order to meet people and to share about our new work.  If you think you might be attending the convention then have a look for me at the exhibit boot, or better yet, send me an e-mail and we can see about connecting at some point over the week.
Secondly, we have begun to get the paper work together for an official offer on a new house in Hamilton.  The paper work  is being inspected by a lawyer as I write, to ensure there is nothing that we have missed.  We really hope that we might be able to have it all signed by this week.  We would ask for your continued prayer on that front.  We are really getting excited about our new neighbourhood!  I would also ask for your prayers regarding the relationships that we are beginning to form with our real-estate agent Julie, and with the couple who are renovating the house, Regan and Mark.  They are all great people and we are interested in what God may do with these relationships that He has brought into our lives.
Lastly, (at least for this update...I could go on telling stories forever but for your sake I have tried to narrow it down) I wanted to share with you a new prayer initiative I am starting.  I got the basis for this idea from other church planters in our Sanctuary Network and tweaked it a bit to fit our context.  I have shared with some of you about the idea this past week and so wanted to share it with the wider group and invite your participation.  I have identified each street in our new neighbourhood and am trying to enlist prayer support from individuals, groups or churches for each street.  It would mean a particular group taking ownership to pray on an ongoing and consistent basis for one street that runs through our neighbourhood.    I imagine groups having fun looking at the street on Google street view, praying, and should the opportunity arise for a visit, then prayer walking on the street.  I would commit to sending updates regarding anything that happens, or people that we meet on the street.  Looking farther into the future, my prayer would be that our prayer supporters would pray until we have a home group established in that neighbourhood that could take ownership of it themselves.   We would then invite our prayer supporters to partner with us as we shift to a new neighbourhood and repeat the process.  That is the basic concept as it stands thus far.  I know some of you have already expressed an interest in joining us in this initiative and if there is anyone else who is interested then I still have a handful of street names left.  Just send me an e-mail to let me know.
I think that is it for now, and we thank you for your continued support.