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We’re excited to say we’re going to our first church planting conference in April. From the 19th through the 22nd we’ll be in sunny Orlando. Check it out at: http://www.exponentialconference.org. It looks like it’ll be like trying to drink from a fire hose, but we’re excited to take in as much as we can. A special thanks to CRC Home Missions for their support in helping us cover the expenses to attend. We’re looking forward to it!
P.S. If you’re interested with some of the topics, but don’t want to make the trip to FL, they’ll post several of the sessions as free podcasts. You can download them from their main site.
Hi Everyone,
We are back safe and sound from our trip to Denver. All in all it was a great trip packed with meetings. We landed at DIA on Sunday, Feb. 7 – unfortunately it meant we were in the air for the Super Bowl. But it was well worth it. We stayed with Nate’s Uncle Henk and Aunt Pam – thank you guys once again.
On Monday we began by meeting with Pastor Tom Draayer from 3rd CRC. Tom graciously drove us around several neighborhoods and allowed us to pick his brain about the Denver area. That afternoon we then met with the Shawn Sikkema, Paul Jorden, and Rick Ebbers – the Denver Cluster lead team. We spent some quality time in prayer and talked details for a couple of hours. That pretty much wrapped up the day.
Tuesday began early, as we attended 3rd CRC’s men’s bible study. Sam was the only female present, and she was even bold enough to wear a skirt to it. After that we moved to breakfast with a couple of the leaders at 3rd CRC to consider how they might partner with the Cluster in planting in Denver. The third meeting of the day was with the Classical Home Missions Committee who shared our excitement, encouraged us, and prayed over us. It was a powerful experience. After lunch with the committee we drove on over to 1st CRC and met with some of their leaders and there too talked about how 1st might partner with the Cluster in planting. Tuesday came to a close with some quality time with family.
Wednesday was much more relaxed and meeting free. We spent some time driving around some of the prospective neighborhoods and even briefly looked at possible homes to rent. We then flew home that afternoon.
Overall the trip was very encouraging. We left reaffirmed in God’s call on our lives. We were pleased with the conversations we had and the progress we made. There are still many details to work out, but we are set to move in April and we look forward to what God has in store. Please keep us in prayer in all of this – especially the time of transition we’re about to enter into. We’ll also be up in the Denver area again for a classis meeting during the first week in March. We’re going to take a couple of extra days to do some house hunting and meet with a few more folks too. It’ll be one more step in our journey. 🙂
Thank you for all your love and support. Feel free to drop us a line.
Peace,
Nate and Sam
That’s right. We’ve joined the Tweeting world! Check us out at: http://twitter.com/DeJongMcCarron. Our updates will also appear along the left side of our blog’s homepage. If you tweet let us know and we can connect that way too.
Peace,
Nate and Sam
Hi Everyone,
Our plans are beginning to take shape. A week from now we’ll be meeting with a few Denver area pastors in the Mile High city. There we’ll work out a number of the details surrounding our residency with Christian Reformed Home Missions and the beginning of our church planting efforts. We’ll be there from February 7-10. You all have blessed us so much and we ask for your prayers in these meetings. Please pray for guidance in our conversations and pray for that we come to some Spirit led conclusions.
We are looking forward to this gathering and we believe God will keep working to bring us to the Denver area. We continue to be encouraged as we pray, read, and talk about planting. We’re also very encouraged by your support – your comments in passing, your notes, your prayers are all valued. Thank you.
We’ll be sure to update you all when we return.
Peace,
Nate and Sam
natedejongmccarron
Sparks of Faith 