Wow, so many things have happened since my first post! Sorry I have not posted regularly like I promised. These last seven months have been a whirlwind. When I posted in February we had a plan and a location. In early March some friends helped clear the land for the Prayer Annex. We set plans in motion to get the foundation poured and a building erected, but progress stalled out as we had trouble finding crews to do the work. Then, at the end of May we found a company who wanted to start right away. Within about one week we had a foundation poured and a steel building erected. A few short weeks later, Denise and I felt a stirring by the Lord that we were to sell our house and move to our lake house in Eastland right next to this project. After several clear confirmations, we prepared our house, put it on the market, sold it in a weekend and began the process of downsizing, remodeling our lake house and moving. During this time our daughter Ashlyn got married in Colorado and we moved our youngest daughter Avery into college.

So here we are in October, empty nesters, moved into our house (still remodeling) and the shell of a prayer building is in place. It is time for the next phase. Our first next steps include getting electricity and water hooked up to the building and then we want to begin bringing in volunteers to help us build out the interior rooms. We will also be looking for people to donate some of the materials (or money) to help us get the building and prayer garden completed. The land around the building needs to be landscaped to prevent soil run-off from the rain and help create a prayer garden in the back.

In my first blog post, I quoted Ephesians 2:10 and emphasized the last half of the verse about work prepared in advance. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God has been preparing this work long before He involved us. This time I want to point to the first half of the verse where we’re described as His workmanship, His creation. He has created us for a purpose. The hard part about knowing our purpose is that God doesn’t reveal everything to us all at once. I’ve been asked many times about this project. What are we doing and why are we doing it? The best answer I can give you today is that we are following God in faith. Please read our other web pages to get more details. This new building is not God’s workmanship, we are. 1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Over many years and through many different events, revelations and confirmations, God has shown us this direction. God is doing a work in Eastland Texas and has called us to join Him in this work. We are building something He has asked us to build. How God chooses to use it will become more clear some day in the future. Not a great sales pitch, I know. But I know the One who has authored all of this and that’s what makes it exciting. 

Please pray for us as we get settled in to our new community, as we seek the Lord in our next steps, as we follow in odedience to Him and as we work to complete the first building. 

Right now we are tentatively planning a volunteer Saturday in early November to help us with the landscaping around the building with a primary focus on preventing dirt runoff from around the foundation. I will provide an update post when we have our final plans in place.

1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.