Sunday, November 30, 2008

We had a successful opening in Playa

The numbers don't tell the whole story but we had a 115 adults and 20 kids at our first worship service in the movie theater in Playa.

Today is Launch Day for the new Church in Playa

2 Thessalonians 3:1 (The Message)
1-3One more thing, friends: Pray for us. Pray that the Master's Word will simply take off and race through the country to a ground-swell of response, just as it did among you. And pray that we'll be rescued from these scoundrels who are trying to do us in. I'm finding that not all "believers" are believers. But the Master never lets us down. He'll stick by you and protect you from evil.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Only Two Days until Church Launch in Playa

PRAY PRAY PRAY only two more days.....

There are many things I wish we had more time for, like getting the word out about this new church but ready or not Sunday is going to be the first day in the Movie theater for our Spanish side of the church.

Pray that the people will come out and that
God would build a great church in Playa from this start......

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving to all.



We had over 130 people come out for Thanksgiving dinner at the church today. Darla and I both are still getting over this bug and were unable to eat. It was hard to see all that food and not trust your stomach... We are both feeling much better tonight and I did eat for the first time in three days tonight. We have so much to be thankful for and one is your friendship and prayers.




Thanks


Wednesday, November 26, 2008

There is no good time for a stomach bug

Darla and I both need your prayers. While there is never a good time for a stomach bug the day before Thanksgiving when you have already invited 200 people over to eat might be the worst time. I am feeling better today but Darla is still out of it..... We have so much going on.... We not only have the Thanksgiving meal tomorrow but we are also launching the church in Playa on Sunday..... PLEASE PRAY>..

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Handing out fliers in the Mall


We had a great day of worship today in Paamul and this afternoon we handed out about 6000 fliers promoting our new service in the Mall that will start next week.


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Red Tape and more battles.

We need your prayers as we try to get the word out about our new worship service in Playa.
We have paid for a place in the Mall to set up a table and hand out fliers but in normal Mexico style we are still working on the paper work and political red tape. On top of this, Mayo, one of our leaders who is helping us with paperwork, well his father had a stroke on Tuesday and he is ICU in the hospital in Cancun.

We hope to have a meeting today with the lawyer to work out all the paperwork. They say it is just a formality but we need to hand these fliers out.

Other prayers need:

We are planing a Thanksgiving dinner outreach to the English Speakers in Paamul. We hope to have 200+ for Thanksgiving dinner on the 27th.

We need your prayer for the launch of this new service in Playa on the 30th. We are going to be moving the meeting time in Paamul to 8:30am and the the service in Playa will start at 10:15am.
I am a little nervous about the set up time this first week in Playa. Pray for our Team and for the lost people here who need the Lord but don't know it yet.


We for Pastor Terry and Debbie Hill they are planing to moving down in Jan. They are going to be a great blessing as we are going to be able to do more to reach the English speakers together.

Friday, November 14, 2008

A Day in the Airports

Today we are headed back home to Playa. We had a great time at the conference in Victoria Tx. this week. We met many new friends from all over the U.S.

We need your prayers for our weekend services. We are planing to start handing fliers Monday in the Mall to start building excitement for our church launch Nov. 30th. Please pray!

Monday, November 10, 2008

We are in Corpus Christi Texas

Darla and I are in Corpus Christi Texas today. We are going to be attending a church growth conference in Victoria TX. this week. A couple that visited our church in Paamul invited us up so we are excited to be here and looking forward to what God has for us. Pray that we will learn some things that can we help us IMPACT Playa Del Carmen. Also pray the we can avoid what Nelson Searcy talks the number church pitfall, Conference Confusion.


#1 - Conference “Confusion” - This is a illness that church planters (and many young pastors) get. They go to a conference and get really excited about the host church, the speakers, and the model being presented, that they go home and immediately try to change everything to match what the conference speaker was teaching. The problem is, once the next conference comes around, they go home and try to do the same thing. What happens is that after a short amount of time, the church loses its original vision and it becomes a Frankenstein church that’s a strange blend of a bunch of conference ideas and church models.
What cures this illness? Getting very clear from the beginning about your vision and sticking to it.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Out of the boat once again!

Sometimes as you start a new church God will ask you to get out of the boat, to put it all on the line for His glory. Getting out of the boat is scary but when God has called you it is even more scary to stay in the comfort of that boat. We are planing to launch this new work on Nov. 30th. We are putting all the money we have into this church start..... The cost are great but the people of Playa need a great church. We are praying that lives will be changed as they connect with our church.

We rented a place in the largest Mall today. This will be my church office for the next few months. We are printing banner and we are going to put an information table in the center of the Mall. We are renting the movie theater for the Sunday service in Spanish. We are changing our time for the English service in Paamul to 8:30am.

We need you to Pray!
We need you to give, no gift is too small nor for that matter too big.
WE need help getting the word out, if you want to help us hand out fliers in the Mall. email
Doug@church-in-playa.com

Pray for our Sunday services in Paamul
Pastor Terry Hill will be preaching in the English service this Sunday.
Pray for our small group bible study in English that met our house tonight.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Pastor's Conference in Mexico City


We are here in Mexico City at a Conference for Pastors of International Churches. We are staying with our friends the Sassers . We have made many new friends here that are facing many of the same difficulties we face. It has been a great week of fellowship.