The Wehrles

This has been a fun week! Jesus has truly been at work in our lives (the Wehrles) and at work in the life of this new church we are helping to start.

First of all, we praise God for Gabe’s continued healing. His last surgical scope one week ago yielded good news. More surgery has been postponed for a month. His airway looks very good!

My trip to Taylor University (for my 15th reunion) was fruitful. It was wonderful to be back on the Upland, Indiana campus where I truly sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit preparing young people to go out and serve the Kingdom. I have found myself thinking often since the visit that I would really enjoy teaching there. I may have to do that in another 20 years. Anyway, I was also able to see some old friends and make some exciting new ones. I am confident that these will become financial and prayer supporters of Trinity. I also made contact with several students, three of whom are seriously considering joining us for a year of working on the church start.

We have not yet mailed our “virtue capital” support letters. Those will go out on Monday. Please pray that recipients would be moved by God to give financially to this church start. It takes money to do ministry!

We have been developing a relationship with the pastor of a nearby United Methodist Church.  He is very supportive of our church plant and is thinking of ways for his church to partner with us.  Next week, David will speak at their missions conference to share about the mission of planting a new church in Cleveland.

This week, I rode with the sheriff around Cleveland Township and Johnston County. It was an eye opening experience and gave me a much better look at the demographics of our target here. Please pray for Cleveland. There are tremendous needs and very few churches and other organizations working here.

Trinity will be hosting a “Just 4 Them” event on Halloween. We hope that this will be the first of many more such events with the purpose of purely loving and serving our neighbor. On Halloween, we will set up a few grills and some tables outside the Wehrle home and provide hotdogs, chips and Cokes to hungry trick-or-treaters who may not have had time for a meal. Fliers will go out to several hundred homes a few days in advance of the event.  We are excited that one neighbor we have reached out to called us up and asked to help with the event.

Janet attended one of those women’s “home parties” this week and met several neighbors.  (It was a little daunting to walk into a party where I didn’t know anyone, but the church planter’s mentality of making contacts has given me boldness!).  One woman seemed especially interested in hearing more about our church.  She fits into a category of people that seem to prevalent in our neighborhood- transplants from New Jersey or New England who have a Catholic background and are looking for a church that has tradition but also a relevant message.

As we continue to make contacts (our goal is 30 new contacts per week minimum), interest in meeting together continues to grow. This month we will brainstorm with 3 or 4 families about starting our first neighborhood community group right in our own neighborhood. These groups are longterm small groups that will seek to build community and be the church in the neighborhood. We hope these groups will move beyond traditional small groups and be vitalized building blocks of the church.

Please pray with us for:

• Gabe’s healing.
• Taylor’s continued work in raising up new generations of Christian leaders. Students and Taylor alumni who are considering partnering with Trinity.
• Virtue captial campaign.
• Cleveland Township.
• Halloween Just-4-them event.
• The beginnings of the Trinity neighborhood group program.
• Partnership with neighboring Mount Zion United Methodist/David’s preaching.
• Janet’s connection with women in the community.

Thanks for praying with and for us!!!