long overdue update

good friday morning! it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood and a slow morning in the office. mom has been after me to be more consistent with my updates and i do apologize for being so negligent with those. that in mind, i am trying out this blog idea to see if it will help me be more diligent to keep my praying friends and family updated! i've been in baltimore for 10 months now (or ten months next wednesday). while not many non-natives find the city too enticing, i have fallen quickly and deeply in love with it and have been blessed by the work taking place here.

while i know summer has long passed, heaven's victories are still fresh so let me share some of those with you!

• 31 of our 74 churches hosted 34 Vacation Bible Schools with 234 children coming to faith in Christ.

• 10 of our churches hosted 29 Upward Sports Camps with another 129 professions of faith.

• 10 more churches hosted other sports camps with 67 salvations.

• overall, we had some 160 evangelistic events taking places in our churches and communities all throughout the city this year

• Hundreds of national volunteers from all over the country invaded our city with the love of Christ and hearts to serve. Hundreds more from our own local churches decided to be pro-active with the love of Jesus and began (some for the first time!) to embrace their local communities and love on their neighbors through evangelistic outreach and service.

it has been a tremendous summer. these results may not seem too earth shattering for those of you who, like me, were born and raised in the Bible belt, but keep in mind this is a city that scores 2nd highest in the nation for a whole slew of statistics that no one wants to claim - high school drop-outs, teen pregnancy, AIDS, and homicide among them. furthermore we are serving with an association of churches that for some time now have simply been existing and in some cases just surviving. the joy that we are now experiencing comes from seeing several of these churches go from survival mode to rebirth and renewal. the members are becoming engaged and burdened with the needs around them, and our church leaders are gaining a vision for how to connect with the local community and make a difference in the lives of their neighbors.

the great prayer need now is for this burst of new life to be deeply rooted in the foundation of the Holy Spirit's power and provision. vision is a wonderful thing until it becomes just a man's vision. please pray...

• that our churches be wholly submitted and surrendered to the Lordship of Christ
• that they would develop self-sustaining strategies for doing Kingdom work
• that they would NOT grow weary in doing good
• that pastors would have wisdom and discipline in raising up leaders and disciples
• that church members would fully engage and become more than pew-fillers
• that the local unbelievers would begin to see church as a relevant and real body
• that Christ would burden believers to truly LIVE as believing and Christ-following people

this week i had the privilege of hosting a Vacation Bible School 2009 planning meeting here in our office. 16 churches and 21 people attended! this is a great praise report considering a couple of things.
1.) our churches rarely get on board for early planning (this is NOVEMBER talking about SUMMER 09 events!)
2.) with so many churches accustomed to being unengaged in the association and operating entirely on their own, 16 churches coming out for such a meeting is a great success

additionally, just giving them an opportunity to be in a room with that many other churches and church leaders and allowing them talk time to share stories and ask questions and network was a great joy as well. as the association we get to be the "connector" for these churches, but as a general rule they rarely come together to share and benefit in this way, so to help facilitate that was very exciting.

this month also offered me the wonderful blessing of being able to fly down to Albemarle, North Carolina to spend a few days sharing with the local churches there about the work happening in Baltimore. their association, stanly county, was hosting an On Mission Celebration and i had the privilege of spending a few days getting to know 27 other missionaries serving all across the globe. the public speaking was great practice as well! :) it was a blessing-filled week!

and to close up my october i had a weekend visit from jered, my sweet big brother. i admit homesickness has been tough on me lately, so it was so good to get a visit from "home." i believe thanksgiving will be spent in newport news, VA with an aunt and uncle there, but i am looking forward to Christmas already as i will get a chance to spend some much needed time at home in Arkansas.

so, there is a bit of an update, i apologize for the lengthiness and delay in getting it written! perhaps, i'll be better about these if i can become a faithful blogger! :) big wonderful fall blessings on each of you and thanks for your faithfulness to pray for me and to read these long, rambling updates!

much love from the city!
maria