What a weekend! It is so exciting to finally see all the prep work beginning to take shape! We are so blessed with an outstanding group of volunteers! Everyone is so hard-working and fun-loving - I can already tell that NSD is going to be a FUN place to be! I think our TEAM NSD members understand the WHY of what we're doing too. I think we're beginning to see what planting a NorthStar in our neighborhood will do- give people a safe place and an opportunity to find Christ and bring more meaning to their lives.
I wanted to share some of the cool moments over the last couple of months - many of them financial- that have continued to show that God's hand is on us!
- First, God sent us a staff of winners. These are people who are pros in their fields It's wonderful, as the pastor, to be able to relax and know that your staff is highly competent, and will produce a product that we can all be proud of.
- While picking up our kids ministry stage (bought from another church at a very good price), we were GIVEN a speaker cluster that now hangs in TrueNorth, and actually sounds better than what was there!
- God sent us a church member who is beginning a set design company! He donated all of his time in creating an awesome set for our kids ministry - only paid for materials!
- So much was donated for our preschool area, that we spent around $4500 less than what we had originally projected to outfit the place.
- Our main stage was donated by a church in Warner-Robins. This happened in response to Daniel Hoover's Facebook post: "Anyone have a stage?" Saved us around $8,000.
- God continues to provide just the right people at just the right time. Seems like when we need something done, there is someone there who has just that skill or talent.
- All of our Student Ministry hangout furniture/games/tech was donated by people or other churches.
- A friend who is on staff at another church let us come and dive through their storage unit, and take anything we could use. We pulled out our gymnasium floor cover, 7 moveable walls (for preschool), 2 great speakers (for children), and several hospitality items.
All this to say, God is in this. He could have chosen to bless us by allowing all of the money we said we needed to be raised, but then there would have only been that one opportunity to give Him the glory. Because we were short on the fundraising, we had to get creative and trust Him to get things done. And, this way, He continues to provide over and over. So much, that we just sit back and say, "What's next?"
What's next is a phenomenal place of worship, grace, and healing. And it's in our community!
