Update

Alright well, there's a lot o' stuff been going on. Here's some highlights.

The Disciple Now went off without a hitch. You can see pictures below. We had 15 students and 5 leaders involved plus a bunch of help from parents.

From what I hear the girls had some really good time of Bible study and relationship building. I was with the guys. We just hit each other a lot and called each other weird names. Which is, in my view, a good sign of spiritual development in men.

Actually, even our guys enjoyed mature discussion of what it means to truly be a disciple of Christ.
Overall, the students had a great time getting to know each other better. We even had three who had never been a part of our group before. Also, our leaders got a chance to invest in mentoring relationships with the students. Please pray that the excitement about God's Word will not fade away, but will continue to grow and affect these students' lives.

GIC

Tom and I went to Birmingham, Alabama last week for Shades Mountain Baptist Church's annual Global Impact Celebration. It was such an encouraging and refreshing time. Each year Shades Mountain BC has a celebration of its missions involvement across the country and around the world. Their goal is by 2010 to have done ministry in all 50 states, sent a missionary to every time zone, planted 5 churches in the US and one in Canada, and planted a church in all 11 IMB world regions. With three years left til the end of their "Twenty Ten Vision" they are coming very close to these lofty goals. Check out their list of mission projects for this year. We were invited because Idaho is still on their "to do" list.




Please pray as we try to work out the logistics of possibly bringing around 120 students and adults to our area to do musical performances, community service, and volunteer with Ironman. It will take a few miracles to make that happen, but God has already shown He is able!

I also want to say thank you to the family and the Sunday School class that hosted me. Thanks Robert, Amy, Davis, Jason, Christopher, John, and Luckey for letting me stay in your home.


This Saturday
Please join us in prayer. This Saturday night we are meeting as a church to pray for our community. We want to see our lost neighbors, friends and family come to Christ. Sunday David Fedele will be preaching about the Gospel. We have challenged the church to bring at least one unchurched or "lost" person with them to the service. We are not tricking people or bribing people to come. We are simply asking them to come and hear a discussion of what we believe. From there we are praying for the Holy Spirit to convict hearts and for the Lord to reveal himself.

So, if you are in the Mountain, Central, or Eastern timezone, you can pray for us during your church service or as you are leaving church. During that time we will be preparing for our worship time.

Beast Feast

We are gearing up for this year's Beast Feast. This is an event where we will have several different kinds of food (elk, moose, bear, alligator, bobcat, sasquatch, snake, etc.) and outdoor sporting demonstrations.

This year is going to be huge. We've reserved space at the county fairgrounds. AND we will have as our guest speaker Chuck Buck of Buck Knives. He is a believer and is very excited about this opportunity to share his faith.

This event is planned for April 7. So if you are a hunter/fisher/gatherer and have some exotic food you want to share with North Idahoians, buy your plane ticket now.
Seriously, we are hoping to use this event as an outreach to the community. It has been successful for the past two years now, this year is set to be the biggest ever.


Student Mission Camp
We are also in the midst of planning our student summer mission camp. We are reserving space at Living Waters Ranch in Chalis, Idaho. We are teaming up with our mother church, Salmon Valley Baptist Church. While there we are going to do service projects in Chalis and bring a team in from Brandon, Mississippi to lead worship and help with the camp. If you would like to help sponsor a student (cost will be between $175-200) please let us know.

Our Church Staff
One last thing I would like you to know about. Our staff is going to have a much-needed staff retreat on March 23 (tenatively). Please pray that that will be a productive time of building team unity, refreshment in the Word, and discovering God's vision for NorthStar Church.