Journey Newsletter link/November 2010

Check out the latest newsletter from Journey!!! 

Click on this link to view the newsletter: Journey Community Church Newsletter. November 2010

'News from Journey Community Church/August Newsletter

Check out the latest news at Journey!

Just click on the link to read all about it: Newsletter from Journey, August 2010

Future site of Journey Community Church

News from Journey and Newsletter update from June 22, 2010

'News from Journey Community Church' Check out this link to our latest Journey Newsletter!!

For those of you who are not familiar with our work here in Fernley, Nevada... here is a little update...

Rod and I began this new church plant journey over a year ago, as we moved out to Fernley, NV the last day of January 2009.  We spent our first months just getting to know the community and praying that God would show us where the needs were in this small city of just under 20,000 people. As we began to get involved in the community we knew that God was leading us to plant a church that would reach out to the kids and families to meet their needs. Our very first activities were service projects...cleaning up the In-Town park, free car wash, having a free family movie night with an open air cinema complete with popcorn and sodas, and  a week of Kids Camp; all held at the In-Town Park. We also took part in the towns Fourth of July celebrations in the Out-of-Town park by setting up a baby changing station, and a cool down tent.  All of these activities were well received and appreciated and all took place before we even had our first church service.

I am still amazed as I reflect back on how God brought people to us as we struggled to figure out just how we were going to do this church plant thing.  As we prayed about how to go about putting together a launch team, God brought another ministry couple from Reno to us who introduced us to people in Fernley who, it would seem, were just waiting for us to come along and plant a church.  We were amazed and awed as God expanded the launch team to around 30  people. 

Our "Grand Beginnings Service" (launch date)was September 13,2009! I have posted a few pictures below of the big day...so exciting as we had over 200 in attendance! God is sooo awesome!!

Now...as you will see if you read the newsletter attachment above(at the top of this post)...we are getting ready to move into a more permanent facility(we have been meeting at Fernley Highschool). This is a very exciting and, yes, scary venture...and as the name of the church implies another big step on this Journey!

I feel incredibly blessed as I have been married to my college sweetheart, Rod Idle, for twenty seven years(July 30th) and we have two beautiful children(not so much children anymore). Our daughter, Lyndsay, is 22 years old and left her fulltime ministry in Virginia to serve as our Worship/Youth minister. She is a very gifted young lady and a joy to be around! We are so blessed to have witnessed her recent wedding(in our backyard) to Joshua Terry.  It is such a blessing to have them serving together with us at Journey.

 Our son, Bradley, is 25 years old and has moved with us to Nevada from Virginia. He is presently recovering from a brain trauma event caused by a rare migraine condition. We praise God that he is expected to eventually regain all that was lost in the event...and he is determined to resume his third year of college and go into the ministry as soon as he is able. In the meantime, we are so grateful to have him with us as ,even with this, God has enabled him to minister to people in a very unique way.

We appreciate all of your prayers and encouragement as we continue on this amazing Journey!

Journey News, January 5, 2010

Check out what's going on at Journey! 

There's snow and a Christmas tree and an announcement in our family life.

Read about it all here in the newsletter!       Journey Community Church Newsletter, January 5, 2010

Something to think about for the New Year

As I was looking in some of my old books and journals for new inspiration for the New Year, I ran across this journal entry that I had written almost five years ago...it hit me as worthy to repost here as it made me consider my pursuit of the Holy...

"The whole of life of the good Christian is a holy longing." St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.

The questions in the journal after this quote were: What do you think about this statement? Have you seen the truth of it played out in your life? How? How might having a "holy longing" lead to a "good Christian" life?

As I pondered these questions... this is what I wrote:

I believe this to be a true statement(referring to the quote above). The "holy longing" is the longing to be in intimate fellowship with our Creator.
We are like the "moth to the flame" in that we are drawn to the light of God's grace and love, and to His perfect character... to His Glory. The closer to the flame we get the more our sins are illuminated and "burned off" in our confession and repentance. Our old self is "burned away" as our new self begins to reflect His glory more and more.
I have always been like that moth...drawn to God...drawn to living a life that will please Him. Longing to get rid of my old selfish and corrupt flesh and to be renewed by His Holy Spirit....even all the while, struggling to protect the flesh from the "burns of conviction".

I named this blog "Captive Heart" because that is my longing more than anything else on this earth...to have a heart captive to the love and grace of my Lord and Savior. That will continue to be my resolution in the dawn of this new year...to pursue the Holy and grow in intimacy with God. What about you?

Do you have a holy longing?