The Ones about The Valley Church Archives - Page 9 of 9

It was his second time to grace the threshold of that place. Yesterday they wanted to see if he could walk, talk, & chew gum as my dad would put it. Really he had to climb stairs, drag around a limp body, and not die; pretty much the same thing.

I wish I could remember all the details leading up to this incarceration but basically Matt is being charged with loving his family too much and wanting to provide for them at any cost. Matt's been "self-employed" since the the May. Matt has been going to his "office" {McDs} and working via their WiFi as well as helping out TONS at home. With lots of travel and preparing our house for sale, Matt's been a busy man! Matt and I will be planting a church in Vilonia, AR. Our target launch date is Easter 2013! Until then, Matt is looking for work to supplement our income. The prison unit in Tucker is now hiring! Yesterday was the second 1/2 of the interview process. We'll keep ya updated on if Matt will be a permanent part of the Tucker unit ;o)

You can learn more about The Valley church HERE. Many of you have ask, "What does that mean." Well, let me try and answer the thousand different things that means:

Finances:

The Valley will be a part of the AR Southern Baptist Convention. All that means is we agree with the "Baptist faith and message" and agree to give a percentage of our tithes and offerings as a church to the convention to use in furthering the gospel in even bigger ways. We currently get $1000.00 from the state as "church planters." The state convention has a budget set aside to help supplement church planters income during the prep time of launching a new church plant. The rest of our income comes from our savings that God so miraculously taught us to obtain over the past 2 years. It's not much but with a tight budget we are always provided for. We also have a few friends/sponsors who give either monthly or when they can. We don't budget any specific amount from these because they are not always guaranteed but God knows exactly when we need that boast. Birds of the air right, Jess?

Location:

The Valley church is currently live in White Hall. The "Church" are the believers/Christ followers, so yes, it's current "location" is White Hall, which is about an hour and 1/2 from where God has ask us to plant. I know it may seem odd to some that we are not just planting where we are but God has already done so many seemingly random things in preparation for our coming that we have no doubt that's where we are supposed to be. If you know anyone who wants an awesome house for a great deal, send them our way! I love this house and would take it with us if we could put it on wheels. It's great for hosting, entertaining, and ministering! I can't wait to see how God will provide a new home base to minister out of in Vilonia.

We are also traveling weekly to One Church in Conway, AR. They will be a sponsor church when we launch. That just means we are enjoying doing life with, worshiping along side, and getting to help minister to those God has called them to until we launch and get to focus all our energy on those in Vilonia. One Church exist to make disciples, and part of doing that for them is helping plant churches. They are planning to help us financially when we launch as well as with people {the most important thing}. That means some people will help us on our launch day with simple logistical things; some people will commit to help us for 3 months {nursery workers, parking lot help, greeters, etc}; and some will commit to Go and Stay with us and The Valley.

We are working on and praying through where God would have The Valley church meet for weekly worship together. We still having landed on that yet. ;O)

Current steps in the Process:

I know it may be confusing that we "aren't working", haven't launched, and seem to just be siting. There are lots of things we've already established...Let me try and briefly tell you some of the things we've been doing/praying through in preparation to launch The Valley in a quick list.

Vision
Core Values
Structure
Sermons/outlines/series {lots of them}
Logo
Community involvement ideas
Possible ministry opportunities
Building a core team {leadership}
Learning/studying what God has for Vilonia
Meeting with contacts/
Web design
Formulating nursery processes
Sharing our vision within individuals & churches
Viewing options for space to meet
Obtaining PO box
Waiting through legal things
and probably lots of random things I don't remember right now

So...my husband went back to prison yesterday to help provide for our family until we secure more consistent sponsors. I'm sure I didn't fully answer everything. If you have ANY questions about what we've been doing or more about church planting, Please, ask away or click on one of the gazillion links to the website I've hooked to the words The Valley!

Do you want to find out more about being a part of The Valley?

Just wanted to give an update on The Valley!

Yesterday was our 1st Sunday attending One Church in Conway, AR. This is the church we will be a part of until our official launch of The Valley in Vilonia, AR. One Church is a fairly new church, having been planted only ~2 years ago. The pastor, Paul will be kind of disciplining us in church planting and One Church will be a sponsor church when we launch. We really enjoyed being apart of this part of the body of Christ. They do several things that we plan to do in our church plant. It was refreshing to be there and not "hopping" with the intent to learn what other churches in this area are offering. It was refreshing to be free to wear jeans, flip-flops, a hat, suit, or even shorts if you wanted to. The gospel was preached to those who came as they are.

The prayer request comes from the negatives aspect of the day. Their worship service starts at 9am and "D-groups" {small group bible study} after the service where they discuss together what was just taught. I love that you get to talk application with an accountability group immediately after it being taught. This is an ideal time for our family. It works great for naps. We get out early enough to hit a restaurant before they're crowded and during the time we normally feed out children. We're home in time for naps!

Sleepy wind blew'm all out! twitter.com/JulesRothacher…

— Julie Rothacher (@JulesRothacher) July 1, 2012

IF....We lived in Vilonia!

Since we still have a home in White Hall we are commuting from White Hall to Conway on Sundays {and for any other ministry opportunity}. It takes about an hour-hour and 1/2 {depending on how many 'potty' breaks we have to take}. That means we have to leave our house by 7:30am on Sundays. Our kids don't normally get up until 7:30. We wake them up early, throw some clothes on them, chunk breakfast in their laps on the car ride through construction.

Today, this combination of extremely fun birthday party weekend and out of routine morning brought melt down in the toddler section of One Church. A nursery worker had to come get us as soon as D-groups started because my kids wouldn't calm down. This has NEVER happened with our kids. I walked into their children's section to find my Izzie sobbing trying to catch her breath right next to Jamin , who was taking his cues from big sis and crying uncontrollably. Since I'd never been in this situation and it was our 1st Sunday here, I didn't know what to do. I gathered their things, passing content Maggie in the hall eating her snack, only to return to D-group with them and cups of animal crackers. It worked...okay. Matt ended up having to get up with J and walk around so the rest of the D- could hear and discuss. After church, we made it to Burger King with only one other family int he building but when I opened the van door unload my babes, they stared at me with sleepy eyes, unenthusiastic that we were going in to eat lunch. A few short tantrums later, and couple fights about finishing meals, we reloaded to venture out to Vilonia to check our PO Box and then hit the trek home. Everyone passed out less than 5 minutes down the road. They were so tired that they took turns waking up on the way home, screaming and helping the others wake as well.

We are all worn down so much that we had to eliminate our second trip to Conway tonight for a D-group dinner where we were hoping to get to know some friends better. Maybe every weekend won't be like this but today I'm not hopeful. We need God to sell our house. Satan may suck but he's no dummy. He knows that the biggest part of our planting strategy comes in the form of loving our community around us, so why not keep us from actually living in the community where we're called to minister.

Once our house in WH is sold, we can move forward with making an offer/buying a home in Vilonia.

Excepting ANY reasonable offer! {sorry, can't rent}

This is a house we've found a great deal on in Vilonia.

If God is nudging any of you to buy it for us I'll take that blessing, hehe ;O)

I am very aware that God is in control, knows what's happening and that His timing is Perfect. I am also very aware that He's called us to that community. Our hearts are so content and joyful when we simply drive through the town. We Need to Be There! Sunday church attendance will be easier on our family. We can begin getting to know the community. We can meet neighbors, get to know them and their needs, and love on them. We can experience life in that area of the state. We can have the basic meetings we need to have with local people in that area to make progress on our church launch. We can have people in our home at THEIR convince. We can be involved in Vilonia stuff.

Please pray with us!

My urgent prayer is that our home will sell.

Not only is the stress of this travel hard but hinders our ability to minister an hour and 1/2 away. We figured up today that it takes us about $30.oo in just gas for every round trip to Vilonia. That's a big speed bump on a church planters hit or miss income. If you have extra change lying around, that would be a huge help in the mean time. You can give to They Valley below OR find things on my sidebar like: AdSense ads- I get commission based on clicks OR other items you can buy and I get {at the most 10- 20% commission. This is just my way to try and supplement our income during this time. Having a bit more gas money would be a big stress relief during this time of transition!