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!

 

Thanks for your prayer and support!