Amazing...

It's hard for me to describe the impact Operation Barnabas (OB) had on me, my family, our teammates and our community in their short visit here this past Sunday and Monday (July 27-28). It was unique in that Trish and I have spent 11 summers (combined) being ON Operation Barnabas serving other churches and communities where we've traveled. To have them here, packing our living room, mixing with our teammates, and loving people in our community-- it was great to be on the receiving end of their ministry.

Much of my summer has been spent dreaming and planning for these two days. That may sound a little dramatic, but I knew that we needed this visit from them and that if we planned well and God answered prayer (which we knew He would)... we could really love thousands of people in Jesus' name and advance awareness of ClearView in a significant manner. So...here's what happened...

OB arrived on Sunday afternoon. They met our family and we quickly got out in the community serving and loving people. A group of 5 or so went through businesses in a local strip mall and asked to clean bathrooms or windows. They had some excellent interactions and were able to pray with a few people. Another group served snow cones at the YMCA and had a great time interacting with families and Y staff. A large group helped us assemble 1,000 summer fun bags (ClearView info., invitation to Monday's program, flavored teas, and candy) to give out door-to-door on Sunday night. Just to tell you how much a group of motivated teenagers can get done... they mowed through this project in about 2 hours and were looking for more things to do before the afternoon ended. We were actually able to get an additional 500 piece mailing together as well (BONUS!). When we did similar bags in the winter, it took my family a whole week (literally) to assemble about 700 bags! During this time, the rest of the team was out in 3 different neighborhoods handing out ClearView information and inviting people to come to our Family Fun Night on Monday.

Dinner consisted of lasagna, salad, and bread. We've never fed almost 50 people (including some of our teammates that stopped by for dinner) at one time... so this was fun. Trish did a great job coordinating cooking in our and 3 neighbors' ovens and the food was great. Our family and our team enjoyed interacting with these quality young people. Their attitudes are great, they pursue people in conversation, they help with chores like cleaning up, they are wonderful with children, and they exude love for Jesus. It made it easy to remember why I invested 5 summers of my life leading OB teams... these students are the leaders of tomorrow and each one of them has the potential to change the world.

On Sunday evening, we loaded the whole team on the bus and went out to 3 different neighborhoods around the YMCA where ClearView meets. In about an hour and a half, OB hung about 800 of our Summer Fun bags on doors and had some good interactions with people they encountered. Again, it took me over a month to get out the winter bags we had prepared...so I was elated to touch so many homes in such a short time. At this point in our church planting work, we're in the business of mass contacts... and God provided a way to get this done big time with OB! After a busy day, we enjoyed some Graeter's ice cream in our back yard ("Thanks," Mark Brock!).

Monday was just as fast-paced and eventful. When the team arrived in early afternoon, we split them into groups again. One team finished hanging the remaining 200 bags and several hundred additional door hangers, helping us make repeat contacts in several neighborhoods. Another group went to the YMCA and served there- some painting, some landscaping, and some giving out free snow cones. A final group worked for the Village of New Albany service department, helping with a brush clearing project. I enjoyed watching the students working with smiles, always willing to go the extra mile to help, and interacting with those around them (inviting them to the program, asking if they could pray for them about anything, etc.). After a hard afternoon of work, we enjoyed dinner together at a local restaurant.

Monday night was the highlight of OB's visit. Our family had worked together with friends Beth and Luke Fields to invite as many people in our neighborhood as we could to what we billed a "Family Fun Night". The event would include an Operation Barnabas program, games, a water slide (thanks Powell Grace!), and free snow cones and cotton candy. I e-mailed many contacts I've made in the area over the last year or so, and I even figured out how to create a Facebook event and used that as a tool to invite people! We also made up 1,000 fliers and by the time OB was done on Monday afternoon... all had been distributed in local neighborhoods.

It was an amazing scene... by the end of the evening there were more than 150 people in our backyard! God came through big time and people showed up from all sorts of networking streams. Our friends invited friends that came. People from soccer teams I had coached, people that we met at the pool, people that had gotten fliers, people from the neighborhood, even a family I met at Creekside all came. Everyone had a great time. Parents were elated at free stuff for their kids. The children present enjoyed the free treats, loved the OB program, and enjoyed the water slide...even on a cool evening (for July!). The most important event of the evening was spiritual movement in people's lives... at least 8 children and one adult invited Jesus to forgive them of their sins and lead their lives. Praise God!

As I reflect back on OB's short visit, I'm so thankful for many things:

• Our neighbors noticed...It's not every day there is a large blue bus pulling in and out of our street several times. They were impressed by the students and OB enhanced our credibility with people as they played with their kids. One neighbor came up to me and asked (out of the blue)... "At the end of your e-mails every week, you put 'Looking for Teammates'...what do you mean by that?"
• It was really neat for our team to see such a turn out at one of our events. We sense God is at work and there is real excitement about the movement we have seen this summer.
• So much was accomplished... helping us reach large goals for contact making that we can't meet on our own. Plus, their hard work for community organizations advanced our relationships with these important people and helps us lay a foundation for future ministry possibilities.
  
• People in the community are noticing us... As he was getting a snow cone, one child at the YMCA pool remarked to an OB student... "Oh... so you are the same church that put candy on my door last night!"
• Heaven rejoiced at the result of Monday's program! Pray for wisdom and opportunities as we follow up with those we know of that made decisions for Jesus!

Thanks for praying for this weekend's ministries. There is MUCH to praise God for!

OB Makes An Impact

It's late and I'm exhausted... so I won't write much now. But, I know many of you faithful blog readers have been praying about Operation Barnabas' visit to ClearView's target area and I wanted to give you a quick update. I'll try and be more complete tomorrow with pictures, etc.

In a nutshell, God did amazing things in the last two days. Thousands of contacts were made, much work was done in expanding our partnerships with community organizations, we had over 150 people in our backyard tonight for a Family Fun Night, and there were at least 8 people that accepted Jesus as their Saviour as a result of tonight's program.

If you were praying for OB's visit/ministry with ClearView... please praise God. He worked in great ways...beyond our expectations, and did amazing things. More tomorrow...

PRAISE GOD!

Pray...OB Visits ClearView on 7/28!

We are working hard to plan for Operation Barnabas' visit this coming Sunday and Monday. We're preparing to give out THOUSANDS of fliers and give aways and do servant evangelism type projects in our community. Perhaps the biggest event (we'll see how God works...) is a program we're planning in our back yard on Monday night (7/28 at 7p.). If you're on Facebook, check out the event details here. I'm asking God for 200 people to pack our back yard that evening and show the neighborhood that God is really up to something at ClearView. We've invited tons of people that may not know Jesus and tons of churched friends from all over Columbus.

Please pray with us for God's great work on Sunday and Monday. Pray that fliers and literature would land in the hands of spiritually searching people... or those looking for a church. Pray that OB would tangibly impact the community as they serve with Jesus' love. Pray that many would come to the program on Monday night and that Christ followers AND curious people would be touched for Jesus. Thanks!

I'd appreciate your prayer...

I don't often mention personal matters here... but this is an easy one. This afternoon I got one of those dreaded calls from a company that thought someone had used my credit card fraudulently. Indeed, someone has my name, address, and the number of the credit card I use for ClearView expenses. Thank God this person caught this and called me. I went immediately to my bank and found out that I will have about 4 or 5 charges to dispute. I'm not sure about how much as this information is not available yet (charges have been approved but not posted...so we can't see how much they are actually for).

I have a busy week this week... I'm trying to get ready for this weekend's gathering AND do tons of stuff to prepare for Operation Barnabas' visit to our target area. Please pray that God will help this distraction pass easily with minimal cost and time. Thanks!

Thanks, Grace Church Ladies!

We enjoyed spending time with some ladies from our previous church in Macedonia, OH this past weekend! The ladies "divided and conquered" and helped us with two important ministry projects:

• Cindy, Peggy, and Roseanne helped Trish and I hand out around 350 Snow Cones (over 150 pounds of ice!) at the YMCA pool on Saturday afternoon. It was fun to bless people with a free gift that they really wanted (something cold) on a hot day. The staff at the Y was also excited about our work. We made many positive contacts and put smiles on hundreds of faces!
• Two of the ladies stayed back at our house (with my sister, Katie) and put together an over 900 piece mailing. We are sending letters and information about our work to each member of the Gahanna and New Albany Chambers of Commerce. Having Dorothy and Darlene help Katie with the mailing was a huge time-saver for our team.

It was a blessing to also have these women with us in our Sunday morning worship gathering. Thanks for a great weekend, ladies!

Please pray that the contacts we made this weekend would result in people moving forward in their spiritual journey and joining ClearView's team!

Pray For Outreach Efforts The Next Two Weekends

We have a ministry team coming in each of the next two weekends. Pray for effectiveness.

• This weekend, a small group of ladies from Grace Church (Macedonia, OH) will be spending some time with us on Saturday and joining our worship gathering on Sunday. We'll enjoy these fun ladies and this blast from the past. On Saturday afternoon, they are going to hand out free snow cones at the YMCA pool and help us assemble a 950 piece mailing to local Chamber of Commerce members. Pray that snow cones and letters land in receptive hands. We're hoping that the opportunity to serve and love people at the YMCA will enhance our ability to invite people to our worship gathering...since it is also at the same facility!
• Next weekend, Operation Barnabas will be helping ClearView make contacts in our communities on Sunday and Monday, July 27-28. Obviously, this is a huge opportunity for us to make thousands of contacts. Pray God gives the best plan and provides the resources to use these quality young people most effectively. Pray many positive contacts are made for Jesus...and ClearView.

Thanks for praying... exciting days now... and exciting days ahead!

New High!

I want to give a HUGE public praise to God for the attendance at our worship gathering this morning. 40 people joined us at the YMCA (our second Sunday there) for worship, teaching, and fellowship. A few special notes:

• 2 ladies came that received an invitation from some Driven Conference participants.
• 1 couple came due to an invitation they received from a woman that attended Driven. These ladies work together in Gahanna.
• Several friends we've been inviting came to visit for the first time.
• Several well-wishers from other churches came to see what we were up to at the YMCA.

All in all it was a great morning. Guest worship leader, John Ward, did a great job; kids loved the children's ministry; people enjoyed meeting new friends; and people seemed to connect to the teaching from John 8:1-11.

As you finish reading this post, would you just take time to praise God for the favor He showed us today? Please pray we'd be wise in follow-up and that God would assimilate some of those there today onto our Launch Team. Thanks for praying with us. God is moving...

Fantastic 4th!

It is hard for me to even summarize all my thoughts about God's work through our July4th ministries in New Albany. God was present in such a real way, so many prayers were answered, and hundreds (maybe thousands) of lives were impacted. It would probably be best for me to just walk through the events of the day as briefly as possible.

We started at 9a, with about 7 of our ClearView teammates helping the New Albany Events Board organize parade participants as they arrived. We helped entrants find their place in the parade formation, helped with traffic control, and got our own group in the right place and ready to walk in the parade. Cherylin and Beth helped people get oriented, David ended up being one of the marshals along the parade route, I got to play traffic cop for an hour (a great way to meet people! :), and Doug and Stephanie ended up carrying the lead banner through the parade (complete with ClearView t-shirts!). This all was an amazing opportunity to connect with the Event Board staff. They raved about our people and what a great help we were to the day.

After helping to set up the parade, our team and friends then enjoyed walking the parade route as part of the parade. We carried our new banner advertising our gathering time at the YMCA (see picture at top of page), handed out hundreds of communication pieces about ClearView, gave out over 1300 4th of July themed super-balls to kids, and 1,000 pieces of 4th of July candy. This was a great opportunity to connect with new people and people we have met in the past. There were several times throughout the weekend where people commented on our involvement in the parades and community activities. New Albany residents our beginning to know who we are and that we love the community and want to serve people in practical ways. How exciting.

God saved the best part of the day for last. Through our growing partnership with the New Albany Events Board, ClearView's booth was the main attraction for children at the pre-fireworks festival. God led us to plan big and it is a good thing we did. Here are some of the amazing stats. and ways God worked in the 3 hour festival:

• We gave out over 500 balloons and went through over a full tank of helium
• 4 ClearView team members/friends painted faces non-stop. The line outside of our tent for face-painting was a constant 50 people deep.
• 2 ClearView team members/friends went through over 40 cans of colored hair spray (see model, Seth).
• 2 ClearView friends put on 4th of July related tattoos on kids for almost 3 hours.
  
• Hundreds of kids enjoyed making simple crafts we provided (beaded bracelets, coloring flags, 4th of July sticker projects, etc.)

All in all, we loved on over 500 kids and their families, had countless positive interactions with families, and accomplished the first part of our mission (loving people!) in Jesus' name.

My heart was overfilled with praise to God for this amazing outpouring of His grace on us. A few musings:

• Last year our family attended the parade and pre-fireworks festival. I remember being amazed by the thousands of people that enjoyed these events and wondering "how do we get involved here and impact all of these people?" Fast forward one year... not only did God give us the favor to be involved in these events...He allowed us to be integral in their success.
• A major highlight and breakthrough for me came in the form of strong indication that we are penetrating New Albany. While the parade was setting up, Ron, the Events Board chair, pulled me aside and invited me to join the board. What a miracle. Since we moved here 15 months ago, I've been praying and looking for God's direction in how to break into a community like New Albany. Here it is. The Events Board is filled with influential people and the events they plan are the times during the year when the most people from the community are gathered. Being invited onto their team is a huge victory of God and an open door for influence with the influencers in our affluent community.
• Our relationships with people are deepening. One story involves one of the friendliest people I have ever met. We met at the pool last year and renewed conversations this year. We saw this woman on the evening of July 4th, and Trish was able to have a significant extended conversation with her. She shared deep struggles in her life and she and Trish were able to connect at a personal level.
• God supplied help to us for these events in supernatural ways. Our team is stepping up huge to help make these things happen. However, with several of our families out of town for the holiday weekend, and such large projects undertaken... we needed significant help from people outside of our team. In an amazing miracle, God brought 10 people to help on Friday evening...some of whom I had just met the weekend before at Driven...some of whom I had never met before! There is no way Friday night's ministries could have happened without these new friends!

What a day. My dad, as I was relaying the events of the day to him, summed our 4th of July well. He said, "Sounds like God is really answering prayer." Yep! Praise God!

ClearView Moves Into The YMCA!

It has been a LONG time in coming, but this past Sunday we enjoyed our first worship gathering at the Gahanna YMCA! What a joy it was to utilize this new space and fantastic facility. It was great to see our team arrive early, work together, and be done setting up in under 15 minutes! This is such an ideal facility for us to meet in... it's affordable (about $125/week!), visible in our target communities, has dedicated children's areas already set up for what we need, there is plenty of space, and chairs and tables are already present. All we have to do is arrange some things, bring in signage, and eventually we'll need to find/buy an audio/visual system. Would you join me in praising God for this great facility!

The challenge now becomes filling up the space! Would you pray with us that God would fill our empty chairs? Pray that

• God would bless our outreach efforts,
  
• That we would see people come to know Jesus,
  
• That people that have said they would come see us at the YMCA would,
  
• That we would effectively serve and love the staff and board of the YMCA (picture at right is me with YMCA Ex. Dir. Chris Angellatta),
  
• and that God would lead us to teammates.

Thanks!

Some Godworks For July 4th!

I'm stoked (not a word I usually use...and probably too outdated to be "cool"...but its how I feel so seemed appropriate!) about Friday (July 4th). In short, ClearView is walking in New Albany's parade that a.m. and serving at the pre-fireworks festival that evening. This is New Albany's largest annual event and event planners are estimating 20,000-30,000 people in the town center area that evening.

Some praise notes:

• God is bringing together plenty of help for our efforts. I was concerned about this because several of our families are out of town. But, our team is stepping up to the plate big-time and God is bringing new friends to us that are willing to help...some that I just met at Driven this past weekend. Amazing.
• We have the opportunity to serve our city while communicating about ClearView. We will be loaning out 5 people to events planners to help organize the parade participants that morning AND I just found out that two of our people will have the opportunity to carry the LEAD New Albany banner along the parade route! It has been so fun to serve those in charge of these events. They are not accustomed to people offering to serve unsolicited...I love that we can do that and meet a need in Jesus' name.
• We'll be one of the main attractions for kids and families at the festival that runs before the fireworks. We have some free giveaways and will be doing face-painting, tattoos, colored hair spray, crafts, etc. Should be fun and a GREAT opportunity to interact with many families.

God has truly given us favor in the lead up to this big day. I praise Him for this. My heart is full of thanksgiving. Would you pray God would use us to touch many lives for Jesus and lead us to teammates?

Movement In Teammate Area?

You're tired of hearing me ask for prayer for teammates. I understand! But, I just talked to our team about praying persistently this weekend (see Luke 11:5-11)... so I better keep at it.

I've learned to be slow to think I can put my finger on what God is doing in building our team. It is an intricate process fraught with ups and downs. God is working on His time table and perfect blending of people. I have learned that its not up to me what happens or WHEN it happens.

However, I sense, over the last 6 weeks or so, God is up to something. There is more interest in and awareness of ClearView than ever. This is true among churched and unchurched people in our area. More Grace Brethren people in our community now (finally) know we're here. Our friendships are growing with other believers that we can network through to find teammates. And, we've made more contacts with people that Jesus loves that don't yet know Him than in any period of our (short) history. There are people out there thinking and praying about teaming with us... I can sense it.

Please pray that God would draw people to us that He's appointed to our work. To paraphrase Matthew 9:37-38...The "harvest" truly is great...and the workers truly are few. Pray to the Lord who is in charge of drawing people in northeastern Franklin County to Himself and ask Him to to send out more workers for His fields. By God's grace, those He brings to us will work in His fields. We just need to see God move to gather His team.

"Big Give" Turns Out HUGE For ClearView!

I was elated on Saturday (6/28) as 56 participants from the Driven Conference assisted ClearView with contact making in the New Albany and Gahanna areas. In a nut shell, the concept was this: each person was given $10, formed into groups of 5, and then each group was challenged to creatively invest their collective $50 to make as many contacts for ClearView as possible.

I'll be honest... I didn't expect that many of these fantastic young adults to participate. This event was held during their afternoon free time, and they could have just as easily headed to the gym, took a nap, or enjoyed some time with new friends. Yet, in the end, most of the conference participants served in the Big Give in some way. Groups decided on their own what to do- some bought water, others Popsicles, one group even included some treats for dogs. Then they found places where people were gathered (ball parks, shopping centers, YMCA, etc.), smiled, and gave out the free stuff with ClearView information attached.

I had the privilege of hearing their stories when they returned. I praised God as I heard stories of groups that worked as a team, people that persevered when they were persecuted, and young people that stepped out of their comfort zone. Some groups were able to pray with people they encountered and many, many people were blessed. I'm sure at least 500 ClearView info. pieces were given out!

I was blessed to interact with these young people and so excited about their work for Jesus and ClearView in our community. Two neat stories:

1. I got a note from one of my friends and contacts at the YMCA sharing about how blessed they were to have one of the Big Give groups there washing windows and taking out trash, etc. I've been sharing Jesus with this friend and it was so neat to hear his excitement over these young people.
2. Another group was buying ice cream for people in downtown New Albany. They ended up buying a cone for the neighbors that live behind us. I've shared Jesus with the husband of this family and the daughter was impacted by our Bible Club last year. We've been inviting them repeatedly to our gatherings. It was so great to have them blessed by someone else as well!
   

Praise God for the Big Give. Please pray that this effort would translate into guests at our first few gatherings at the YMCA (beginning this Sunday, July 6) and that God would continue to form ClearView's launch team.