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!