Brianne Christmas 08

We stopped through Greenville, SC to pick up my pickup truck and trailer that we left at our neighbors house after we sold our house December 16th. When we woke up on Jan. 1, 2009, we felt overwhelmed with all the things we need to get done just to settle in! One of the first things I did was change our phone numbers. Our new numbers are:

• Matt’s: 904-629-8541
• Jen’s: 904-629-8542

A few other items on the list include:

1. unpacking boxes and organizing the condo
2. searching for a house
3. Printing and designing business cards/church flyers
4. searching for a church location
5. Getting bank accounts settled
6. Many other details…

Looking at this list, I’d better get back to work!

Matt

The Lord answered our prayers and allowed the closing to go flawlessly on Tuesday morning @ 10:00. This in itself was an answer to prayer in this housing market!

My brother Josh has been so generous to all us to set up camp in an extra house he has on the market here in Jacksonville. This temporary landing site will give us a great boost in finding a permanent location in the next month or two.

There is so much more that I could write about how God is answering prayer and providing our needs, but I will have to do that at another time. Till then thanks for your prayers and support!

We are so grateful for the time God gave us to renew and deepen old friendships as well as meet the new people of the church. I hope that deepened relationships will result in more interest and prayer support as we plant the church in Jacksonville.

I was also able to almost complete (everything but the garage doors) the 1500+ sq. ft. bus garage project which I was heading up.

Putting up trusses on the garage

When I look back I can see that God’s plan is best whether or not we can see it at the moment.

“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to* his own glory and excellence,* by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

What a blessing and encouragement it is for me to know that God promises to provide a superabundance of grace and provision to enable me to succeed in my Christian life!  Knowing that God will provide for me everything that I need to do his will is one of the greatest blessings that I can have in my life.  Along with family and friends, God’s promised grace is what I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving time!

Praise the Lord! Negotiations between our two potential buyers raised the price to within $2000 of our asking price. On Tuesday November 18th, 2008 we signed a contract with a single business professional who plans to live in the house. The closing should take place on or before December 17th. We plan to leave for Greenville on December 8th in order to get back in time make final repairs, pack boxes and see our friends at Agnew Road Baptist Church. If all goes according to plan, we should be on the road to Jacksonville by December 17th!

It is exciting to think that after all this time of preparation we will finally be moving to Jacksonville! Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom to know how best to land in Jacksonville.

We will probably be placing our belongings in storage and then head to KY for Christmas with Jen’s parents.

It has been encouraging to see God’s perfect plan and timing for getting us to Jacksonville.

This has been quite a week! On Monday we received our first offer on our house after over 2 months. The offer came in rather low, but at least it was an offer! Through negotiations over the past couple of days, we’ve been able to get the price from $22,500 below our asking price to within $5,000 of the asking price!

In perfect time, God brought us another offer today from a guy who looked at the house yesterday. The offer from Buyer #2 gave us the opportunity to put pressure on Buyer #1 to raise his offer. As I write this, I have a voicemail from Buyer #2 saying that he would like to make an offer for more than Buyer #1′s current offer!

Less than a week ago Jen and I were discussing the dearth of offers from the close to 25 showings we’ve had over the past 2 months. Today we find ourselves with two buyers that will hopefully compete for the house!

In the evangelistic service we had last night with Gary Gillmore, he challenged us from God’s word to simply trust the Lord to work his will in our lives. What a blessing it is to see the Lord doing this right before our eyes!

Currently we are in Connecticut at our sending church, Truth Baptist Church of South Windsor, waiting for our house to sell in Greenville.  We are praying that our house will sell before we move to Jacksonville.  If it sells, then that will free up some money and greatly decrease the likelihood of getting caught in a financial squeeze.  We would love to get to the field, but we realize that it is best to be patient and wait for God’s timing.  Please continue to keep us in prayer that the Lord will help our house to sell at the right time for the right price when he wants us to move to Jacksonville.

Another man in the church who came to help brought along his worker who is an atheist. As we were standing around waiting for the concrete trucks to arrive, I found out that he was also voting for Obama. The Lord enabled me to turn the conversation to the a clear presentation of the gospel to which he listened carefully. He promised to attend one night of the revival services that will be held here next week! The Lord is working on his heart!

After pondering the events of the day and the results of the election the Lord reaffirmed to me the fact that our hope is not in elections but in the Lord. If we want to make the greatest impact on our nation we need to get out and reach people with the gospel of Christ. It is the gospel of Christ that is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). It is Christ who can change a persons life and make him a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is the fear of the Lord that is the first step to wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 1:7).

If we want to impact our country for good, the best thing we can do is get out reach people with the gospel. Through the gospel we can promote righteousness in this great country of the United States of America. It is for this reason that I am very excited to start a church that will reach people with the gospel in Jacksonville, FL!

Thanks for visiting!

Matt R.