South Bay Launch!

We are so excited to share with you about the launch of South Bay Church! First of all, I have to apologize that it's the Saturday after the launch and we are just now updating, but we really do have a valid excuse! :) Besides the fact that our life will now be crazy since we are starting weekly services, my parent's, Cal and Tina were in town for the week, so we have been spending time with them. It was so great to have them here in order to witness this amazing event with us and celebrate the launch of South Bay!

So, our launch started at 7am Pacific time. The launch team arrived to help unload the truck as well as the two mission's teams we had in town to help (one from Lake Point church in Texas and another from Pleasant Valley church in Kansas City, MO). Everyone helped unload the truck, which we have already gotten down to a science. We are now able to unload the entire thing in only 20 minutes. Everyone is assigned a specific job, and knows exactly what they are supposed to do. Things are pushed and moved all around the room in what appears to be chaos, but really everyone knows their exact purpose! We joke about literally working while stepping on top of each other! By about 8:20, all the instruments and stage, chairs, and most of the room was completely set up. The lighting and stage design stuff was finished a little later. At 8:30 we started practicing with the band, and we were able to practice for about an hour! This is a blessing, because in the preview services, we have felt rushed and haven't had enough time to practice. We ran tech rehearsals in order to make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and video's were started on time! All the volunteers were amazing, knowing exactly what needed to be done and doing it as well as stepping up and filling in any position they could!




Archie opening the truck - it's still dark!






the team arriving!

People began arriving around 10, and the place started to fill up. We had a lot of new people, and all of the team was able to talk to a bunch of new faces and help them feel welcome. It was a very exciting service, and the crowd could feel the excitement too, often times clapping and shouting with us in the celebration of starting this new church!

-All in all we had 279 people in attendance last Sunday morning, including over 30 children!
-We had over 65 first time guests, and a lot of returning visitors from our preview services.
-There were 17 people who recommitted their life to Christ as well as 9 people who made first time commitments to Christ.
-There were 20 people who indicated they wanted to be a part of a volunteer team
-and 40 people who indicated wanting to be a part of a small group!

We are so excited for this opportunity! And what a blessing it was to have my parents here for this event! They were here for over a week, and we loved every minute of it! We were able to spend some downtime just at the house, they went and visited a few placed while we had to work, and then on Thursday and Friday, Archie and I took off work and traveled with them around the area some. We really enjoyed them being able to visit out here, see where we live, and allow them to meet some of our new friends. It's hard to believe it had been 6 months since we had seen them. They left this morning, and we miss them already!

So, tomorrow is Sunday again, and we have church again! We are definitely looking forward to it, but already tired thinking about it - but a good tired! Please pray for us as we begin this weekly adventure. All of this is possible only with the grace and blessing of God on us and our church! We greatly appreciate your support, encouragement and prayers.

As a last request, We could really use some prayers for band members. Because we are so new, we don't have a band really. Right now, we are just using a lot of band members from neighboring churches who are willing to help us out occasionally. We are so blessed to have them help, but we really need something more permanent, and something we can rely on every week. Please be in prayer with us, that God would send people to our church with musical abilities to help us out in this area! Thanks so much!

We love all of you, and look forward to updating you on the progress of our church!

Prayer

If you have time, we would love if you would consider partnering with us in prayer for our GRAND OPENING!!! South Bay Church is having it's official launch service this Sunday, February 8th. We are once again participating in 48 hours of prayer leading up to the event and would love it if you could be a part of this. Here are the directions:

Enter our google calendar here: https://www.google.com/calendar/render
Login with: southbayprayer
Password: prayforsouthbay
Find a 30-minute slot that is not taken and write your name and location in it.

Just remember if you are in South Carolina or not on the West Coast, the time listed is Pacific time, so if you sign up at 6:30, you would actually be praying at 9:30.

Here are some of the things we are in need of prayer for:

1. That the mailers we have sent out would be received with open hearts and that people would respond - we have already been getting a lot of phone calls and emails in response to these mailers.

2. That the staff of South Bay Church would be able to accomplish what God has called us here to do. This is such a critical time, and the enemy is here to steal, kill, and destroy! Please keep us in your prayers!

3. The attacks of the enemy would not be able to harm what we are doing this weekend. In the past, at preview services, we have had people sick, printers and computers jam/crash, and all sorts of attacks. Already this week, one of the members on our launch team was playing basketball with the group and tore his ACL, and they just lost their insurance due to a job loss! Please keep all of our launch team families in your prayers as well as that nothing would get in the way of God's Word being spread to His people.

4. We have 2 mission's teams and several visitors in from all over the country that will be arriving for the launch. Pray for their safety in traveling, as well as while they are here.

5. Pray for the hearts of the people at the launch. We desire to see God's hand move in a mighty way! We are so excited about the number of people who will be in attendance who may have never heard the Gospel of Christ!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement! We love each of you guys and can't wait to share what God is going to do this weekend!!!