Carols and Cookies at Rosemont

The week before Christmas some folks from all 3 of City-Wide Redeemer's Missional Communities "joined forces" to go carolling and Christmas cookie delivering in a low income apartment complex called Rosemont. This is a community that litterally sought us out as a church and offered us free meeting space if we could use it to serve this community. Wow! What started as a group of 15 or so carollers from one church grew to quite the festive crowd of singers, guitar players, cookie deliverers, and laughing children, as many of those we met along the way decided to join us in spreading the joy of Christmas to their neighbors (pictured above). One father of 3, who plays the role of father to many more in that neighborhood, surprised me when he said how greatful he was to live to be 50. He began asking where we met for worship and wanted to keep in touch after that night. I was amazed at how well we were recieved, simply because we took an interest in them as a community. The following week we held a bilingual (English / Spanish) Christmas Eve service there, drawing a handful of folks from this community that we had just met. God has definitely gone before us on this one. Pray that He continues what he seems to be starting among the people of Rosemont.

Home Sweet Home

This past weekend bad sweaters were in abundance as I hosted our Missional Community's Christmas party at MY NEW PLACE (pictured above). After nearly 7 months of searching, waiting, frustrating (or rather "being" frustrated), I finally moved into the community of Paradise last week. I'm now within a mile of UNLV, the airport, the Strip, and 2-3 of the core families that will help launch City-Wide Redeemer-Paradise this February. This month alone we've seen a number of needs of people in the city met simply because God is leading His people toward areas of need, rather than away from them.

Our Paradise Christmas Eve service will be our first public worship "presence," serving as a preview for what is to come later this winter. There's also a good possibility that the UNLV Student Union will be the site for our weekly worship gatherings. This widely familiar, central location would make us accessible to both the students population and to the many contacts we have that find our North Las Vegas worship site too far to drive to. Thank you to the many who have been praying for all of this to come together.