Last week the Lord brought me to a place of repentance for trying to create my own opportunities to support my family. The Lord showed me that I didn’t trust Him, that I was choosing to work in my own strength and not His provisions. So I repented and decided to “be still” and allow God to bring forth His provisions.

Today, the Lord began to blow my socks off. I was asked if I would be open to someone providing a home for my family…and wouldn’t you know it, the home is right where we have felt we should be all along, but beyond our wildest dreams in the sheer awesomeness of the thought.

If that in itself was not enough, the next question was would I help develop a business for a friend of mine? This friend has been a great encouragement to me in my ministry since I arrived in Corpus Christi and he feels this would be a mutually beneficial opportunity to further the work of God’s kingdom.

If that wasn’t enough, I was also approached about using a worship facility in Annaville free of charge any time except Sunday AM. So I believe God is showing me I need to work on developing a second plant in that area simultaneously with the first plant in Central Corpus.

The Lord also spoke another 2 things to me today through others that were very powerful and penetrated the depths of my soul. I have heard several mention over the past few weeks that they have sensed a turning of the spiritual tide in Corpus Christi over the summer. Today one of those praying with me indicated that he firmly believes my week in silence and mourning in the middle of June broke a spiritual stronghold over the city. The second thing that was said is that he believes God wants me to again retreat with the Lord in silence as I enter into this new journey. I have felt the same prompting, so I will use one of these weeks of vacation to take another retreat of silence.

Today, I put together the covenant partner cards that I’ll be sending out and also drafted a supporter letter. My wife and I will pray over the cards before we send them out.

I also had the opportunity to approach a local pastor to pray about being an overseer for the ministry. He is very excited about what God is doing with me and I look forward to having him as a partner in my ministry.

I’ve been in a bit of a funk all day. I haven’t slept overly sound the past few nights, so I’m not feeling extremely energetic. I spent the morning working on a few things at my current pastorate and donated boxes to another pastor on staff as he was clearing out his office. So the morning was hanging at bummer level.

I got home this afternoon and finished printing business cards and letterhead. I’m still trying to determine how to handle my 501c3 question. I have found an association of churches that will allow me to operate under their umbrella, which would save considerable time and expense in the whole 501c3 process, but since Simplicity is supposed to be a multiple church network, I’m not sure that’s prudent.

Then there’s the larger philosophical question. If you’re having to go through all of this legal filing just to get works established, aren’t you stepping away from the whole concept of Simplicity? To top it all off the markets tanked again and the countdown clock in my mind reminded me that I have only 25 days left with an income.

Starting this week, I will begin drafting a letter to recruit covenant partners for Simplicity. I will be contacting family, friends, former churches, colleagues and looking for speaking opportunities. I need 100 partners making a monthly commitment of $50 to maintain my salary and benefits at the current level.

I will also be sending out a list of needs for things like a PowerPoint projector, firewire PCCard and portable sound system.