Thursday Update

Hey Everyone:

What a day! As the week comes to an end, we are tired but excited about the doors the Lord has opened for us. Barry and I met with a group who may end up being our core group for Redemption. It was a great meeting and we are looking to have another one next month because there were several couples who could not make it tonight. A lot of church plants struggle to get a core group, yet it seems the Lord is dropping one into our laps!

The team finished up surveying tonight. As part of the surveying, the teams have been getting prayer requests from the people they meet. We have written cards for the people we have prayed for to let them know that we have prayed for them. We will go and deliver the cards tomorrow evening to wrap up the weeks ministry.

Let me thank everyone for your encouraging comments and for all of the prayers. It has been a great trip. Tomorrow evening we will pack up and head to the airport. We will arrive in Memphis Saturday morning. We have had a great week, but we are excited to get home!

Neal

Wednesday Update

Hey Everyone:

It has been a great day! Barry and I had two important meetings. The first was with Mike and Shane from Hope Baptist Church. We had a wonderful lunch and worked out the details of them serving as our local sponsor. We then went to a meeting with the local director of missions, Harry Watson. Harry helped us improve our church planting proposal and encouraged us in what we are doing. It is good to have such great partners here in Vegas!

Tomorrow is the big day where we meet with a group of folks who are interested in the church plant. We are hoping to have a strong core group emerge from tomorrow’s meeting. The team will also be doing more survey work. They have done such a great job and we have had a great time serving the Lord.

Sorry for not uploading pictures, but I was away from the team most of the day. I should have some new pictures tomorrow. Again, thank you for all of your prayers!

Neal

Tuesday

Hey Everyone:

It has been another great day. We were able to do a lot of surveying as well as some folw-ups with people who have shown interest in the church plant. Besides the church planting work, we took some time to see Hoover Dam.

Tomorrow is an important day as Barry and I will be meeting with local church and associational leaders. Please pray that our meetings wil go well as we continue to build partnerships here in Las Vegas.

Neal

Viva LasVegas

Hey Everyone:

What a day! The Lord is blessing in great and wonderful ways. I got to do a follow up visit with a family who met our team that was out here two weeks ago. They have been praying for a church in their area for a while now. Not only are they interested in the plant, but on Thursday night, we will be meeting with a group of folks who are possibly interested in being a part of the plant. Please pray for Barry and me as we meet with this group and as they pray about being a part of Redemption.

The rest of the team has done a great job! The temperature today reached 110˚F, and yet they braved the heat to continue doing survey work. The team went and helped out with the “House of Light” inner-city ministry. They also had a chance to check out some of the sights here in Las Vegas.

I guess that is it for tonight. Stayed tuned tomorrow for more updates and pictures.

Neal

Day 2 - OBC Vegas 2010

Hey Everyone:

It has been a great day in Las Vegas. This morning started off rough, and we were late for church, but we were blessed to worship at Hope Baptist. It was so encouraging to see a large crowd of people who are hungry for the Word of God. We also got to see three people baptized at service. Knowing that 95% of the city is unchurched, seeing people come to Christ was a great blessing!

This evening we began our survey work. We had a great opportunity to talk with local people and even pray for issues they are dealing with in their lives. Tomorrow we will be helping with a Hispanic ministry here in downtown Vegas. We will then go back out surveying in the evening.

We appreciate all of your prayers! The Lord is already opening doors for us and we are having a great time serving. We will share more with you tomorrow.

Neal

We have arrived

Hey Everyone:

The Oakhurst Baptist Vegas Mission Team has arrived! We had a great flight and are now settled into our rooms. We will be worshiping with the folks at Hope Baptist in the morning. Check in each evening for an update!

Neal

Mission Team - FBC, Purvis

We had an outstanding week (July 3-9) here in Las Vegas with a team of college students and adults from First Baptist Church, Purvis. The team of 6 continued the survey work and prayerwalking in the Summerlin area where the focus of our work has been....where God has led us to plant Redemption Baptist Church. This team also had the opportunity to work with Casa de Luz (House of Light) which is a ministry resource center located in the heart of the "Naked City" district of Las Vegas, is seeking to be a true house of light for one of the city's most challenged neighborhoods. Operating under "Works of My Father," Casa de Luz aims to provide hope and love to people who need it most.

This team prayerwalked and surveyed a community of over 400 homes in four days in over 100 degree temps. Thank you all for every effort you made!