It has been one year and one month since we moved into Oakwood and a lot has changed both in our lives, and in the community we live in. This summer was probably one of the busiest and more trying seasons that either of us can remember. In July, my (Gage's) mother passed away and with that we began, and as of last week, completed the process of obtaining guardianship of my step dad who has Dementia. It has been a roller coaster of emotions and it is part of the reason we haven't been able to update you until now.
In the same breath, we did have some exciting things happen in the life of the church that have allowed for a new direction in the ministry we have here at The Church at Oakwood South. First, the trailer next door to ours became available for rent and we began to see if this was a good fit for us. Our trailer is a 2 bedroom and the one next door is a 3 bedroom. The difference in it's layout would allow for each of our classes in our Monday night children's ministry, Roots, to have their own classroom. As it was now, our elementary age and preschool classes had a classroom in our living room and the 2 older kid classes had to meet either outside or we had to reserve the Hope Institute building with City of Hope Outreach because both classes were too big to share the front room. In August we finalized the lease and now are starting the process of getting everything ready to have service and Roots over at the new trailer. This will also allow a bit more freedom with the facility since it won't be shared with our family. We hope in the future to provide job training and ESL classes for the people in Oakwood in order to come along side them and create resources to help them get better jobs. As of now we do not have enough man power to accomplish this but we are hopeful that God will provide and increase our church when he is ready for us to pursue these future plans.
We also had the privilege last month to conduct a workshop at City of Hope Outreach's United For the City conference. There we got to discuss Living and Serving in an Under Resourced Community. It was a privilege to share all of what God has taught us in the past year and meet a lot of wonderful people. God used that workshop to bring another family to us to help on Monday nights, create a new fellowship with The Loghery family and their house church; Christ Church Fernwood, as well as build a relationship with a family from Mosaic that leads a youth group that will be helping us get the new trailer ready for ministry. God truly blessed our time that weekend and I can't wait for next year. You can check out the conference and listen to the great main speakers from that weekend at www.unitedforthecity.org
Also, this September, we had the joy of laying hands and sending off the Kingston family and their plant team to go and start another church in an under-resourced community on the other side of the city called Brookside. Brookside Family Church launched September 9th and are looking forward to a fruitful ministry in the months ahead. For more information about the Brookside Family church contact Brain or Erin Kingston either through Facebook, their blog, or www.cityhopeoutreach.com and see how you can help them reach the people of Brookside with the Gospel of our King Jesus.
Through much prayer and thought we have also come to the conclusion that we will not be signing on for another year of living in Oakwood. We feel that this past year was our season of incarnational ministry and that the Lord is now opening up opportunities for us to build relationships and share Jesus with the people of Oakwood by inviting them into our home and lives outside of the park. It was a very hard decision that came with a lot of prayer, struggle, and concern, but in the end we feel confident that this is the direction Jesus wants us to go. We are not certain where God is calling us to move to next in the city, but we do know at least that it will involve us eventually selling our house on Prince St. We ask that you join us in prayer as we take the next step in this journey. Even tonight, I (Gage) write this knowing I will miss random moments, like this evening, where several kids came to our trailer expecting it to be church tonight (they forgot it wasn't Monday) and started a random Duck Duck Goose game with us and felt at home in our house. It filled my heart with joy to know they think of this trailer as a safe place and I pray God will continue to use these relationships with these kids even after we move out of the park.
Thanks for all your warm feedback and prayers. Continue to follow our blog as we promise to try and get better on updating it on what God is doing in Oakwood South.
Grace and Peace,
Gage and Katie
