Abundant Life Church Newsletter

Abundant Life Lines: Updates and information about Abundant Life's Multi-Housing Ministry

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Abundant Life Lines

Issue 12, August 2015

Our summer continues to be SUPER busy! We are thankful for mission teams coming alongside us and making it possible to have Backyard Bible Clubs, block parties and prayer walking. Each of our teams experienced the joy of picking up trash at the multi housing locations. Picking up trash seems like such a menial task but it is an easy way to please our apartment managers. As we make their job easier and continue to build community, we are given more freedom to share the gospel in different ways.

We spoke to several people who have expressed interest in attending a small group Bible study at two of our multi housing complexes. Thank you P2 teams (Iolta Baptist Church from Franklin, Tennessee and Wylie Baptist Church from Abilene, Texas) and Beaver Dam Baptist Church(Knoxvile, Tennessee) for making it possible for Abundant Life Church to have events that bring residents together and allow us to make new contacts. We are looking forward to see how God blesses us as we explore the new possibilities He has given to us.

July Highlights

Lakota Pointe

We will continue to have our small group at Lakota Pointe two Monday's each month after the AC in the back room at the office gets fixed. The children play in the back room while we have the Bible study. That room was near 100 degrees the last time we met so we had to cancel the past two scheduled Bible studies. We are in the process of seeking alternative locations until the air conditioning gets fixed. We may have to go as far as busing people somewhere, but we are going to do everything in our power to have our study. We know and believe the truth about the importance of not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another... With that said, will continue our study of Difficult Times, Encourgaing Words. Please pray that we are able to hold our next small group very soon.

We had two more mission teams join us in July. The first team consisted of two churches (mentioned in the opening of this newsletter) that were part of P2, a mission trip that allows participants to learn about church planting. One of the leaders and his family are very interested in church planting because of this experience! This team worked with us for two days from 1:30 until 8:00 PM. They held a Backyard Bible Club at Lakota Pointe both days. Because of the previous teams work, there was a good foundation laid. There were 37 kids in attendance the first day and 58 kids the second day! This team had several stations that the kids rotated to so the groups were manageable. They blessed the children by giving out shirts, canteens and Bibles. The kids were thrilled!

There were several children who had expressed interest in receiving Christ the week before so we followed up with 6 of them while the P2 team was helping us. Three of the children had already asked Christ to come into their lives and had been baptized. We explained to them that the decision to accept Christ into their hearts only needed to be done one time. If they understood that Jesus was God's Son and that He took the penalty for their sins so they could be brought into a right relationship with God, they never had to pray to receive Him again because He never leaves us! The other 3 we spoke with prayed to receive Christ after we discussed what that meant. We will be following up with their parents about these decisions and baptism. We are continuing to follow up with the others who expressed interest in becoming a Christian. We do not have complete contact information for a few of these children so we need to gather that information before we can follow up. We are in the process of doing this.

In last's month newsletter we mentioned having a block party at Lakota Pointe with one of the mission teams and the fact that we were able to get a few new contacts who expressed interest in attending our small group at Lakota Pointe. One of the ladies came to the next small group meeting and sent her children to Backyard Bible Club!

We had another block party with the P2 team and made a few more contacts. Hopefully we will have a few more attend our next small group Bible study.

The last day of July the Beaver Dam Baptist Church team from Knoxville, Tennessee did a Backyard Bible Club at Lakota Pointe as well. There were 44 children in attendance. This team spent the morning at Lakota Pointe prayer walking, picking up trash, playing with kids and promoting that afternoon's Backyard Bible Club. We are so thankful for the love they showed these children. They were very organized and prepared to make the most of the time they had with children. It was neat to see how each mission team led their week of Backyard Bible Club. The Beaver Dam team used drama as a way to help hold the kids interest. They ended with a special treat of UDF ice cream cups. The kids were very excited!

We praise God for so many people taking time out of their summer to make a difference in the lives of those we minister to at Abundant Life Church!

Heritagesprings of West Chester

In July we averaged 41 in attendance the two weeks we served. In August we will go door to door again to connect with some of the newer residents as well as visit some of our regulars.
We were thrilled to have a woman we have prayed with several times join us for chapel. She usually stays in her bed so it was quite a blessing to have her worship with us. We also were blessed having a member from LHBC join us for chapel. We are sorry she had her accident, but we were happy to have her join us! We are praying we don't see her next month, unless it's at Lakota Hills Baptist Church!

Meadow Ridge and North Pointe

We have not had an opportunity to get back to North Pointe for any events since the block party last month. We followed up with the winners of the Kroger gift cards. One winner didn't actually live at North Pointe. We passed another winner's information onto Eber Flores because she spoke very little English. We had a wonderful visit with the third gift card winner. This godly couple attends church at the Vineyard and could easily be an answered prayer as our persons of peace. God is so good!

The P2 team served popcorn and snow cones at Meadow Ridge one evening. We were able to talk with a couple of women who said they would be interested in attending a small group Bible study at Meadow Ridge. One of the ladies attends church elsewhere but is interested in having her church join with us to minister to the residents. The P2 team also picked up trash that evening as well. We try to schedule some sort of trash pick up after any event because we never want to cause more work for the maintenance team.

We are excited to be handing out school supplies here next month. A BIG thank you to SCBO for helping us fund these supplies. This will give us another opportunity to talk to adults about our small group we hope to start by September.

We have a Facebook community page and a website. Please take a moment and check them out. We would love your feedback!

Facebook

Website

This Month's Specific Prayer Needs

Spiritual growth for those attending small group Bible study
Cheyenne
Killian and his family (Expressed interest in coming to church but have not attended yet)
Keawna, single mom of 5 to draw closer to Christ; more clients for in home healthcare. (PRAISE - she brought her family and two additional children to church!)
Consuello's (assistant manager at Lakota Pointe) husband
Location outside of Lakota Pointe for childcare during meetings
Wisdom to help meet the needs of residents at Lakota Pointe
Follow up for those we got connection cards from at Meadow Ridge, North Pointe and Lakota Pointe.
Decisions made during the mission teams' stay
Small group to be started at Meadow Ridge
Praise - open door to work at Meadowridge Apartments and North Pointe Townhomes!

Ongoing Prayer Needs

That we would look for, recognize, and create ways to get the Gospel message to the lost people in these multi-housing areas
That Allen and Lisa's daily walk with God would never get pushed aside by the busyness of this world, including the busyness of family or even this ministry.
Balancing work, ministry and family

Support our Ministry

We appreciate ALL support for the ministry, we can't do it without the help of others. If you are able to financially support us we would be eternally grateful!!

You can support our ministry in three different ways:

PRAYING

A praying partner commits to praying specifically for my wife and I, our ministry, and our multi-housing residents. Prayer support is vital for us as we serve on the field!

PARTICIPATING
A participating partner commits to becoming involved personally in our ministry. For example, your church may want to send mission teams to assist us or seek to mobilize individuals within your church to be sent as short or long term missionaries as part of our planting team.

PROVIDING

A providing partner commits to supporting our ministry financially. All funds will be handled and deposited by our NAMB strategic partner, Lakota Hills Baptist Church in West Chester, Ohio. All donations are tax deductible. Please make checks payable to Lakota Hills Baptist Church. Be sure to include "Allen Lawless" on the memo line.

Allen and Lisa Lawless
North American
Mission Board
Lead Church Planter

Spotlight

Upcoming Events

Small group meetings at Lakota Pointe on August 17, August 31 and September 14.

Please pray that they will get the AC working in the back room at the office. We have had to cancel small group because that room is where the children play and it's been nearly 100 degrees in that back room. Fixing the AC is a low priority for the maintenance men because they are so busy with residents needing maintenance. We are looking into other options in the meantime.

Our ongoing prayer request is that the ladies will invite their neighbors and that we will have men begin to attend.

HELP WANTED!

Lakota Pointe

HELP!! Our small group is growing so we could use some additional people to help with childcare. Megan Yost moved back to Columbus so we could really use your help! This does not have to be a long term commitment. Would you be willing to help with even one evening? Would you be willing to be on call in a pinch?
Please consider being part of our childcare team so that the ladies (and hopefully daddies soon) can learn truths from God's Word.

Meadow Ridge Apartments

We hope to be starting a small group Bible study here in the next month or so. We will be in great need for additional childcare workers. Won't you consider joining us so we can share Christ with residents at Meadow Ridge?!

Heritagespring

We are still looking for 2 more people to join our team at Heritagespring.

Do you play an instrument? We are looking for anyone interested in playing the piano or other instrument to accompany our music director, Mike Collopy. We have a rotational schedule and are looking for a minimum of 6 people so that each person only has to commit to 4 chapel services per year! Here is the best part - you don't have to be good, just willing to do your best. Your job usually consists of playing two songs during a 30 minute chapel service. This is an easy opportunity for you to use the gifts that God has given you to serve Him.

Please contact Allen or Lisa if you are willing to serve alongside us!

Allen (513) 746-7063
Lisa (513) 746-7062

Preserves at Beckett Ridge

Beaver Dam Baptist Church mission team hosted a block party at the Preserves at Beckett. This location is so different than the other two multi housing areas we serve. This manager has made it clear that she doesn't want a relationship with Christ, but she allows us to do community events like the block party. At our other complexes we are allowed to talk about Christ and our desire to have small group Bible studies. However, at the Preserves at Beckett Ridge we are very limited in what we can say here. Our prayer is that one day this manager will see her need for Jesus and allow us to be more open with the residents.