An update from Refuge Church in Nixa, Missouri, with whom Grace Hills is a supporting partner.
They all come together to create many great missions opportunities for 3 different missions teams who joined us on the field in June. We had the privilege of having Brister Baptist Church from Emerson, AR; Oasis Church from North Little Rock, AR; and Needs Creek Baptist Church from Greenbrier, AR join us on mission here in Nixa across 2 different weeks. Once they were all fitted with bright orange Refuge Church shirts, we hit the ground running. While they were here we had the opportunity to do many things in our community in order to make a difference including neighborhood canvasing, prayer walking, back yard Bible clubs, passing out bottled water at the parks, cleaning the facilities and painting the yellow parking stripes for Least of These Ministries, evangelistic surveys, feeding the homeless, helping clean up around Victory Mission thrift store (a ministry for the underprivileged in Springfield), servant evangelism activities and much more! It was exciting to see God working in Nixa through the help of these teams.
It was just as exciting to see those who were on the teams ‘get it’ as they were ministering. More than once I heard it said, “We can do this kind of stuff back home and reach people there too.” Since they have returned home, I have heard reports of many of them making a difference in their own communities because of the time they spent in Nixa. Missions is contagious when people allow God to work through them where they are on a regular basis!
As a result of the teams here in Nixa, we have seen new families become a part of our small groups over the past few weeks simply because of the efforts of these teams. With all of the seeds that we planted across the two weeks, I can’t wait to see what else God does as we continue to water and ask Him to give the increase!
We are excited that God continues to provide opportunities for us to meet new people here in Nixa on a regular basis. We make an effort to get out of our comfort zones on a daily basis in order to meet new people in new places. It’s not always easy to do and can sometimes create some interesting conversations, but we have decided to put ourselves in what may seem like awkward conversations in order to demonstrate God’s love daily. As a result, we are seeing that more people are becoming familiar with the fact that Refuge Church is here in Nixa and we are seeing new faces come to our small group environments. Be praying for our small group environment that God would allow us to have multiple groups develop in the very near future.
PRAYER NEEDS
- Pray that God would add to our launch team in His timing. We’re also praying that He would add a second pastor to our team who may also be able to lead worship.
- Pray that God would continue to provide the partners needed to become fully funded.
- Pray for us as we continue to travel and share about the vision of Nixa with other churches.
- Pray for God to use us to reach the lost around us with the hope that only He can give.
