The Baltimore Connection

Although this Newsletter comes late, we are thrilled to finally have the framework of our new website up and running!  Be patient as there is MUCH to tell!!!  Please take the time to look around the site and help us add content that is helpful.  Our site is to help our Planters AND Partners understand our calling to be servants in their lives.  Be patient as we learn blogging!!!

Chrissie’s Corner:

So last month I started out by saying the weather outside is turning “frightful”, BUT wow was I ever wrong…..little did we know we would have spring like weather for Christmas! We were outside in shorts! CRAZY!! Marc and I had an amazing visit with our family during the holiday season. So thankful for our time with Seth and Samuel as well as our parents and extended family! Speaking of family, our family has grown! We welcomed into the world a new great nephew, Ian. He had a rough couple days in the beginning but now he is home with his big brother and doing great!

Marc and I had the privilege of attending two different Christmas celebrations here is MD. One was with the BBA (Baltimore Baptist Association) pastors and wives. What a sweet night of fellowship! The other one was a night out with the church planters and wives sponsored by NAMB (North American Mission Board). This was a special treat for the planters and wives to have a Date Night, relax, fellowship and have some amazing food! These planters have sacrificed a lot to come to Baltimore! It was great to see them appreciated!

The church where Marc is serving as the Interim Pastor continues to thrive. We are blessed to have with us Church Planters, Jason and Olga Robbins. Jason is Interning under Marc and he and Olga are doing a great job helping out. Their plans are to plant “Journey Church” in the Cockeysville area and reach international couples/families. We have gone from virtually no children at church to as many as 9 in children’s church, Olga is coming to church every Sunday morning prepared to teach! What a blessing!

The following information should be in our next newsletter/blog since it applies to the month of January, But I would like you all praying for me now! I am conquering my traffic fears….The Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware office has had some changes lately and they have asked me to fulfill a 30 day contract and help out in the Church Multiplication Dept. as a Ministry Assistant. There is a lot to learn. This requires a 45 minute commute in heavy traffic.   Pray for me….I have been very spoiled my whole adult life with where I worked! The longest commute I have ever had was 15 minutes! Like I said SPOILED! It is partly Janice Hull’s fault! LOL   All kidding aside I am enjoying the work, The main purpose of the dept is working with the church planters, so this goes right a long with Marc’s calling here in Baltimore! God is good!!!

News from Marc

December was an amazing month.  It began with our Coaching Training on December 1-2.  Dino Senesi and Jamie Limato joined us at the Mid-Atlantic Baptist Network office in Columbia, MD, for the first day.  On day two, Michael Crawford and I lead the twenty new coaches through the new strategy for 2016.  The meeting was a great success!  We will be pairing our coaches with planters during the month of January as we begin those new relationships in February!  What a blessing to have such amazing people on the team!  Please pray for “The Lord of the harvest” to continue “sending laborers into His harvest.”  There’s so much work to be done, but God is providing everything needed!

THAT SAME WEEK brought such a joy on Friday, December 4, we had the amazing blessing of getting to see       Scott and Vickie Heldreth…OOPS…and most importantly Lacey!  The Heldreths lead a team on their way to NYC to stop through and deliver Christmas Shoe Boxes off in Baltimore to Charlie and Diane Brown, who are planting East Graffiti Church in Baltimore.  It was such a blessing to see folks from our home state of North Carolina coming to help in the work in Baltimore!  Please take the time to follow the East Graffiti link to see more!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE FOR JESUS AND BALTIMORE!!!

May I do one more?  How can we recap December without sharing something from Christmas?   Chrissie has already done a wonderful job sharing what a great time we had with our family, but I want to share a picture that may help you get a better visual of our church family at Cockeysville Baptist Church.  On Sunday, December 20, we had our Christmas Cantata.  WHAT AN AMAZING TIME!  We had our very first baptism that morning…..YES…OUR FIRST BAPTISM!!!  Yana and David surrendered their lives to King Jesus and we were blessed to get to celebrate with them!  Although we could go on and on…I will stop for now.  Now we can share individual events instead of sending long newsletters!  Hope you’ve enjoyed hearing just a small portion of what God did in December!

Meet a church planter…

Kyle and Lindsey Carlson:  The Carlson’s moved from Texas to Baltimore.   To start with, WOW what a weather shock! (Although they had to go all the way back to Texas to get snow for Christmas!)  They have 4 kids with another one on the way. They have parachuted into Baltimore… this means they came not having a “core team,” but are starting from scratch. They plan to plant a church called “Imprint Church”. They have purchased a home in the area they want to plant and minister in. They moved this past August and have already formed a relationship with the neighborhood schools! They are very excited to see what God is doing! Pray for them as they grow their team!

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Carlsons and even more Baltimore Planters.  Pray for them!!!