I promise that I still blog
Blogging has sort of been one of those on-the-back-burner tasks in my overly busy life right now. Up until now, I have not even hardly thought about it until Ashlee said “babe, you need to blog…even if it’s a small update.” So here is my small update.
We have been tirelessly working over the past few weeks to push the launching of our Sunday evening services. This has taken up much of our energy and as a result has left little time for anything else. As of now, we have had 3 services. Our numbers have fluctuated and we are averaging around 46 people. All of the momentum that we had gained over the summer was all but lost with the new meeting night and time. Many of those that we invested in over the summer fell off the radar. This was especially discouraging for me as the pastor but one thing God has done…He has grown our core group through it all. We had 22 people show up this past Sunday afternoon at the Marshall Center at 330 to be a part of the set-up of Aletheia Tampa. That absolutely blows me away. Many of you are saying, well much of that is Aletheia Harrisonburg people. Well, actually, No! Our entire team from Harrisonburg still isn’t here so our Virginia contingency made up only half that number. And that crew of 22 had everything set up in less than 1 hour. Can you believe that? We have already mastered the porta-church thing and we are only 3 weeks into this thing.
Over the past 3 weeks, our core group has also handed out over 7,000 personal invites to the people of Tampa. We launched our “3 blocks” campaign and had a blast doing it. Didn’t receive the negative feedback quite like we did in H’burg. Although I did just receive a hateful comment on my blog regarding it from someone who calls himself “The Light.” Pretty interesting stuff there.
We have now seen 37 people accept Christ since Ashlee and I arrived in early April. That is the number I am most excited about. Included within that are 3 Hindus and a couple atheists. God is working in mighty ways.
As I look back to the early days in H’burg, I can’t help but laugh at some of the things we did when comparing them to the quality of how we do things here. I am so glad for the experience gained in that little Mennonite town with a sweet Liberal Arts University. It blows my mind that the original Aletheia had almost 600 people at church the past two weeks. God is building a church here in Tampa just like He did in H’burg. We have the best people, we are using a Biblical model, and we are having a blast. This is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done and I am being stretched beyond my limits daily but I wouldn’t change it for anything.
The Proffitt fam is doing great. We continue to have mixed emotions about the fall, which is imminent. Our little Aaden would be getting ready to have his first birthday on October 8th. And then, to add insult to injury, on November 15th, we will have to face the 1 year mark of that dreadful day when our little healthy five-week old son went to be with Jesus. I have talked my dad into coming and teaching for me at Aletheia Tampa, because, as you’ll see by looking at a calendar, November 15th falls on a Sunday. It will be nice having family here for what will be the second toughest day of our lives.
Ashlee is now 16.5 weeks pregnant and making progress. She is (I hope) past the debilitating headaches, nausea, and vomiting which lasted well into the second trimester this time. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new little one with old and new fears. Our trust is in our faithful God though who is in control. We are just hoping for a better outcome with this new little one.
Alright, that wasn’t very short…sorry! Here are some picts from the past few weeks. You’ll even see my bro-in-law in one. He and my sis and my two nephews Micah and Camden came to be with us for our first service.
