Family

This Autumn represents a new season for our family. For the first time since 2010 all of our kids will be in school Mon-Fri. Aiden begins his freshman year at Philadelphia Academy Charter High School. Emma enters fifth grade and Josiah begins kindergarten at Philadelphia Academy Charter School.

This change has allowed Kendra to start a new part-time job as a nanny with a family in Cherry Hill, NJ. She will continue to work part-time for the church as well.

Pray for smooth transitions, sustainable schedules, good health, provision, and protection.

True Vine Church Community

The weekend of October 5th-6th, True Vine will celebrate its 15th Anniversary with a block party in addition to our Sunday morning services. We are very grateful to God for His faithfulness to our church. We are also thankful for those who have been praying, serving, and giving to establish the church over the years.

Our church has sensed a renewed emphasis on evangelism and community engagement. This Autumn we’ll dedicate a sermon series, our Discipleship Groups, some money, and some training time to equipping people for evangelism. We also have some exciting opportunities to partner with other local congregations to impact our community. Lately, we’ve been seeing new visitors almost every week.

Pray for momentum as people return from a scattered Summer schedule, for evangelistic zeal, hospitality toward visitors, and a clear vision for community engagement.

Bless Philadelphia

In 2022 True Vine partnered with three other local churches to form a community-based non-profit called “Bless Philadelphia.” Bless Philadelphia exists to promote the peace, prosperity, health, and safety of Philadelphians through compassionate community engagement.

Our programs and events include a very active food pantry, a community garden, weekly shower availability, CPR certification classes, regular block cleanups, lawn care and home repair for those in need, and more.

Currently, I serve as a founding Board member of Bless Philadelphia. Earlier this year we were able to hire a part-time executive director. Having a dedicated staff member has really helped the organization take some big strides.

We recently hosted our first Partner Night which had nearly 70 people in attendance. This allowed us to share about the work of Bless Philadelphia and invite more community members to partner with us.

Pray for more opportunities for Bless Philadelphia to serve in the community as well as more resources to become available to us through partnerships, grants, etc.

Christian & Missionary Alliance

Metro District LO&CC
I continue to serve on the License, Ordination, and Consecration Council (LO&CC) of the Metro District of the C&MA. The LO&CC is responsible for the teaching, training, testing, equipping, and accountability of our District workers. We serve 130 churches and a few hundred pastors and Christian workers. This role occasionally provides me with opportunities to teach theology in other settings. On January 11th I will be providing some theological training for a group of Alliance churches in North Jersey.

Advent Devotional/AWC
Along with Pastors Marv Nelson and Justin Thornton, I co-lead the Alliance Writers Collective - a collection of writers in the C&MA. In 2023-2024 we produced a series of 10 podcast interviews with Alliance authors. In 2024 the AWC will be responsible for the production of an Advent devotional that will be distributed to the entire US Alliance (nearly 2,000 churches). I am the point person for this devotional and am responsible for identifying writers, assigning topics, and meeting deadlines.

AWF in Sierra Leone
Currently, the West African country of Sierra Leone has no Alliance churches. However, there is a group of nearly 25 churches that are interested in joining the international Alliance family known as the Alliance World Fellowship (AWF). During the week of November 11th - 18th I will be traveling to Sierra Leone to train 50 pastors and church leaders in the history and theology of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. We are essentially establishing an entire denomination in a new nation. This is the next step in building on the foundation of Alliance workers who translated the New Testament in this nation nearly 100 years ago.

Pray for the ability to manage these opportunities and responsibilities well, for empowerment from the Holy Spirit, and for renewal in the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Also, pray for safe travel to and from Africa.