Thursday, May 29, 2008

Update from the Reinbolds

It's hard to believe they've been gone for a year and a half, but Emmanuel and Janelle Reinbold are some good friends of mine who helped start TFC and had a big impact on a lot of your lives. Emmanuel and Janelle moved away in December of 2006 to begin pastoring a church in McCook, Nebraska (who would want to move to Nebraska?). Emmanuel and I still talk quite a bit and I asked him to share an update of their family and ministry with those of you who knew them.

Greetings from McCook, Nebraska!
We have been hearing great praise reports about all that God is continuing to do through Trinity Family and are so excited for you! It is hard to believe that it was just a year and a half ago that we left Gardner, KS to embark on this amazing journey called “ministry” and we are pleased to report that God is really moving out here in Nebraska as well!

We walked into an established church with some “wounds” but the people were at a place where they were ready to let God take complete control in order to more effectively reach our community for Him! What an opportunity! The church board wanted to start the process by “getting ready for company” which involved a major remodel project to update our restrooms, offices, hallways and nursery. Although this is not a project most pastors want to start in their first year of ministry, the Lord clearly led us into it and the talented people of our church completed it early this spring! We are in the process of writing children’s ministry policies to bring us up to date legally and help parents feel more secure in allowing us to minister to their children. This is a huge task but with the completion of the nursery policies we are already seeing positive results when visitors come. The biggest task to date started with a church board retreat last July in which we evaluated the internal workings of our church and prayed for guidance for a clear ministry vision from God to unify and guide us through this change process. As a result of this vision we are seeing several non-churched families involved in our small group studies on what it means to be a disciple of Christ as well as our Crown Financial studies. We have also been able to engage many people in discipleship who were previously just attending worship once in a while.

There is much work yet to be done, but God has clearly been directing every step of the way as we are learning more and more about the amazing power of prayer and how to not get too far ahead or behind Him as we trust Him to take the lead. We really believe that “Whatever God can do, prayer can do”!!! We do still covet your prayers and continue to keep you and your ministries in prayer as well. You can check out our church website at http://www.mccooknazarene.org/.

Emmanuel & Janelle Reinbold

I'd add that the Reinbolds' are expecting their second child later this summer!

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