What a busy summer!  New baby, active kids, growing church, renovating a facility, hosting teen basketball tournament & kids camp, and now school has started.   You can download our entire newsletter here:  fall 2014 update. 

Here’s a few highlights of what we’ve seen God do:

• BCC’s Baptism at the Beach & cookout on July 6 was a huge blessing. After orbiting BCC for the past year,  Christina discovered God’s grace in the midst of struggling with addiction and her son Emanuel after seeing his mom’s faith also decided to follow Jesus.   They both made their faith public at Burlington’s North Beach.
• Renovating the Free Methodist Church began as we moved into our “new space”  on July 13. In return for BCC renovating the facility, the FMC has leased the premises to us for Sunday gatherings & office space for the next three years.   The FMC places us in the midst of the Burlington’s Old North End community- Vermont’s most impoverished and multi-ethnic neighborhood- and within walking distance of many BCC members.
• The Basketball Clinic & Tournament was a significant bridge builder with our Muslim neighbors in the neighboring community of  Winooski.  25 middle schoolers attended the clinic and another 25 high schoolers participated in the 3 on 3 tournament in early July.   An experienced team from Shades Mountain and Greater Shiloh Baptist churches helped make the camp a huge success.
• BCC’s 3rd Annual Kids Camp provided the ministry highlight of the summer.  Valleydale Community Church returned for a third year providing additional volunteers as BCC volunteers took the lead on planning and running the camp which focused on God using Moses to deliver His people from Egypt.  An additional 15 teens from a local ministry called Youth Impact served alongside BCC in ministering to over 40 children each night in Burlington’s Old North End.
• North Country Church Planting Network continues to equip regional church-planters.  We’re hosting our first assessment retreat in October where we run three couples through the ringer to help them assess their readiness and then our second annual Equipping Retreat in January where we’ll explore leading ourselves, our families, and our leaders.

Bookend all that with our son Skye being born in May and the two other kiddos starting school: Jude began kindergarten and Wren started preschool at the Sustainability Academy in Burlington’s Old North End neighborhood.   So challenging yet so exciting.  We’re so blessed to run this course God has set out for us!

Be sure to read our entire newsletter with specific ways you can pray for us and support our church-planting endeavors.