A Long, Overdue Update

Hello Family, Friends, Supporters, and Anyone Else Who Finds Themselves on Our Blog!

Eric and I decided that we really stunk at keeping you all up to date on our lives, The Ridge, and what God is doing up here in Milwaukee. I know we said we would send out newsletters randomly, and I think you all may have gotten 1 in the past 6/7 months. So, then we decided to keep a blog so you all could check it weekly and see our updates. That was like 3 months ago we decided this, and now I am finally doing it! So here we go!
Updates:
The Ridge: Our attendance has grown from January. But, just like at every church, when summer comes, attendance goes down. We have seen a couple weeks with lower numbers, but so far, so good. We are currently doing a series called OnePrayer, with 1500 churches world wide, and thousands of people participating. I encourage you to check out their website: www.oneprayer.com
It has been awesome! The first week Mark preached, and the past 2 weeks we have listened to 2 awesome speakers, and this coming week we will listen to one more. During the month of June, we have encouraged our Neighborhood Groups to get out and serve! Our groups have done some amazing things, and blessed a lot of people. This past weekend our neighborhood group held a rummage sale. For all of you that don't know, it's exactly like a garage sale, but for some reason if you say garage sale up here, people look at you like you are speaking a foreign language. So for all of you up here...rummage sale :) And in 5 hours we made $1000.00! Amazing! And we still had a lot to take to Goodwill. The rummage sale leads me to the next exciting, and wonderful thing happening at The Ridge.
This past weekend we took up a special, sacrificial offering to give to a mission organization in the Dominican Republic. They are building a feeding center there and their building costs have tripled due to the economic crisis all over the world. We have been supporting this mission since the day The Ridge launched. Mark and Michael left yesterday to take our check down to them, to help with the costs of the building. Right now people there live, eat, and bathe in a garbage dump. I am serious, it is literally a garbage dump! So our neighborhood group donated our earnings at the rummage sale to the DR. And then on Sunday everyone had a chance to give what they felt God was calling them to give. It was am awesome experience to be apart of. People were crying walking all the way to the baskets, and people were hugging, and some people were grinning ear to ear! The kids had a chance to be a part of it too. They raised and brought in $360.00, just on Sunday alone! Praise the Lord! When we brought the kids in to put their offering in the baskets, people started clapping, and crying even more. It was so awesome for someone like me who has been a Christian for 10 plus years to experience, but for The Ridge, where a lot of people have never experienced anything like this before, it was amazing! I won't tell you how much we ended up giving to the Dominican quite yet. Mark is going to announce it on Sunday, and I don't want to be the spoiler. But let me just tell you, God moved in some really BIG ways. You will be blown away to know what you support up here in Milwaukee!
The Ridge Student Ministry: We kicked the student ministry off in May with a bowling event called: Bowling, That's How We Roll. Clever little saying Eric came up. And now everyone says, "that's how we roll" all of the time. We had 14/15 students (I can't remember), and 15 volunteers. It was fun, and a great time literally getting to know the kids one on one. Then Friday, June 20, we had our next event, tailgating, and then they watched a Brewers game. They had 15 kids there again, but only 3 of them were at the bowling event, and the rest were all new, or have been coming to The Ridge, but didn't come bowling. Eric said it a great time, and everyone had fun. I am not sure what the event is for July. In August we will be doing some back to school party, and then in Sept. we will officially kick it all off with small groups for Jr/Sr High. I am very excited. All of the volunteers have started meeting every Saturday to plan, and make this a ministry done with excellence.
Neighborhood Groups at The Ridge: Eric has been very successful with neighborhood groups! Well, that's my opinion at least, and I think a lot of people would agree with me too. Our goal is 50% attendance for the year, and I think we are at 43-45%. So not bad. We are up from 30% in Dec. Most groups are taking the summer off from official Bible studies, and are meeting just for BBQ's, and serving within their neighborhoods. It is exciting to see more and more people get involved because they want to, not because they have to, or it looks good to do.
Now for the good stuff:
US! We are doing great! For those of you who didn't know, we moved, again! This time to a cheaper (yea!) and quiet little lake town named, Muskego. I love it here! Molly and I walk a lot around the town. We have a walking path right in front of our apartment, and we see the same people walk it everyday, and the cat goes nuts when he sees all of the dogs go by. We also walk to the grocery store, library, post office, and we have this great Mexican restaurant right across from us that we have walked to pretty much weekly since we moved here. The town is about 20,000 people, but it is spread out so far, that we have 2 neighborhood groups here. Just because it is so far and wide spread out. We have decided to stick with our New Berlin neighborhood group because we have already gotten so close with the people there, and it is only 5 extra minutes to the meeting spot. Eric plays in a softball league every week, and I am still plugging away at grad school. One more test and I am finished with my first round of classes. Four more classes, 4 specialty classes, and 20 more clients and I will officially have my Masters! So I am trying to keep motivated, but it's hard sometimes!
Sorry that this first post is so long, but you are all up to date on the happenings in Milwaukee, and the rest won't be this long, usually. We want to thank you all for your support, financially, prayers, thoughts, and sharing with other people what we are doing. God has continually blessed us since we have been here. I truly feel 100% with my whole heart we are in the right spot, and I feel like God has proven that to me, and Eric. I am excited to be a part of The Ridge, and the people there are amazing. Just listening to different stories is very humbling, and makes me appreciate the power and awesomeness our God has, and uses. Please come on by if you are ever in the neighborhood! We would love to share a little with you of what God is blessing us with. Also, keep us updated on your families, and what you need prayer for. We miss you all, and love hearing how you all are doing! Check back this week-I will be posting what the grand total of our offering was...and trust me, I can't say it enough, you will be blown away!