Happy Friday!

This past weekend, our church hosted our "Together Leadership Conference," or TLC 2023. It was an amazing weekend of celebrating all God has done through ministries over the past year, the lives that have been forever changed by the gospel, and saying thank you to our leaders for their faithful service. It was also a chance to be equipped and hear our vision for 2023. It was so refreshing, but one thing captivated me in particular.

Our guest speaker, from a church we modeled our church structure after and who has covered our church in prayer as we've walked through hard things to a place of health and growth, spoke about a January day in 2013 when he and others stood in the church parking lot, facing north, south, east and west and prayed for people in our region to encounter the gospel. They prayed for the next leaders who would come to this place with a mission and vision of equipping and releasing individuals to impact the region and the world for Christ. They prayed for health.

And one thing rang true; they were praying for me. The latter part of 2013 found me reluctantly and bitterly leaving behind the church I had attended for over a decade. It was a year of realizing what God had called the Church, His Church, to be and that I had believed a false, incomplete gospel my whole life. It was a year that my life and my heart encountered Jesus in a new way, and it set me on the trajectory of joining this church staff team and living on mission for Jesus.

I wonder where you were ten years ago? I wonder how you've seen Jesus change and shape you over the past decade. I'm wondering who has been praying for you, and you haven't even known it.

Today, I want to join the list of people praying for you. Will you let me do that? I'd love to hear specific ways I can pray for you, and you can let me know those things right here. I also want to encourage you to remain faithful in your prayers for others, even the prayers that seem like they are going unanswered, because God is faithful to hear our prayers and to answer them in His own way and in His own time. Oh, my friend, may we trust Him more in those things.

I promised a look at the gorgeous parliament building in Victoria, BC, in this newsletter, but in light of what was on my heart, I think I'll save that for next time.

Next time will also be launch day of Becoming Anne Whitlow! Make sure to follow me on social media so you don't miss any updates. For my local southwest Missouri friends, I'll have a special giveaway.

Speaking of Becoming Anne Whitlow, have you pre-ordered their story yet? Order the ebook now, and it will be automatically delivered to your kindle on February 10th. Get it now before the pre-order price disappears! Or, stay tuned to launch day to order your paperback copy!

I'll leave you with this verse and look forward to connecting with you again soon:

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

Isaiah 43:1 ESV

Love,

Audrey

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