March update

Dear Ministry Partners and Friends:

“Hey Eric, he’s reading the Bible we just gave him! And when I saw him again later he was still reading it!” Three students from The Master’s College celebrated on a balmy 45-degree afternoon last Friday in the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort employee parking lot. The joy on their faces seemed to say they just won the lottery. Meanwhile Jonathan, Johnnyboi, and Sarah were flipping up burgers in champion fashion for hungry skiers.

At about 5:30pm, another bus pulled up from the ski resort. Skiers and resort employees stampeded off the bus like cattle to a feeding trough, nearly knocking me down, and jumped in line to get a burger, chips, and drink for 25 cents. At the top of his lungs, our cook for the week, TMC student Johnnyboi Park was calling out, “Come get your 25-cent burgers!” Indeed they did. Some were asking for seconds. “Here, have our church info packet,” one freshman Master’s student said to a hungry skier.

Reaching the culture here has not proved easy. If they are not skiing, they’re waiting tables somewhere late at night, making it difficult to cross paths with people from a small church in a small town. This time, we intercepted them between the ski resort and their cars. About 100-150 burgers were served up that Friday. Even better, dozens of Bibles, tracts, and church invites were handed out, along with connections made and people met at the 1st annual Cornerstone Quarter Cookout for the ski resort employees and skiers.

Rewind to Monday of that same week. Two students embarked to help a single mom with miscellaneous chores at her home. In addition to cleaning and helping her with some light construction work, two hours were spent encouraging her with the hope of Jesus Christ from Scripture. “Wow, I’ve never heard those things you’re telling me,” she told one of the students. The student later told me that she asked her to come back later “so that we could talk more about the word.”

On a lighter note, another student did not quite make it back into the car after we stopped for a bathroom break an hour south of Jackson while traveling. When we finally realized it, and returned to find out how she was and what she had been doing, she replied, “Oh, talking about Jesus with people in the store and stuff.” Amen. A mini-mart missionary, wherever and whenever, just owning the mission for Christ. The tactic of this 19-year old convicted me.

That is just a couple snapshots from a rowdy last few weeks of ministry. It all started with five of us guys getting to spend the week at the annual Shepherds’ Conference in southern California. As usual, we were greatly encouraged. Thank you to all our friends at Grace Community Church for giving us a three-day spiritual Disneyland. We returned freshly fueled from the conference to continue the plowing here in Wyoming.

Then 10 students from The Master’s College sacrificed their spring break and drove the 16 hours up I-15 to join us for a week of community service, babysitting, music and media help, chair-lift evangelism, outreach, and more here in Wilson.

The dust has now cleared and things are back to “normal” here. Small groups are still going strong. Sunday worship continues each week in the little community center in downtown Wilson. Challenges do not seem to be letting up, but constantly increasing.

And so, we ask you all to hunker down with us in prayer to our Sovereign King. Be so encouraged that God is answering your prayers. Please know that God is hearing and working through your labor with us:

• Please, above all, pray that God would give all of us at Cornerstone a growing simple and pure devotion to the person of Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:3).
• Ask God to give us the drive for and reality of greater fulfillment in knowing Christ, more than the superficial fulfillment of stuff and the trinkets of the world (Philippians 3:7).
• Beg God to give us all an increasing teachability and gospel-motivated humility, especially toward one another (Proverbs 15:31-32, 1 Peter 5:5).
• Pray that God would be conforming everyone in discipleship and counseling situations to the image of Christ with every meeting (Romans 8:29). Also ask God for wisdom as we are facing increasingly difficult counseling situations (James 1:5).
• Thank God for the unity we are enjoying here. Beg him to make us zealous to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).
• Praise for safety in traveling to and from California. Thank him for an impactful week of ministry with the Master’s students. Ask him to sprout forth fruit of salvation and sanctification as a result of the gospel work done last week (1 Corinthians 3:7).
• Beg God to grow the leadership into Christ-like, wise, humble, competent shepherds more each day than the previous (1 Peter 5:2-3).
• Pray for God to grow us all ¾ especially the leadership ¾ in self-control, timeliness, discipline, and excellence for Christ in everything we are doing (Ephesians 5:16, 2 Timothy 1:7). God is convicting us all that this is a major area of growth needed among us.
• Praise and thank God for continued support so that the ministry is able to keep going here. Ask him to continue to provide just what we need to move forward (Matthew 6:31-32).
• Pray for the marriages and families, for Christ-like love toward one another and for wisdom in raising our children (Ephesians 5:25, 6:4).

Your offerings continue to be a greatly needed blessing as we pray to become self-supporting. In the meantime, if you are led to team up with us financially, please make checks out to “Cornerstone Church.” All of your offerings are tax-deductible. Checks may be mailed to: Cornerstone Church, P.O. Box 980, Wilson, Wyoming, 83014.

For the celebration of Jesus Christ,

Eric, on behalf of the Jackson Hole church plant team: Leslie, Matt, Sera, Bryan, Ashley, Chris, Rebecca, Melissa, and Neill

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