GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS! And sometimes He surprises us with how He answers them! Our church has been searching for the means to acquire property and/or a building in the Northfield area almost since we started holding services. Knowing that we were quickly outgrowing our current meeting space in the public library, we called on our church members to pray about this need. Within two weeks of this time of prayer, God answered in a way so unique, we are still in awe.

IN SEPTEMBER, Trey was approached by the pastor of the Good News Baptist Church in our town who felt God was leading him to other pursuits. He stated in this conversation that after much prayer and consideration that he wanted to transfer all properties and assets of his church to our church. With this transfer comes a building that sits on the main road that runs through town (debt-free!). To make a long story short, his church voted to turn over their assets to us about a month ago and our church voted to accept these assets two weeks ago. We have already started the process of preparing the building and will hold our first public services there on the last Sunday of November. Hallelujah!

WITH THIS MOVE comes a new set of needs and matters to lift up in prayer. We will need teams to help us with small construction projects as there are parts of the building that need repair. You can see a listing of items we will need for the new facility towards the end of this newsletter. Also, there are attendees of Good News Baptist Church who are considering joining our church as a result of this transfer. We are anticipating some numerical growth, and are asking for prayers for strength as we welcome new people and seek to disciple them.

OUR CHURCH was able to host our first Fall Festival for the town of Northfield this past Saturday, October 31. The local elementary school allowed us the use of their gymnasium, and we were astounded to have more than 150 in attendance. We were equally pleased to see so many of our own church members and attendees involved in the event. A special “thank you” goes out to the mission team from Dauphin Way Baptist Church of Mobile, Alabama. They were here for the event and were a huge help in carrying out the details of the event (shopping, stuffing goodie bags, promoting the event in the community).

WE ARE THRILLED to have a few new faces in our congregation—that of the 6 Norwich cadets who have been faithful to attend every Sunday they are free of duty. These young men are hungry for Biblical teaching, and we are happy to get to know them. We have been hosting them in our home every Sunday after church for the past month. This is a time for the cadets to relax, call home (some of them are from California), catch up on homework, or play on our Wii. Trey is looking forward to starting a Bible study with them on a weekly basis at the Norwich campus.

OUR BOUNDARIES of ministry are expanding in many ways. Our youth group has seen students seek deeper relationships with Christ. We are holding multiple bible studies during the week. Our ministry is growing with Norwich University. Our church members are growing in their faith and stepping up to take more responsibility in the church. Please pray for spiritual growth as we experience the numerical growth that will come with our new building.

WE HAVE ALSO SEEN SOME BIG CHANGES for our family. Trey has recently ended his employment as a bus driver and has instead focused on a home-based computer business. This allows our children a little extra time in the morning as they were having to get up at 6:00 every morning to get on the bus with him. Please pray for Trey’s business to grow so that it can make up for the loss of income that his bus driving job was providing. Robyn is starting a master’s program this week. This is something that she has wanted to do for some time, and we are blessed that the school system she is working with will cover about three-fourths of the cost. This program will take her about 3 ½ years to complete. Pray that our family will adjust to her new schedule as she expands her knowledge of childhood education.

Prayer Requests:

Pray for more churches and individuals to commit to partner with us financially this year.

Pray for mission teams to help us do major renovations in the building this Spring and Summer - we need a bathroom installed upstairs, sheet rock and framing work, flooring and more.

Pray for the members of Good News Baptist Church as they consider joining our church. Pray for Pastor Mike Rake and his family as he seeks employment in the community.

Pray for the mission team from Shades Mountain Baptist Church coming in March 2010 to support our outreach efforts in Northfield.

Pray for our follow up from our Fall Festival, that we can plant and reap seeds of the Gospel that were sown at the event.

 Thank you for your prayers!

Trey, Robyn, Rachel, and Joshua Cates

NAMB Church Planting Missionaries

14 Kimball Avenue

Northfield, VT 05663
tcates@newlifevt.com
http://www.newlifevt.com/
(802) 485-5171 (office/fax)
(802) 793-6924 (home)