DanSardinas.net

February 2010 Prayer Letter

 

The letter below is our updated prayer letter for this month.  If you are not our our prayer list (you didn't get this email....let me know)  Email me dansardinas@gmail.com and i will get you on the list.  Thanks.

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Hello Friends! (Please forward this message on to others...let us know if any want to be added to our prayer list.) 

It has been awhile since I've written.  Please forgive this absence as I'm sure it's harder to pray without being updated more often.  It is now approaching 2 years since we left Venango Woods Church to pursue what God has called to do down here in Cape Coral.  As many of you know we spent the first 7 months after VWC  in New Jersey.  We moved down here in November of 08; and it's been an interesting journey!  We are doing well although we have some urgent prayer requests that I'll share later on in this email.  The kids are doing great!  Tyler & Brianna are in 4th & 2nd grade respectively.  They both are consistently getting A's and B's.  We are very proud of them. Brandon will turn 5 in March and is currently in Pre-K.  Lori is working part-time doing BPO's for Avalon Real Estate.  She also has landed a couple of piano lesson students.  I am working still for Avalon Real Estate as the Contract Administrator. We are both blessed to have these jobs!   

 

One year ago, we began meetings in our home for Fusion Church.   This has been made possible by the Florida Baptist Convention who has helped us tremendously.  I have also received some mentoring by some great leaders.  Todd Milby from Summit Church in Estero & Mike Lowery of Gate Church of Lehigh have provided great encouragement.  Keith Lancaster (FBC) & Greg Kappas (GGN) who both have a huge vision for church planting, gave us a great start as well!  To tell you that, planting a church bi-vocationally as the economy collapsed around us was a challenge, would be a huge understatement.  We have had to trust God like never before.  This has not been easy.  It never is...is it?  

 

The first year of starting the church has been all about laying a good foundation for what we are doing.  We meet weekly for worship in our home (since Feb '09) and have really laid a good foundation.  We have been building good relationships with many people in our neighborhood and community that we hope lead to making the Gospel real in their life.  Just recently we started meeting in Panera Bread in Cape Coral.  We feel that this is vitally important for a public presence.  The one thing we have learned is that it is entirely difficult to start a church in your living room and expect people to come! LOL :).   Last week we met a woman who God brought across our path.  Her name is LouAnn and she is need to know that God loves her.  She poured her heart out to us last week and we shared the Gospel with her.  She happened to notice the sign we hung up on the Panera Bulletin Board and came out to see us.   This proved to us.....that we need to do something different.  At the beginning of this church plant...keeping things simple &  organic were very important to us.  I have learned that can still happen in a public place as well.  Please pray as we continue to search this out.  I'm not sure where the Lord will take us next with going "public".  

 

Are we connected through soical media?  Please make sure to read my blog www.dansardinas.net.  It is now once again being updated a lot more often.  

 

Prayer Requests

Family - Pray that the kids will continue to do well in school.  Tyler has his FCAT test tomorrow and he is nervous.  Also pray that we will continue to make inroads to our neighbors.  We recently moved to a new neighborhood that has tons of children.  The one thing I have learned since our move is that my children are great missionaries!  

 

Financial (Personal) - Work has been very, very slow lately and I'm not getting the hours I once was.  We are no longer allowed to work overtime which has put a big blow to our family budget.  Our company is going through a hard time and we understand this move.  Also the Florida Baptist support has been cut in half from $1,000 to $500/ month as planned.   So all in all....starting this January we have lost $1,000 /month  of income.  This is devastating as we were already paycheck to paycheck.  Please pray for work to pick back up or God to provide some extra income.  It would be great if some churches would help support us in 2010.  

 

Financial (Church) - We are praying about how to make our meetings more public..but still simple & organic.  We may have an opportunity to rent some public space for $350/ month.  If we were to do this we would start worship services on a weekly basis.  We also are in desperate need for some resources to do some outreach & ministry.  Again we are praying for churches to take us on with monthly support.  

 

Russ & Nancy - (Russ and Nancy are the couple who has joined Fusion Church).  Pray for Russ as he hasn't been feeling well lately.   Nancy is starting to substitute for Lee County Schools.  Pray for her that she may get the hours needed.  

 

Panera Bread Meetings....pray that God will use us to build more relationships with those who need Christ.  

 

LouAnn - lady we met at Panera last week..pray that we will reach her with the Gospel.

 

Thank you so much for your prayers for us.  I will share these updates more often...I promise!  

 

In Christ,

 

Dan Sardinas,

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What a 40 Days!

Well the 40 days are now over and we had an awesome Celebration Sunday!!!  So now what do we do?  Well that is simple.  We keep on praying and we keep on praising God.  Take the momentum from these 40 days and press on! 

On Celebration Sunday we heard great stories of how people have grown closer to God.  We saw God give peace and comfort during different situations of where people had horrible situations.  There was a mom dealing with the revelation of her daughter's sexual abuse.  We had another parent grieving the loss of her 23 year old son due to a tragic car accident.  We had the comfort of knowing that another pregnant mom was safe with baby..even though she had gone through several miscarriages.  We heard several stories of people giving up addictions.  I've heard people who are addicted to sex...cigarettes and alcohol give these things up.  WOW!  How is this even possible?  We heard stories of people connecting and experiencing "true church" in the midst of a small group.  I even know of stories of people praying for God's will to shown to them and then being shown a direction/answer.  We even saw 2 cases of cancer that were confirmed by doctors disappear and/or are now shrinking!!!!!   We saw Brad's headaches that put him in a hospital for an entire week with no answers all of a sudden just disappear out of nowhere!! 

How is this all possible???  It's possible because God is awesome and we called out to him in prayer!  We saw God's promises shown to us when we are faithful to pray.  I don't konw about you but I'm not ready to stop praying.  This is just the start of something amazing!   Let this 40 days be the springboard of our journey ahead together!!

As far as this blog goes...it will continue.  This blog will change it's primary focus of praying to go boader about "anything and everything.  We encourage you stop by often and leave comments.  I won't be blogging everyday but probably 2-3 times a week from here on out.  Please tell your family and friends about this blog and pray that it will continue to be a help to you on your journey!

If you didn't share something about what you saw during the 40 days please feel free to post a comment to this blog and share with us what you saw.  Maybe it's just something that you are thankful for in this time.  Don't leave us out of what God is doing in your life!

ROCK ON!

Day 39

This Sunday is Celebration Sunday!  Tomorrow will be the last day of our prayer focus during the 40 days.  It has been a truly exciting time for all of us.  God has worked and showed us so many wonderful things.  We want to hear your stories and celebrate with you.  So please share them with us.  If you have seen God move through your prayers or even if you have something extra special to give thanks for...please let us hear it.  You can share your story or you can write it down and have somebody else read it for you.  You can do this a couple of ways....

1.  You can email me your story.  pastordan@venangowoods.org

2.  You can write it down on the "My Story" sheets which you have been recieving the last few weeks.

Let me leave you with this Psalm of praise to our GOD!

Psalm 150 (NIV)

1 Praise the LORD.
       Praise God in his sanctuary;
       praise him in his mighty heavens.

2 Praise him for his acts of power;
       praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
       praise him with the harp and lyre,

4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,
       praise him with the strings and flute,

5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
       praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
       Praise the LORD.

Day 38

The following below is from www.allaboutprayer.org .  I have found these things to be helpful and wanted you to read this....

Thanks,

Dan

What is Prayer? – Talking With God
What is prayer? Prayer is our direct line with heaven. Prayer is a communication process that allows us to talk to God! He wants us to communicate with Him, like a person-to-person phone call. Cell phones and other devices have become a necessity to some people in today’s society. We have blue tubes, blackberries, and talking computers! These are means of communication that allow two or more people to interact, discuss, and respond to one another.

To many, prayer seems complicated, but it is simply talking to God. Here are some points about what prayer is:

What is Prayer? – The Logistics
Many people question what is prayer because they desire to pray, but don’t know how. Consider these tips:

• What Do I Say? Praying is like talking to your best friend! It’s easy to talk to someone when you know they love you unconditionally!
  
  1. Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and make you new in Him! “Now turn from your sins and turn to God, so you can be cleansed of your sins” (Acts 3:19).
  2. Tell Him your needs! “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you” (1 Peter 5:7).
  3. Thank Him, for He died on the cross at Calvary for us! “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
• How Do I Say It? Here’s how I have learned to approach the Savior of my life.
  1. With confidence and belief that He will deliver: “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God's presence, assured of his glad welcome” (Ephesians 3:12). “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it” (Hebrews 4:16).
  2. With joy that He can deliver. “You have shown me the way of life, and you will give me wonderful joy in your presence” (Acts 2:28).
  3. With expectation that He is going to deliver. “Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3). “I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray” (Psalm 17:6).

What is Prayer? - What Does the Bible Say?
Pray for each other. Jesus set an example for us on what to pray. He prayed for His disciples and for every generation to come that would follow Him. His prayer was that God protect and strengthen them as long as they were in this world. Jesus also prayed for those who would come to believe in Him through the Gospel message (John 17).

Pray with faith. “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Pray with worship and reverence. “Exalt the LORD our God! Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!” (Psalm 99:5). “‘Yes, Lord,’ the man said, ‘I believe!’ And he worshiped Jesus” (John 9:38).

You will know with confidence that God can hear you when you pray, so open that line of communication! Pray, knowing that no matter how far you roam, your connection with Him can never be lost!

“I pray that your love for each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding” (Philippians 1:9).

Day 37

"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:3).

Whey you pray are you really praying that God would have his way?  Or are you just praying for the things that you want?  James tells us that we have not recieved some of the things that we have prayed for because of our wrong motives to please our own desires.  What are your motives when you pray?  Are they selfish?  Just a quick note to think about today.

Day 35

Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  I Thessalonians 5:17 -18 (NLT)

I think that these two verses are some of the hardest verses to live out in the Bible.  Ok let's break it down quickly.

1.  Always be joyful????
2.  Never stop praying???
3.  Be thankful in all circumstances???

Now no one will deny that this is what we ought to do...but this is very hard to do.  It's hard to have joy when nothing is going right, isn't it?  It's hard to keep praying when you feel that God isn't listening, isn't it?  It's hard to be thankful in all circumstances, isn't it?  And yet we see that Paul says that this is God's will for our lives who belong to Jesus.  Wow.  This is what God wants us to do.  It's all about attitude.  You and I choose our mood.  We can choose to be bitter or we can choose to be better.  Sometimes life is so out of control that we feel like we don't even have time to make those choices.   These verses are all about attitude.  Most of the time when we are so stressed out we are always focusing on our current circumstances.  That is always bad to do.  Instead focus on the God of the circumstances and that He is bigger than anything that life throws at you.  When you rest in His presence instead of your problems life is a little easier to live.  When we live in God's presence we will have more joy...we will want to pray more...and we will be thankful when the bad or good things happen.

Day 34

Thanks for praying.  Today I feel like I've turned the corner and am beginning to feel normal again...well whatever normal is. :)  I do feel much better today so thank you for those of you who were praying for me specifically.  Check out this verse today about Jesus' prayer life.  This is said more than once and was a daily practice for him.  many times it is said that...

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed" (Mark 1:35).

Prayer was a priority in Jesus life.  It wasn't something extra that he did.  It wasn't something he did to grow spiritually more intune with the Father.  Prayer was given first place in His life.  Jesus got up early to pray and went out by himself.  I hope that we haven't made "prayer" something that we are just going to do during 40 days.  Or even that it's going to be an extra thing afterwards.  I pray that this 40 days of prayer has made you and I see that this needs to be given priority in our lives.  Prayer is what it's all about.  Conversing with God is essential to the lifeblood of our lives. 

Make prayer a priority...not something extra.

Day 33

Bill Shiley sang this song a few weeks back.  It is a song by Martina Mcbride called "Anyway".  It goes perfect with our theme of keep on praying.  This performance was from American Idol Season 6.

It's hard to pray when things don't always work out the way we want them isn't it?

Day 32

Hey Everybody...

I really need you guys to pray for me today as I'm still battling this thing.  (Isn't "thing" such a descriptive medical term" I've been very tired now for the last 2 weeks and everytime I think I'm getting better I go downhill again.  I really need my energy so I can accomplish the things I need to get done.  I know you will pray for me...I need it.

Today our prayer focus is for the small groups that make up VWC.  Small groups are essential to the life of our church...because small groups are our church.  "Church" is not an event.  "Church" does not happen on Sunday morning.  We the people of VWC are the "Church".  The small groups that meet are the church spread out.  It is through this idea of living in community with each other that we can truly focus on what God wants us to do.   I know most of us get caught up with the idea that church is a "service".  But that couldn't be further from the truth.  The "church" service is just a big gathering of all our small groups together to celebrate with each other the Risen Christ!   So today pray for VWC in our small groups.  Without these groups we don't have a living, breathing church.  And if you are not a part of one yet...you haven't been going to church. :)

Day 31

Hello Everybody! 

I've been out of sync the last few days so sorry for missing a couple of the days there.  It is a little strange to see how fast these 31 days have gone so far, huh?  We are alomst to the end of our adventure of 40 Days but not the beginning of the next chapter of our lives.  You see this 40 Days is not just going to be a one time deal here.  We are going to be pursuing prayer more than ever now.  This is just a launching pad for what remains to be seen.  There was a really interesting article about prayer in yesterday's Atlanta-Journal and Constitution.  The AJC is the big local newspaper down in Atlanta.  Click here to read the article that shows us that yes God is still at work in all of lives.  Have a great day everybody and keep on praying.

Also get your "My Story" pages done soon so you can share what has happened on Celebration Sunday!

Day 28

Tomorow for my message I'm going to be focusing on the importance of honesty in our prayers.  We can get into the habit of telling God the same things over and over again without really meaning it.  For example how many times do you use this phrase..."God bless _____"?  I know I catch myself saying that without telling God what I really mean.  How often do we tell God what's really in our heart?  We will be exploring the Psalms and looking at the honesty of the prayers in the Psalms.  But for today take a look at this verse to prepare yourself for tomorow.  This is the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  Who do you think was more honest in his prayer? 

Luke 18: 9-14 (NLT)

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer^[b]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Day 27

For today's posting I want to remind you that when you talk to God he is All Powerful to hear you.  No matter how old or young we are we can call out to God.  This video is one that we showed for the first week of the 40 Days.  It is a funny reminder that God understands us when we cry out to him!  Keep praying!  If you have dialup just be patient as this video loads. :)