Yesterday’s Photo – Pray

Here is a photo from last night.

Just got word our licensing appointment is July 28 and everything — including the fire inspection — must be done by then!

In your mercy, Lord…….HEAR OUR PRAYER!

Prayer update…..

Well, we did not receive our license and won't until our playground and the carpets are in. No matter how much Rosie and Mary visualized for the Licensing Analyst, it was to no avail. We have to get on her schedule rotation again.....and she told us that the county office will cut back Friday appointments as well as taking a pay cut. We are anticipating we can get another inspection on the 22nd. Please keep this in prayer.

Pray for the arrival and installation of the playground.

PRAY FOR THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRE MARSHAL AND THAT HE MIGHT SIGN OFF ON THE PROJECT TOO.  Our license cannot be issued with out that approval also.  We have been waiting for this approval for some time now.  Please keep this in prayer.

It is likely that we will not make our target date and will need to delay our opening one week.  Once that became clear, our director, Mary Mason got busy writing a letter to the parents to break the news. This will give us another week of breathing space to really make sure everything is done correctly and well.

This was our first response from a parent after the news hit.

We are excited and will be looking forward to Aug 3rd.  Thank you for the updates. This actually works better for us since our other daughter starts 1st grade on July 27.

Please pray for the Meet and Greet on Saturday, especially since it is certain we will not be able to offer the parents a tour of the school.  It will be an opportunity for the parents to meet staff and the children will meet their teachers.  We are also hoping to complete enrollment forms (and there are tons of forms!) on Saturday and to sustain excitement for the preschool launch.

It was been such a blessing to Prayerwalk at the new site all week.  With new additions to the project daily, it has been a wonderful opportunity to reflect on what we have seen God do during these last few years. Seeing this big expanse of something that came from nothing is a testament to God’s creative power and presence.  It is a perfect opportunity to be ONSITE with INSIGHT and say THANK YOU LORD !

It was a perfect end to a trying day when we arrived on site to begin our prayerwalk, we met a parent with two 5 month old twins in the car.  Her 3 year old son Luke was busy and very excitedly taking photos of HIS school.  His mom told us she had been a preschool teacher at a Lutheran school in Orange County back when she had no children.

To see little Luke with the sparkling eyes excited about starting school was just the encouragement we needed for the days ahead.  It was a reminder of what a wonderful gift it is to be part of this ministry serving families in the East Chula Vista community.  Thank you Lord.

Pray for little Luke and all his classmates.

Prayers for the urgent now — 20 days to launch.

We continue to experience our utter and total dependence on God. We continue to see the unexplained….the miracles.  We are grateful and continue to make our plea for mercy to God. We are so thankful for you joining us in this plea.

We are thankful for an urgent telephone matter being resolved.  Lord you are merciful.

Playground equipment was to be delivered. No word, no delivery.  Our director makes a phone call.  Turns out the president was waiting for a call from the general contractor, the general contractor was waiting for a phone call from the playground people.  Miscommunication.  There were some tense moments when we thought we would now have to be squeezed in on a week that was already given to another client and equipment had not yet been released for delivery.

One of the team goes out to a construction meeting, another to battle on the phone……wait!  Let’s pray. Good prayer time … and then we go.

The result?

Yes! One matter resolved.  What about the playground equipment? That needs to go in this week! Another phone call to the president.  He can’t explain it.  ”Someone” released the equipment …..he always is the one to do this, and he can’t figure out how this happened…….but the equipment is here in Southern California waiting for delivery to site.  That means, this order takes priority.  The impossible made possible.  The preschool director tells the company president, “God took take of it.”

The congregation has been doing two sessions of prayerwalking on the site each day in the neighborhood all this week……one of the busiest weeks!

Each day there is a different team walking the site and neighborhood.  We walked on the site tonight.  Wow. It looks different!  The parking lot is in…..and it is huge!  The tan colored sidewalks around the arches are in.  Wow. It looks different!  The accent stone on the arches are placed in the front entrance. Beautiful!

Tomorrow late morning (about 10:00 am California time) the state licensing inspector visits to see if we qualify for a license and will measure the rooms to determine our capacity.  This is a critical visit. We are praying for a license for 140-150 students!

Want a glimpse into the afternoon?  A buzzing office, one team trying to gather every possible document the inspector might inquire about, there were many parents coming in to deliver their enrollment packets and ask questions. There are lots of questions. These are parents often having a hard time letting go of their babies…..they have lots of questions…..they need some hand holding too!  At the same time, one team is getting papers xeroxed, packets gathered, student and staff books assembled (important revisions finalized just today), another is inputting data…..tons of data into a new program for student management.  At the same time, new teaching staff is given paperwork and director doing an interview, offering a teacher a position (she accepted) making decisions about aide positions, yet more calculations of student/teacher ratios, another team getting press releases done, articles written, action teams organized, a work crew for the Meet and Greet on Saturday, an e-newsletter to preschool parents, working on a new website being built by one of our mission team volunteers, etc. etc. Please pray for us — every Concordia mission team member. Pray for energy, task completion, health, safety, multiplication of efforts, positive response when gathering volunteers around mission tasks!

We are going into a licensing meeting tomorrow with about 7 aide positions yet unfilled.  Please pray the Lord would send us loving, capable and ministry minded aides….soon!

Ceiling and lights are in. Thank you Lord.  We were hoping carpets would be in before our licensing walk through to make the preschool look more polished.  They will go in tomorrow afternoon.  Thank you Lord.  We are grateful that 4 of the 7 classrooms are clean and inspection ready. I wonder if the last 3 can get cleaned before 11am tomorrow?  Don’t know but thank you Lord. Tomorrow the parking lot gets its parking spaces drawn in. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.

Prayer Updates

Please read last week’s update on our upcoming Prayer Vigil.  Will you sign up for a 1/2 hour time slot anytime between 9:30am this Saturday to 9:30 am. on Sunday morning?

We have been praying for the State Licensing Review for our Preschool License. We submitted our paperwork a couple of weeks ago but had heard stories of it taking maybe a couple of months to work through the system.  Just this week we were notified that we have our review on July 8!  Once again, His mighty hand has intervened on our behalf!

Update on the construction: The preschool has been painted outside. The playground is going in.  The one way glass is installed and windows and doors.  The furniture has been ordered. The counters in the classrooms have been built and installed. The carpet comes next week.  The touch screen check in monitors and software has arrived and is being tested.  Things are on a roll!

Pray for our upcoming PrayerWalking events scheduled the entire week beginning July 6.  May we see with His eyes and pray a blessing on the people living in this community we are called to serve. If you live nearby and would like to join us. We have a 9am and a 6:30pm prayer walk Monday through Friday at the site: 1695 Discovery Falls Drive, Chula Vista, CA 91915. JOIN US!

We have hired 4 preschool teachers after two rounds of extensive interviewing!  Please pray for them as they prepare for an exciting school year.  We are grateful to God for sending us candidates who are courageously taking on all that the ministry to children encompasses and for accepting the Concordia mission and vision.  We are also grateful for how the Lord has gifted them with specialized music and arts experience and passion as well as experience and commitment to excellence!  Please pray the Lord would bring us an excellent teacher for the final 3 year old class.

Add to our Prayer Partners: Have you shared our video clip with others you know who might partner with us in prayer?  Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUco0PMdXxQ Have them share it with others they know and encourage them to spread the word.  Let’s take this viral on five continents!

When they say “yes,” send me their names and email addresses and I will add them to our weekly prayer update. THANK YOU!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
Ephesians 3:19-21

Prayer Updates

115 children are enrolled in the Concordia Preschool!  Enrollment packets went out this week so this is the first week we can say the children are ENROLLED and not PRE ENROLLED!  Praise God.

First layer of stucco on. Curbs in….parking lot begun. Playground dirt moving. Interior painted…..things are really on the move now!

NEW!  Posted just a few minutes ago.  See this 2 1/2 minute video clip by Pastor Schmidt…a  CALL TO BE A PRAYER PARTNER!!!  Send the link below to everyone you know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUco0PMdXxQ

Pray for more people who are CALLED TO PRAY for this Concordia Mission Launch.  Do you know people who love to pray for mission starts?  Would you ask them to join our prayer partner ranks?  What could happen if our prayer partners enlisted others to be prayer partners and they in turn, asked those they know to be prayer partners?  Maybe something like THIS (Click HERE)….a unified force joining in the dance of heavenly purpose orchestrated by the MASTER CHOREOGRAPHER!

Pray for the hiring of Preschool teachers. After a first round of interviews last week, this week will be a 2nd, more in depth round of interviews. Pray God would bring us and lead us to hire the teachers who not only have superior competencies and gifts but will catch the vision of ministry that God has called Concordia to be about in this first phase of its mission launch….serving and building relational bridges to this community of Windingwalk, Otay Ranch, Eastlake and the entire South Bay region !!

Please join us, Concordia Prayer Partners,  in a 24 hour “virtual” prayer vigil beginning this Saturday, June 27 and ending on June 28 at 9:30 am when we go to a single service at Concordia Oxford campus.  This will allow for time to work in action mission teams and be together in a unified effort as we move toward the Mission Launch.  ”Sign up” with Melissa Salomon at mgsalomon@gmail.com for any 1/2 hour slot (or more) during this 24 hour period and pray for the Concordia mission during that time.  Let’s use California time for this.  So, if you are in South Africa or Pennsylvania, Florida or Guatemala, Iowa or Spain, (yes, we have prayer partners in all those places!) visit this WORLDCLOCK site (Click HERE) and it will give you the hour in California for your prayer time.  This way we will have more takers for those 1 am to 5 am California time periods because it might be a reasonable hour for you!

Please pray for the PRIVATE PREVIEW FOR PARENTS scheduled for July 11. It will be the first time that parents and children will meet each other and the preschool and church staff.  Pray that the construction schedule will allow us to give a tour of the new preschool to the parents on this day.  Pray that the staff can memorize the names of parents and children by that day!

Continue to pray for the CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE and that the CITY INSPECTORS will facilitate the project in meeting its deadline as they move through their various inspections.  The date for delivery of the project is July 15.  The opening of the school is July 27.  Pray for the safety of the workers and that their efforts might be skillful, efficient and swift.

Pray for the health and well-being of our ministry staff  (Pastor, Preschool Director, Preschool Administrator, Community Life Coordinator and dozens of key volunteers on the mission team) as we move closer to the Mission Launch and are working some crazy hours …. loving every minute of it…..but pray for our energy and physical stamina….and a hedge of protection around us all here at Concordia against the assaults of the devil!

Pray for the LICENSING OF THE PRESCHOOL which will begin sometime after July 5th.

Pray for the installation of the PLAYGROUND and the arrival of all furniture and supplies as scheduled and planned.

The Lord brings light!

Prayer Partners,

Last week we urgently prayed of all things…..for light fixtures that were stuck in Massachusetts and were holding up construction on the bathrooms.  One  arrived and the other one is being rushed to the site!  Thank you Lord.

The interior painting begins today and the stuccoing begins this week!  The building will begin to change dramatically now.  We have many parents and children from the neighborhood who walk by the site each day.  We are thankful for the excitement that this will bring.

112 children are pre enrolled!  It looks like we have about 20 spots yet to fill and 41 days to launch! We are planning a Private Preview for parents on the 11th of July to share the vision and have them meet the teaching staff and each other.  Please pray for those preparations.

We interviewed one teacher candidate yesterday and have more interviews this week. The director is hoping to have 5 teachers hired by the end of the month. PRAY for that process and that the Lord will send us teachers who wish to serve Him and have a love for children!

We are organizing a Family Fun Event for July 18 and a Community Sport day August 22 and a Community Music Festival in August.  Pray these are opportunities to meet and serve our new community. We meet tomorrow with a Homeowners Association that would lend us the Town Square next door to our site which has a wonderful Gazebo area with grass seating which would be just perfect for a Music Festival. Pray our proposal and request is successful.

Pray for Light…..

….well, actually for the lights!  We are waiting for two LIGHT FIXTURES that are delaying the construction schedule!  Here are pastor’s comments when coming out of the construction meeting.

One light fixture is shipping from Massachusetts 6/22.  The other from LA on 6/29.   Both are delaying a portion of the inside work.

Pray that they ship earlier than schedule or that they arrive QUICKLY when shipped.

A Good Word for today: “….for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 52:12b (NIV)

Prayer Needs This Week

We are thankful for 104 children pre enrolled in the preschool!  We are thankful for the 30 volunteers involved in meeting and serving our community on Saturday at Concordia’s Art Festival for young children on the new preschool site!

See our 1800 square feet of worship space inside the Preschool. That oval on the ceiling is a skylight that will be over the altar area.

PRAY FOR:

1. The Licensing Packet for the Preschool is hand delivered today Monday. Please pray that the process of issuing the license is expeditious. Pray also that the various approvals still needed from the City on the construction project are issued expeditiously.

“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” Nehemiah 1:11.

2. Pray that a concern from a neighbor issued to the City regarding the air conditioning unit on the preschool can be resolved in a way that is acceptable to all concerned.

3. Pray for the partnership between Concordia and the Windingwalk Association as we plan a Music Festival for the Windingwalk community in September at the Town Square adjacent to our site.  That will be considered on Wednesday evening.  (Update: This meeting has been rescheduled for June 17. Keep it on your prayer list.)

4. Pray for the health of the staff and entire mission team.  That resting time will be nourishing and energies will be multiplied.

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” 3 John 2

“I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8

5. Pray for the safety and well-being of the construction workers and team involved in the construction of the preschool.

6.  Pray for the skill and abilities of those building the Preschool as they move toward the on time completion of the construction schedule.

“Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled craftsmen, whom my father David provided.” 1 Chronicles 2:7

7. Pray as Concordia unveils a summer worship and work schedule to unite the Concordia mission team in launch prayer and action teams.  (www.concordiahome.info) That God will grant focus and unity of purpose.

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 1 Cornthians 12:7

New prayer item and praise too!

We have opened an additional classroom to meet the demand of Pre-K, 4 year olds for an afternoon instructional period from 1-4pm!

Director Mary Mason and Administrator Rosie Pena will meet with a large Mommie’s Group tomorrow in two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Please pray we receive 20 enrollments!

Pray for Mary and Rosie’s health. Rosie was out sick today and Mary had to go home to get some medicine for a very sick throat.  Pray for healing blessings, please!  Pray for them tomorrow as they make their presentations.

Here is a photo of one of recent classroom additions.  Two classrooms added to the construction schedule…..pray that they will be swift and efficient in ways they never anticipated being!

Prayers for this week…..

Wooooohooooo! We have 100 children enrolled! We rolled out new prices today. Pray for additional enrollments so that we can open to capacity.

Please pray for blessing on speedy completion of tasks necessary for licensing the new preschool. Director Mary Mason is literally working around the clock to get the paperwork in by the end of the day tomorrow.

Pray blessing on the construction workers and city inspectors…..and for speed in the entire process.

Pray that we find a use for the Oxford site that will bless the community and provide us needed income.

Pray blessing on the Community Art Festival this Saturday, June 6 from 10 to noon.

Pray blessing on the ministry plans for this summer in preparation for the mission launch.