In the following post, Tiffany Southerland shares about some of the trials her family experienced leading up to the launch of their church plant.
We will press on, we will fight the good fight.
Since about the time we revealed the church plant to the sponsoring church, we have been under constant attack. Prior to that, our major “events” would be sporadic—about once a month. Now that we are getting closer to our launch date, they are becoming more and more frequent. Since the reveal day, we have had two close, personal attacks, two financial attacks (i.e., big bad IRS, trees falling, power outages), my health went again last week with a nice respiratory infection that I can’t seem to shake, and today we had to put poor Sassy the bunny to sleep. Sassy, who had cancer, took a really bad turn for the worse last night and become very ill. Sweet Sassy was the perfect pet, she loved everyone and was fun to be around with her little sassy attitudes.
So, needless to say, we know exactly what we are doing, we are chasing after God and His Holy church. We know Satan doesn’t want this to happen and will stop at nothing to deter this. We pray for protection for ourselves and for protection for our core group and their families, for we are fighting a bigger battle than we ever thought could be possible. But God is holy and righteous and we will fight to bring Him Glory and Honor in the new church. We will persevere!
Through all this we have seen God’s glory through some amazing blessings from people around us, we thank God for those people and how they are touching our lives and making a huge impact on the Kingdom!
We are blessed and praise God in the midst of hard times, for by Grace we have been saved and He is the Creator who makes all things new. No matter what happens to us we say with a truly happy heart, to God be the Glory!
“I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety.”
Psalm 4:8
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Matthew 7:24-27
